MOTOR CARS AND DUST.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 12001, 19 October 1906, Page 4

MOTOR CARS AND DUST.

In referring to motor 'buses at the Borough Council meeting on Tuesday evening Cr Harkness hit the nail on the head when he said that the dust nuisance created by the vehicles constituted a serious drawback to their usefulness. He also expressed the opinion that thio evil would caiibo a depreciation on the value of property along the route. Cr Harkness's remarks find verification in a recent contribution in the Fortnightly Review, in which journal "Cygnus" writes: — "Unfortunately the most important question of all that is involved in automobilism remain untouched, and it is the dust problem. While motor-cars remain as they are and British roads remain as they are, the passage of a mo-tor-car, even at a moderate pace, on a dry day will continue to raise an intolerable cloud of dust. How great this nuisance is motorists are, for a reason easily to be explained, slow to appreciate. On a drive of some 200 miles not long since, in fine weather, I sat beside tho driver — we were both free from 'goggles' — unconscious of the very existence of dust until my charioteer, having his eye fixed on, the distance in front, called out cynically, 'Here is one of those horrid motor-cars; look out for your eyes.' As the two vehicles approached one another, both slowed down, but the nuisance was considerable notwithstanding. Travelling along the open road it is hard to remember that while no dust is raised in front there may be cloufls of it behind, and it is difficult to show consideration to every pedestrian passed on a long road. Nor is the nuisance confined to wayfarers. Correspondence in the "press mentions roadside residences that have lost much of their saleable value, to say nothing of their amenities, road side crops that have been ruined by the invasion of clouds of dust raised by passing cars."