MOTORING CYCLING

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1495, 19 December 1918, Page 28

MOTORING CYCLING

Photographs of private motorists in their cars, snapshots taken while on tour, or accounts of motoring trips and other i terns of interest to carowners, wi'x be inserted in these columns if posted to “New Zealand Sporting and Dramatic Review,’’ P.O. Box 52, Auckland.

At the last meeting of the Canterbury Automobile Association 120 new members, a record number, were elected. ♦ ♦ * * That the Waikato roads, from a motorist’s point of view, have sadly deteriorated since the war was the opinion expressed at a meeting of the Auckland Automobile Association. * • T A cable message from New York states that McNamara, of. Australia, and Magin, of Philadelphia, have won the six-day cycling race. Mr. A. Torstonson, of Palmerston North, the well-known motor cycle handicapper, is making good progress towards recovery from a severe attack of influenza. • • • • Students at the Canterbury Aviation School, after securing their tickets, had, until"the signing of the armistice, received from the Imperial Government when going on active service a grant of £75 towards their school fees. It is understood, however (says the “Press”), that pupils who secured their tickets subsequent to the armistice will not secure the grant. • • • ■ Lieutenant R. J. Thompson, Royal Air Force, of Feilding, has been admitted to hospital in England suffering from shock and injuries received while patrolling in the English Channel. Lieutenant Thompson is the son of Mr. R. J. Thompson, of Feilding. His only brother lost his life at the landing at Gallipoli. «** ■ * Mr. R. R. Woodcock arrived in Napier from Gisborne at 7.30 the other evening, after a run of eight and ahalf hours, having left Gisborne at 11 a.m. The journey was made via Morere, and he reports the roads in fair order. He. found great difficulty in procuring supplies en route owing to the precautions being taken to combat the influenza epidemic. He and his partner took two car loads of passengers to Gisborne. * • * • A collision between a tramcar and a motor car occurred on the Tinakori Road, Wellington, but fortunately no very serious damage was done. It appears that the driver of the motor swerved to avoid a lady who stepped off the footpath unexpectedly, with the result that the car crashed into a passing tram. No one was injured, but about £2O damage was done to the motor car. • ♦ * • Major Wilfred R. Snow, of the Royal Air Force, who arrived in Sydney a few days ago, said to an interviewer: “So far as commercial flying is concerned, the technical problems have all been solved. We have made more progress in four years of war than we might have made in a century of peace. Machines, in reasonably good weather conditions, can make flights of 500 miles comfortably. It is, therefore, I think, simply a question of £ s. d. —will it pay? I think aeroplanes will first be used regularly as mail carriers, but they must soon become very numerous. When I was first in England everyone stared at an aeroplane—watched it out of sight. Now they are as common as motor .cars. The organisation of the British aeroplane building business has been wonderful, and the end of the war should make thousands of machines available, with aviators and mechanics.”

Summoned at Kingston (Eng.) for driving a motor car at 28 y 2 miles an hour, an officer in the R.A.F. wrote: “It is more than probable 1 was exceeding the limit. Flying does not tend to improve one’s judgment of low speed.” Fined 30s.

That bete noire of North Island motorists, the Rangiriri Hills road, came in for discussion at a meeting of the committee of the Auckland Automobile Association. The president, Mr. W. H. Hemingway, said that the residents of the district appeared to think that motorists should make and maintain the road. This was.absurd. It recently took him 5% hours to motor over the 14 miles of this road. A motorist who lately left Hamilton in order to bring a passenger to the bedside of a man who was very ill in Auckland, was stuck up on the Rangiriri road, and the occupants of the car spent the night there. When Auckland was reached the patient was dead. Owing to the bad

state of the road Auckland motorists were almost completely isolated from the Waikato. Were it not for this bad piece of road Auckland would be within hours of Hamilton. The secretary (Mr. G. W. Hutchinson) stated that exactly three years ago a deputation from the association, which waited upon the Prime Minister, received a definite promise that the improvement of this road would be placed upon the list of urgent works to be put in hand immediately after the war. It was resolved to write to the Acting-Prime Minister and the Minister for Public Works, reminding them of Mr. Massey’s promise, and asking that effect be given to it. * • • » Reuter's Agency telegraphed from Indianapolis, U.S.A, on October 3rd: The funeral service of Captain Joseph J. Hammond, the New Zealand member of the British Royal Flying Corps (a well-known Feildingite) who was killed here when the aeroplane he was driving crashed to earth, was attended by thousands of citizens. Speaking at the ceremony, the Bishop of Indianapolis paid a tribute to Captain Hammond’s bravery,

and said: “We bury him not as a stranger, but as one of our own; and by taking part in these services the people of Indianapolis are forging one more link in the chain that is binding closer together the two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon race.” Capt. Hammond’s coffin, draped with the British and American flags, was attended by United States and British soldiers, including a firing squad of American and British aviation officers.

