THE KING'S HIGHWAY

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 4, Issue 6, 1 December 1925, Page 41

THE KING'S HIGHWAY

'iohe (ladies' cfJKlirror otMotor Section^

A MOTORING CAUS ER I E — <23 y SANCHO

MOTORDOM’S happy hunting ground this summer promises to be the South Island, with the Dunedin Exhibition as the centre of attraction, and I hear that already the reservations of space in the Wellington-Lyttelton ferry steamers stretch far ahead. Fortunately the Union Company’s Tamahine, the new steamer for the Wellington-Picton run, due to take over shortly, has unlimited space for motor-cars. At least that is how a Union Company official described it, but just what happens when unlimited space is faced with an unlimited number of

motor-cars to be moved Pictonwards is a matter that has yet to bo discovered. The company, however, is laying itself out specially to transport cars by the Tamahine, and its rate for a medium-sized car is £3, as against £3 10s on the Lyttelton run. Motorists taking the West Coast route to the South will prob-

ably find it more convenient to ship from Wellington to Nelson, on which service there are also quite good facilities for handling cars at similar rates. ' f 'HERE is a wide variety of tours -*■ to be made in the South Island. On the main routes the bug-bear of

unmetalied roads may be said to be non-existent, and the going generally is good compared with many of our northern roads. Doubtless the bulk of the travellers will desire first of all to make for the exhibition by the most direct route, and then when they have sated themselves with Dunedin, to move on, and map out their programme according to the time remaining. In this case it becomes a question for North Island folk of whether to ship to Lyttelton. Picton, or Nelson. Nelson is a

good starting point for the West Coast route, which is the longest way down, for it is over 430 miles from Nelson to Christchurch via Otira, as compared with about 230 from Picton to Christchurch. Also, if one does the West Coast, it is a sin not to add another two hundred miles on to the total by going down through beautiful South Westland with its gem-like forest lakes and snowy mountains to the Franz Joseph Glacier. On the West Coast route the easy-going traveller rails his car from Otira to Springfield as the Otira Pass is said to be strenuous these days. '"pHE West Coast route is the ~ most picturesque route, but it is distinctly a leisurely traveller's route, and one spoils it by rushing. Your leisurely traveller, for instance, will linger awhile in Nelson, and will then visit Apple Land, that stretches around the shores of Blind Bay to Motueka and Riwaka. Having got that far Takaka will draw him over its rugged hills to view its limestone caves, and visit the Buba (or Pupu) Spring, from which wells up a greater volume of water than from any other spring in the world. That is to say, there is a spring in Florida, in the United States, claimed as the world's biggest spring, which gives only a fraction of the Bubu Spring's 457 million gallons per twenty-four hours—and figures, as they say, never lie. Then again on the West Coast route there is the detour down to Westport and

back, which is necessary in order to do the Duller Gorge as it should be done. 'C'OR those whose objective is first of all the Exhibition, and whose time is limited, the quickest way south is naturally to ship to Christchurch and motor from there. This is quite a good plan, as having seen the Exhibition one can then dispose of the remainder of the time available as circumstances suggest. Southland and Te Anau makes an interesting run, though there are rumours that the road from Lamsden to the lake is not ideal by any means. Then there are the two interesting routes from Dunedin to Queenstown, on Lake Wakatipu, about two hundred miles distant, and the enterprising can carry on from Queenstown and do the big lakes, turn to the Hermitage and thence down to Timaru and Geraldine. / "T~'HE road from Picton south to 1 Christchurch, via Blenheim and Kaikoura is reported to be in excellent order, and as the Clarence River bridge is now re-opened there are no obstacles at all on this route. The scenery is very picturesque along the coast in the vicinity of Kaikoura, which makes a pleasant halting place.

/COMMENT has been freely passed in different portions of the country on the lack of uniformity in the application of the new penalties for offending motorists provided for in the Motor Vehicles Act. The two new provisions of the law, not previously existing, are for the endorsement of driving licenses and for the suspension of driving licenses. These provisions are copied from the English Act, but they arc being administered in quite a different way from that prevailing in Britain. There a motorist who is considered to need further pulling up than by a simple fine will find the magistrate ordering hi§ license to be endorsed with particulars of the conviction. That endorsement remains on the license until the driver has had three years, of subsequent clear running. If during the currency of the endorsement he offends again his outlook is poorer than it would be for a man with a clean license, and a driver who has two endorsements on his license has a very good prospect of suspension should he reappear in court. TN Wellington and other places the -*■ magistrates appear to be making no use of the provisions for endorsing licenses, but they are making

quite free use of that for suspending them. It is, of course, for the courts in every country to follow their own line, but motorists who are familiar with the English procedure say that the New Zealand drivers are very liable to find themselves suspended in cases that in the Old Country would be met by endorsement at the outside. For instance, two drivers in Wellington recently crossed an intersection at a midday on a Sunday at a speed of fifteen miles an hour as estimated by the police. No trams were running, and little traffic was about. The by-law prescribes eight miles an hour for this intersection. The cars were crossing at right angles to each other. One driver braked and the other accelerated, but there was a slight collision in which nobody was injured. For exceeding the speed limit the drivers were each fined £4: they were also convicted of driving to the public danger; and their licenses were each suspended for three months. One of the drivers exercised his right of appeal to the Supreme Court on the ground that the penalty of suspension was unduly severe, but Mr. Justice Macgregor in dismissing the appeal said he was extremely loath to interfere with the decision of an experienced magistrate in this class of case. As the offence was this driver’s first one it thus appears any momentary error of judgment may cost a driver his license.

r j 'HERE is no doubt that there -*■ is far too much bad driving in this country. Nor is there any doubt that much of the attempted regulation of traffic is lacking in discrimination. To set a speed trap, for example, on an open road and fine everybody exceeding some probably antiquated and ridiculous by-law speed limit irrespective altogether of the traffic on the road at the time merely results in bagging and irritating the careful driver, along with the reckless. Yet on the roads almost anywhere any day one sees no end of instances of most reckless cornering work. A driver, for ex-

ample, who passes an overtaken vehicle on a bend around which he cannot see is a person who deserves to go into court every time. Yet how seldom it is that one hears of the authorities taking any steps to check this really dangerous class of bad driving. It is worth noting that a committee of the R.A.C. in London, in conjunction with the Direc-tor-General of Roads, recently laid it down that 'overtaking on “blind”

corners, or on the crests of hills which are sufficiently arched to be “blind” is always “driving to the public danger,” and therefore a class of driving suitable for action by the authorities against offenders. The annual New York motor show this year was expected to be signalised by the great number of new cars on which only minor changes have been made. Apparently the day of radical changes in the

motor-car is at an end; cars have reached a standardised plane and will undergo only a refining touch here and there. That is one theory of the situation, but against it there is always the possibility that the motor may be revolutionised overnight by some new discovery that no one could have predicted in advance. One of the big features of this year’s New York show is the way the weaker manufacturers are going to the wall. Two or three years ago eighty-six companies were exhibiting at the show. Last year there were fifty-five. This year the number was in the vicinity of forty.