Culled from Contemporaries.
Page 19
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A Selected Collection of Extracts from the British and Foreign Press.
Chilling and Superior.
Petrol and electricity have robbed the London streets of their old-time badinage and wit. Evidently the modern cabby and omnibus driver, as well as the lessdignfied ticket-puncher, have been struck dumb by the chilling presence of the sedate taxi-chauffeur and superior train conductor.—" County Councillor."
Lack of Evidence in America.
The psychological moment seems to have arrived When thousands of merchants and manufacturers of a wide variety of articles of commerce are in a receptive attitude mentally toward the motor business wagon. They want to learn about it or at least are willing to listen to the man who has something worth saying on the subject. Unfortunately, the ability to impart valuable information on the subject is lamentably limited by a lack of convincing evidence of the actual cost of operation and maintenance of vehicles that have been in use long enough to make the records of value.—" Motor," New York.
Anxious to Pay.
The first three of Adelaide's fleet of taxi-cabs, which arrived by the "Omrah," have been placed on the streets. The vehicles created great interest, and have been kept actively employed. They are of a neat design, being 9 h.p. Renault chassis, with Brainsby bodies. There is seating accommodation for tour passengers, and luggage apace. Unfortunately, the taximeter dials were, by some mischance, omitted from the cases, and the absence of this novel feature proved a great disappointment. It is understood that they will arrive shurtly.—" The Australian Motorist."
G.P.O. to the Rescue.
Broken-down motor omnibuses are far less frequently seen in London nowadays than when the drivers were new to their work, and drove the ponderous vehicles with little or no regard to the delicate machinery under their care. Accidents to the engines or the driving-gear are, however, still not uncommon, and to-day many people turned to watch the spectacle of a disabled motorbus in tow of a G.P.O. motor van. Londoners are AO accustomed to see the post vans accorded right of way in the public interest, even when ordinary traffic is blocked, that they stared in wonder to see one of these privileged conveyances engaged on salvage duty, as if His Majesty's mails were for once not in a frantic hurry. Probably the explanation is that the van was empty at the time, but the occurrence, strange as it seemed, suggested the valuable services so frequently rendered at sea to disabled vessels by our ubiquitous fleets. Possibly the example of the Navy is proving contagious in this respect, but this is the only occasion on which I have observed a Royal Mail van engaged in playing the part of the good Samaritan—doubtless
ith an eye to business.—A writer in the " Eastern Morning News."
Competition versus Compulsion.
Competition is like the sun against the wind in the fable—it accomplishes more than compulsion over does. We may thank the " taxi" for the arrival of an institution that many have demanded for years—the sixpenny hansom. It is not that we encourage the stingy fare who spoils a silk hut in the rain while he boggles over threepence; that sort of nuisance cannot be assisted or suppressed by any kind of regulation, or cured by any amount of abuse. No, we think the maintenance of a shilling minimum has done the cabman harm, and it was impossible to support this artificial value in days when so much can be got for a penny.—" Pall Mall Gazette."
It Rests with the Driver.
The motor-cab has practically revolutionized City life. Distance has been obliterated, and many a busy man's working day has been made longer and fuller. But the success of the taxicab has naturally been fatal to the hansom. There is, indeed, something pathetic in a common scene of modern London—the hansom cabman eagerly endeavouring to induce a passenger to patronize him instead of waiting for the swifter and pos
sibly surer motor. The institution of sixpenny fares for horse-drawn cabs should do something to bring back at least .part of the trade that has been
lost. . . We believe that success will entirely depend on the steady adherence to the sixpence_ The cabman must curb his gift of repartee and repress his genius for sarcasm. If it is found after experience that sixpence really means a shilling or withering remarks, the whole scheme is most certainly doomed.—" Daily Express."
Severe, Maks Juste.
Confusion in Paris, from an Englishman's point of view.--Most interesting reading is the leading article of our excellent confrere Shrapnell Smith, of THE Comment:1AL Mown, with reference to Paris traffic.
The writer, who was over here for the heavy-vehicle trials, records his opinion that the muddle, which is getting worse day by day, has now become nothing less. than traffic anarchy ; on the one hand, the clumsiness of the cab-drivers, the obstruction of the mammoth omnibuses and the careless conduct of the " dare-devil " taxi-drivers, who urge their machines forward with no other speed-limit than that which is decided for them by the capacity of their vehicles ; on the other hand, the lack of control of the " gendarmes baton blanc," who very often direct the streams of traffic so unsystematically that, instead of reducing confusion, they often only succeed in augmenting it..
The author concludes rightly that. whilst, in London, the cleverness of the drivers, and their amenableness to discipline, lighten the task of those who have to direct the traffic, it is quite different in Paris, where it is a pleasure to the drivers and chauffeurs to defy the police, and to render the traffic dangerous by reason of carelessness, too often allied with remarkable incapacity. Harsh criticism but justflable.—Translated from " La France Automobile."
Tramway Dividends Falling.
The average dividends on tramway investments have steadily dwindled during the past five years. The falling-off is certainly duo in part to the depression in trade, but we strongly suspect that it is in no small degree the result also of excessive lowering of fares or lengthening of stages.—" Electrical Review."
A Provincial Lesson.
The cabmen of Norwich, who are looking forward with some alarm to the probable introduction of motor taximeter cabs at an early date, might do worse than • take a hint from what the cab trade in London is doing to meet this new form of competition. Sixpenny cabs are to fight the motors. Why should not the Norwich cab trade consider whether, before the motors come, it cannot secure its position beforehand by a system of cheaper fares. If the motorcabs are introduced, as there is little doubt they will be, the cab trade will be very, much worse off under such effective competition than under a system of cheaper fares. The one point in the position favourable to the cabman is that motorcabs cannot be run at such low fares as might be possible with horse cabs. If the cab trade in the city can use that fact as a basis for competition with the motor taximeters, it might be able to retain a good deal of the business which otherwise will inevitably pass to its formidable rival.—" Eastern Daily Press," Norwich.
The Horse's Last Chance.
The interesting experiment in provid ing sixpenny cabs, of which a beginning is being made in London to-day, may be regarded as the horse's last chance of retaining his place in the fast vehicular traffic of our cities. In spite of all that motoreabs and cars, aided perhaps in a short time by aerial machines, may achieve in popularity, there is no resew to fear anything like the total disappearance of the good friend which has served ns so well both in peace and war. A carriage and pair will continue to be the distinction of which ambitious young people will dream in early days of struggle, and so long as Britons are a nation of sportsmen they will be lovers of the horse. So long, also, it may be added, as modern military conditions prevail the breeding of these noble animals will he a matter of national importance. But for many of the purposes for which he was once Indispensable his mechanical rival is proving a substitute such as appeals to the present age. In farming operations the motor is making surprising headway, while in the streets of London the struggle has gone surely and not slowly against the horse. The advance of the motor at the expense of the horse is a feature of modern life everywhere apparent.—" The Nottingham Guardian."