Suggestions that the Prime Minister should take steps to secure for New Zealand some of the plant and material used by the British armies in Europe were made in the House of Representatives. Members suggested that supplies might be obtained that would help the local bodies and the farmers materially. Mr. Massey said that he did not know that any traction engines, stone crushers, or roadmaking machines would be available. He did know that some 50,000.m0t0r

lorries of big carrying capacity would be sold, and if the prices were reasonable some of them would be brought to New Zealand. ♦ « • » At the monthly meeting of the council of the Canterbury Automobile Association, Mr. J. S. Hawkes presiding, a motion of sympathy with the relatives of thirteen members of the association, who had died during the recent epidemic, was passed in silence, members of the council standing. The members who have passed away are. Messrs. J. Dunn, A. R. Fear, A. Holmes, R. Hay, E. H. Jackson, E. Ruddick, jun., C. W. Reid, J. Sheate, G. W. Clarkson, T. H. Davies, Graham Holmes, A. W. Rutherford, sen., and W. Robson. The chairman suggested that no routine business be transacted, and that only new members be elected. He would like to express his thanks to the members and unattacked motorists and motor cyclists who, at the call, came forward to assist in fighting the influenza epidemic. He was satisfied that their help had been fully appreciated by the public, and also by the Health Department. A full report on the matter would be presented later on,

but he must mention in advance the excellent work done by Mr. R. B. Walker, a member of the association, who had acted as chief marshal, and had worked early and late at the Central Depot, directing the motor transport.

Bicycles left standing at the kerb or in doorways have been disappearing in wholesale fashion lately, the perplexed owners in some cases finding them later a few blocks away (reports the Dunedin “Star”). Investigation by a constable has solved the mystery. A lad of nine years is the perpetrator of the trick. His selfconfessed practice was to mount the first bicycle he found, ride it till he came across another, and then pursue his joy ride on this one, and so on ad infinitum. In one evening he commandeered four bicycles in this fashion. It was his habit to leave a machine, when it had served his turn, up against some doorway.

“I recommend that the Second-hand Dealers Act be amended so as to apply to bicycle dealers,” says Superintendent Dwyer, of the Christchurch Police Force, in his annual report. “This would enable the police to'cope more effectually with bicycle stealing, a class of offence that is becoming very prevalent in Christchurch. Since the restrictions on shipping, certain bicycle parts have become very difficult to obtain, and of late it has been frequently found that stolen bicycles have been stripped of certain parts and then abandoned, and it has been suggested that these parts are readily purchased by bicycle dealers and bicycle repairers, and that some of them at any rate are making big profits out of the business.” At Liverpool recently the police withdrew a summons against a firm of hackney carriage proprietors for using petrol to convey a wedding party to and from church. It was stated that this was due to instructions from th e Deputy Controller under the Petrol Order. The parties contracting the marriage were performing a. public duty.

Under the Appropiation Act, the Post and Telegraph Act, 1908, is so amended that the Postmaster-General may make contracts for the carriage of mails by air as well as by land or sea.

It has been suggested to the American Government by one of its Senators that a prize of £lO,OOO should be offered for the first aviator who succeeds in flying from U.S.A, to England.

THE AVIATION BILL. PASSES ALL STAGES. The Aviation Bill was read a second time in the Legislative Council and passed all stages with minor amendments. The Hon. H. F. Wigram stated that he quite approved of the Bill as far as it went. He would like to see the Government go further and establish a Ministry of the Air. Such a Minister would have much to do, even in the way of laying out lines of air navigation. In the North Island, where the country was so mountainous, the work would require much careful preparation, though in the South Island it might be possible to follow a simpler line. In the carriage of mails proposed by Sir Joseph Ward this would be an important matter. The surveying of possible landing places and their marking would not be simple. For defence purposes also there was much to be done in New Zealand by way of aircraft. The mines put down by the Wolf could never have been laid, or at least the locality in which they were laid could have been recorded, had New Zealand had an air service. As it was, the contest was like one between a man with sight and a blind man. He hoped the Bill would be followed up by an even more important measure. The Hon. W. H. Triggs paid a tribute to the foresight displayed by the Hon. H. F. Wigram when in the Council in 1909 he made reference to the progress in aviation, the value it would be to New Zealand in defence, and the interest that was being taken in the question in Germany,. On the outbreak of war Mr. Wigram endeavoured to induce the Government to establish a school of aviation, but the hands of the Government were too full with other matters. So strongly did Mr. Wigram feel on the matter that he took up the question himself, and it was largely owing to his energy that a fine school was established which had sent many men on war service. Mr. Triggs suggested that power should be given to make regulations to govern conditions of navigation in the air. The Hon. O. Samuel said Mr. Wigram was entitled to the gratitude of the people of the Dominion for what he had done. Aviation was of the utmost importance to the Dominion defence, which in the future would have to depend mainly on submarines and aircraft. Sir Francis Bell said he thought the Bill empowered the. making of regulations for the control of air navigation. The second reading was agreed to. and the Bill passed all stages with minor amendments.