The King's Highway

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 4, Issue 10, 1 April 1926, Page 49

The King's Highway

<zA sJXCotoring (3auserie—- 6 By (§ancho

The British-made motor is becoming a much more prominent object on the roads of New Zealand than it was a few years ago, but it has a long way to go before it gets to where it ought to be. With the big factory shortly to go up in Wellington’s suburban industrial area, the American-made car so far as several well-known makes are concerned, will become very much of a local industry. It is true the plant to be erected is only an assembling and body-building plant, but the fact remains that America’s trade is extensive enough to warrant a big factory here, whereas the British motor manufacturer continues to be an inaccessible person at the other end of the cable. GRADUALLY the public is waking up to the fact that the British light car is an economical vehicle that stands up perfectly well to the ordinary run of New Zealand roads. The light car is the leading development in the British motor trade of post-war years. It is a development forced by the British national motor tax of £1 per horsepower per annum, and by the demand of the British purchaser for a vehicle which shall be as economical in running costs as possible. The British light car made its first bow to the public about fourteen or fif-

teen years back, and some of the earliest specimens still survive in this country, flatly refusing to wear out. The writer was out the other day in a ten-year-old English light car which, after about fifty thousand miles on New Zealand roads, was running as quietly and sweetly as one could wish, and making excellent time on the road. Its owner, in fact, remarked that nearly every stranger to whom he gave a lift remarked on the smooth running of the car and gasped when told of its age. 'HERE is no getting away from the fact, however, that if English cars are to be sold in quantity in this country the English manufacturer must lay himself out to taken an active interest in the market. There is a tremendous amount of lee-way to be made up, and the idea that the light car is little better than a toy still persists in many quarters, and requires to be combated. The manufacturer also needs to make himself more familiar with the special requirements of our market, and establish much closer contact between himself and the

New Zealand purchaser. With more ginger in the selling end, and more backing and support from his local agents, the British manufacturer could undoubtedly do very much better in this country than he is doing. Once he sets out in real earnest to keep his end up here he will find plenty of support. A MERICA had its car show in New York soon after the New Year, and the trend for 1926 seems to be in the direction of smaller sixcylinder engines, automatic chassis lubrication, shorter wheelbase, and a great range of colours in the body finish. Balloon tyres are established firmly, but the demand is for six-ply tyres, as the four-ply ballon tyre has been found to have inadequate strength. Apart from four-wheel brakes, the braking generally has been improved on all cars, and even the cheapest have improved the size and width of their brake drums. A dozen or more makes were shown with the new double beam headlamps. In these the long light ray for driving is shortened and deflected downward when another car passes, but without any dimming as

in the past. This result is attained by the use of a second filament in the headlight, placed below that supplying the usual bright light. The driver shifts a switch lever on the steering wheel and the current is shifted to this second filament, which is out of the true focus of the reflector and so placed as to give a bright field of illumination immediately in front of the car, and somewhat broader than usual so that the ditches and sides of the road are well lighted. A NOTHER feature at the New ■L*- York show this year has been the return of the roadster and dicky seat. The closed car has now become the standard, instead of the luxury article as it was of yore, but there are always many people who want something different from the usual run, and for them the sports roadster with luxurious equipment is being freely provided by numbers of American makers. thing to be thankful for in connection with the Dominion’s good roads movement is that the extreme distrust of the Highways Board appears to be dying out in the South Island. A year or so ago the board was regarded as a sinister device created for robbing the South

Island motorists for the benefit of the North. During the recent tour of the Highways Board there were very few complaints on this score indeed, and the old demand for a separate board for the South seems to be as dead as a door-nail. The South Island, however, is still far behind the North Island in taking advantage of the subsidies under the Highways Act to improve its roads, but on the other hand its roads as a general thing are much better than in the sister island, and can be kept in order on a considerably smaller expenditure. A POINT to which attention has ■l*- lately been directed in the press, and which is worth the attention of motorists is that the main roads boards in most of the Australian States have power to initiate improvement works, whereas in the case of our Main Highways Board the initiation rests with the County Councils. Our system makes a uniform standard of work impossible, and means that the rate of progress is determined by the county councils, among the one hundred and twenty-nine of which there are still

a number of unenlightened and unprogressive bodies. As the Highways Board now has power and funds to defray half the cost of improvement works, it would seem to fair thing that the initiative should be with it. Under the Australian system the main roads board for the State decides what wants doing, has the work put in hand, and bills the local bodies for their share. Objections by the local bodies have not been numerous, and where there is objection a right of appeal lies to an impartial tribunal. Something on these lines would hasten the good work here. TTjTELLINGTON motorists who * y are in the unique position of paying a double motor tax are finding that they are not getting all they might for the thirty shillings a year they pay in Hutt Road tax.

This tax was imposed in 1917, but not enforced until 1924, and in the interim its dormant existence on the Statute Book was completely forgotten when the national motor taxation scheme was formed. The local tax was intended to defray the cost of a concrete surface four and a-quarter miles long on the Hutt Road from Wellington to Petone. It produced much more money than was needed for the bitumen surface ultimately laid, and the surplus is being used to finance the bituminous paving of an additional thirty-five miles of road, the work being controlled by a board representing the local bodies who are contributing about a quarter of the cost, the other three-quarters coming out of the motorists’ pockets. Paving has been laid at breakneck speed, but faults have developed in all sections laid last season, and a portion of main road paved this season has been condemned by the Main Highways Board as not complying with the specifications submitted. As the motorist foots the bill the local bodies do not appear to be worrying much, and so long as local motor tax funds last will no

doubt go on digging up the pavements as cheerfully as they put them down. Taxation without proper representation is seldom satisfactory. TO ALPH dc Palma, the famous American racing motorist, had a railway crossing smash recently, and after it took some rides in the cab of an engine to see what the crossing hazard looked like from the engine-driver’s point of view. Mr. de Palma was bowling along one night to Detroit and hadn’t noticed a crossing when an express shot across it, and collision with the train was avoided by turning into the gutter and hitting a telegraph pole. As a result the hero of the racing track has had seven perfectly good teeth replaced by seven synthetic molars, and has had his

chin hand-embroidered by a skilful surgeon. After looking at the crossing from the engine-driver’s viewpoint, and reflecting on his own experience, de Palma declares that the man who races a train over a crossing has qualified as “a charter member of the Order of the Utter Damn Fools.” ATR. DE PALMA selected for his ride a run on the Long Island railways over which about a thousand trains a day run, and on which there are six hundred level crossings. There used to be nine hundred crossings, but a third of these have been eliminated at a cost of about £4,000,000. On one fifty-five mile section traversed there were a hundred level crossings across most of which the engine raced at fifty miles an hour. After his ride the racing motorist said: “The engineer can have his job. I want none of it. Driving an automobile around a banked speedway at one hundred and twenty miles an hour or better is a cinch in contrast to piloting a railroad train at the more leisurely gait

of fifty or sixty miles an hour. I have only myself to look out for. But the engineer not only is responsible for the safety of those who ride in the coaches behind him, but he must also be constantly on the alert for thousands of motorists who try to beat him to the crossing. I don’t know how much he gets for handling the throttle, but I’ll tell the world that it isn’t half enough. AT ANY motorists who are touring the South Island to the Dunedin Exhibition make a round tour of it, proceeding via the West Coast on the southward journey. A recent traveller states that in railing his car from Springfield to Otira he encountered an obstacle at the last minute that resulted in delay. This was the discovery that for ladies to travel in the goods train with the car a special permit is necessary, and must be obtained in advance. He suggests that I pass this tip along for the benefit of others making the grand tour of the South Island.