High Road and By-Road

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17131, 18 June 1927, Page 23 (Supplement)

High Road and By-Road

COMPULSORY INSURANCE. The National Automobile Chamber of Commerce is opposed to the compulsory Insurance Bills which have been introduced in 21 of the States of America. Massachusetts is the only StaLc which has gorfc so far as to give the scheme a trial, and it is expected that many of the State legislatures will reject the measure. The American motorist views compulsory insurance from a different point of view to that of the average New Zealander. If cars cost as much to buy and operate in America perhaps the American driver would sec the matter from another aspect. Compulsory insurance in America means an average premium of only £0 a year, and New Zealanders would willingly embrace third party protection at this rate. The arguments advanced against the proposals by the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce are given for what they arc worth— J. Compulsory insurance creates an accident hazard among irresponsibles by removing the fear of financial loss. 2. No evidence of uncompensated losses exists to justify the imposition. 3. The cost of £6 a car is excessive. 4. It is an added burden on transportation. 5. It implies that every person who is injured by a motor vehicle is entitled to damages, whereas the motorist is really paying premiums to protect a proportion of pedestrians against themselves. Most of these arguments will seem selfish and absurd to the New Zealand motorist. The American driver lias a choice of several makes of car for a mere £IOO, so that a new ear is within the reach of the man earning £5 a week. There are probably over a million cars being driven in America by men whose earnings do not exceed £7 or £8 a week. Compulsory insurance would look after the pedestrian who might he entitled to £SOO damages against a driver of this class. Surely £6 a year is a fair imposition to secure recompense for a person who might lie maimed by a penniless driver. If £0 cannot he freely afforded then one lias no rigid to handle a machine which is capable of doing hundreds of pounds worth of damage to limb and properly. THE PEDESTRIAN. This type of chap is said to be Dying out. With this 1 thoroughly agree, Whenever I go out to see A lorry heading straight for me. One day I shan't come home to tea, No doubt I shall be propped against a tree— Dying out. THE PROPOSED PETROL TAX. The movement in favour of a petrol tax seems (writes a valued correspondent) to be getting a certain amount of support. Unofficially there appears some ground for the fear that tiie petrol tax may be imposed in addition to tiie tyre and annual fiat tax. Prominent members of tiie Otago Motor Club would like to have a disclaimer from the Government that this is not so. But if the petrol tax is not to be an additional one, why displace the tyre lax? Could a petrol tax be more equitable? Would it be more easily collected or less liable to evasions? The petrol tax would certainly operate harshly in Otago, with its hilly country. So much middle and low gear work takes more petrol per mile, while the tyre wear depends not on the hilly nature of tile road, but upon the surface. FIRST 1327 RECORD.Riding a 4 h.p. Norton and sidecar, A. Denly opened the 1y 27 British ilccord list at Brooklands. The honours gained were (old record shown in parentheses)—Five miles (flying start), 88.72 rn.p.li. (83.58 in.p.li.). Ten miles (standing), SG.SO rn.p.li. (S-'x.ll rn.p.li.). On the following day the same rider on a 31 h.p. Norton broke the follow- | ing record at speeds higher than any previously attained on a single cylinder motor cycle:— 1 Five k.rn. (flying start)., 103.9 m.p.h. (104.32 m.p.h.). Five miles (flying start), 103.7 rn.p.li. (104.15 m.p.h.). TWENTY YEARS AGO, Two interesting items from the New Zealand Motor Journal, 1907 A one-time Christchurch gentleman in Mr R. Aclon-Adams was in town j last week on his way to his Moa Fiat | Station at South Otago (writes our j Dunedin correspondent;. Mr Adams! was driving a handsome. 15 horsepower four-cylinder Ford with canopy | top and glass windshield. Dr. B. de Laulour, id' Dunedin, has taken delivery of his 7-9 Stuart car, and has started out on his professional rounds with (ho machine. The doctor lias had hoots fitted to 'the two hack wheels, and will also carry a snare Stepney wheel. This is the second Dunedin medico to use the motor as a means of getting round to his patients.

A COLUMN FOR MOTORISTS.

A PUNCTURE HINT. Have you ever had a slack tyre and then found that because of irregularities in the road you were unable to get the jack under the axle to raise the wheel? It certainly is aggravating. You don’t like to run the flat tyre up on a rock or board for fear of injuring the slack rubber. The next time you are in such a predicament try this: Take the spare tyre off the carrier and place it In front of the punctured tyre. Then run the car forward slightly so that the wheel bearing the flat is on top of the spare. Then you will have plenty of room for your jack. INCREASED SALES. Official figures prove and amplify the statements which have been published as to the great recent increase in the number of motor-cars and motor cycles now on the roads in Great Britain. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade stated in the House of Commons that the number of licenses issued for motor cycles during three months from December 1 to February 28 was 357,000, as compared with 330,132 during the corresponding period a year ago—an increase of nearly 18,000. The number of licenses issued for motor-cars during the same periods were respectively 557.000, compared with 400,800—an increase of some 57,000. STRANGE IViOTOR MARATHON. The world’s biggest motor car race is to be held in September on the world's biggest island, when cars from all the nations will run in competition for 5000 miles around the Australian coast. French, Spanish, Belgian, Italian, Swiss, German, and other j makes from the Continent of Europe I will compete in one group, with a second group of cars from the United States and a group of British motors. A car from each of these three groups jis to carry military despatches over I one of 20 sections into which the long l route will be divided. At the end of j its section the competing car will hand over these despatches to another car from the same group; and so on by ! relays until the whole 5000 miles have been covered. There will be much excitement 70 miles from the start, when the cars have to run down the steep bank of the Burdekin River, cross its bed of loose sand, threequarters of a mile broad, and climb up the other bank. Already the Dunlop Rubber Company, which is organising the race, is arranging to have a brushwood track put down across the river bed, and horse teams may also be allowed (o pull the motorists at this point. No fewer than 127 different makes of car may compete, and the contest promises to be the largest ever seen. MOTOR CYCLE NOTES. A side-car fitted with a water tank and a folding wash-basin in the rear locker was seen recently. There were 16,718 solo motor cycles j and 9 130 side-car outfits in service in j Sweden at the beginning of the pre- j sent year. It is quite possible that when Temple's 121 m.p.h. world’s record is beaten the machine to do it will be a two-stroke. A correspondent recently wrote to the Motor Cycle that he had seen a really silent motor cycle. The rear chain was broken and it was being towed. Scene: A traffic jam in London. Con- ; due tor of pirate bus to two riders in bowler huts on Francis-Barnelts: “.lump aboard, gentlemen; we don’t charge for parcels.” There are now 471 machines in the j Hongkong district of China, as against j 99 at the end of 1926—261 British ! machines, 203 American, and seven German make up (ho total. Major Scgrave lias attained a speed of over 200 m.p.h. for five miles in a car of 1000 h.p.; an English lady rider lias obtained over 200 miles per gallon on a journey of 395 miles riding a ; machine of less Ilian 150 c.c. When Hie proper spring washer is j not available effective substitutes can ! be made by cutting off single coils of i old springs of suitable internal • diameter. As one complete coil of a ' spring will be staggered in the same j manner as a spring washer it will i serve the same purpose. The only | disadvantage is that it does not offer the same contact, as a flat washer.