HERE AND THERE.

Progress, Volume VIII, Issue 2, 1 October 1912, Page 97

HERE AND THERE.

Wireless telegraphy has developed so quickly, and now attracts so little attention, except when it is the means of announcing some catastrophe, that its simplicity is hardly realised by most people. "Complete wireless installations," says "The Era," "for sending and receiving messages over short distances, are now so compact and so cheap, that it is quite easy to equip a motor car, so that it can communicate with wireless stations, or with simi-larly-equipped vehicles up to a distance of about twenty miles. The cost would probably range from £lO to £20." This new adaptation of the "wireless" opens up the question as to whether cars that are used for touring will yet carry their own means of communication. There no doubt, many a motorist, when he is stalled on the roadside, miles from assistance, would welcome such means of communicating with the nearest garage. Some little time back attention was drawn to the risks attending motor cyclists carrying a passenger suspended over the back wheel of their machines. The practice is evidently proving popular in England, for many of the fair sex are to be seen at week-ends, being carried pillion fashion, sitting on a cushion, which is strapped on the luggage carrier. The leading English cycling journal has now taken the matter up, and strongly condemns the practice on the grounds of personal risk, and as one owing to its inelegance— likely to popularise motor cycling. _ That the American car has caught on in Australasia is very evident by watching the different makes running about on our roads, but few motorists realise to what an extent the American car is pouring into this country. Official figures from the United States show that out of 2222 motor cars exported in March ISSo5 64 Cars Came t 0 Australasia > of a total value of £66,875. This is for one month only. The export of American cars to Australasia in March, 1911, was valued at £16,779, so that in the comparatively 'short time of twelve months Australasia's imports of American cars have quadrupled. From the look of things this country is going to prove a very profitable market to the American motor industry