News and Comment.
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This fournal is extensively read by the heads of many wealthy commercial houses.
Banana transport in Jamaica has resulted in a triumph for British manufacturepages 128 and 129. There is trade to be got out there.
A Napier 12-cwt. van has been put through a 610-mile road test, by a member of the editorial staff
of this journal. Its performance is stated in some detail on page
137.
Topical Subjects.
Our leading articles this week are concerned with the following topical subjects : (a) The great motorvan parade—this year's marking scheme ; (b) "The noiseless motorbus " ; (c) Rubber tires for tractorsthe case for transverse inserts " ; and (d) " Mixed garages."
A New Registration.
Cooke's Patents, Ltd., with an authorized capital of 21000 in 21 shares, and with its office at 326, Euston Road, N.W., to perfect and develop certain inventions by G. H. E. Cooke for improvements in the construction of motor tires, etc. First directors: E. Delbende and G. H. E. Cooke.
The Great Motorvan Parade.
Attention is directed to pages 138 and 139. It is not too late to enter vehicles, although no more entries will be accepted for the drivers' written (championship) examination. Many prizes of 22, El 10s., and II may be won in the ordinary sections. There is, now, a fee of 22 2s. per vehicle entered, but some new owners may regard the publicity as well worth that sum, whilst the encouragement to their drivers should count for somethine more than that charge. Chertsey U.D.C. has applied to the LG.B. for sanction to a loan of 2700 to pay for a Mann wagon.
A Salesman Wanted.
We are asked to try to find a smart man of experience to organize the sale of 30-cwt. vans, and to open up the commercial-vehicle side of an established motorcar business. Address letters "Likely," care of the Editor.
C.M.U.A. Proceedings.
A long communication has reached us from the gentleman who was in charge of a resolution which certain interests hoped to see carried at the C.M.U.A. general meeting. We do not publish the letter, as our references to the niatt.r were a sufficient précis.
Road Improvement.
The Roads Improvement Association has issued its report for 1911, and the record is one of progress. Some important local centres have been formed. The annual general meeting is fixed for the 25th inst., at 5 o'clock, at Caxton House, Westminster. The accounts show funds of £534 in hand, and a balance on the right side for the year. From the 10th to 20th July, at Winnipeg, the Canadian Industrial Exhibition will be held. Commercial-motor exhibits are wanted, and the charge for space is nominal.. Address : Mr. A. C. Emmott, 160, Princess Street, Winnipeg.
McGregor Metal Track-troughs.
Further to our recent notices of the useful qualities possessed by the metal track-troughs for which Messrs. McGregor and Co., of Craighead Works, Blantyre, N.B., are responsible, we quote from a. letter that has come to hand from Captain H. J. Despard, the firemaster arid chief constable of the county of Lanark :--" We use the trough-ways for extricating the engines from soft ground and find them extremely useful. We use them, as you suggest, viz., picking up the successive lengths and relaying. If stones, brushwood, timber, etc., are available, we form a bed for the trough-ways, and so prevent the tilting you anticipate. When an engine has sunk deep into the ground (we have had them so deep. that the body has been resting on the surface) we dig out deep enough to get the trough-ways under the wheels, then move the engine forward until the point of each trough-way is depressed, tilting the rear end. and build in under the rear, then back until we can raise the front of the trough-way and build under that. By this means, we raised an engine over 9 in. and got out of a very had place. The last time we used these ways' was when one of the engines got into a ditch, owing to a steering arm breaking; the trough-ways proved of the greatest service in getting it ont."
Overseas Testimony which comes from Overseas.
One of the latest appreciative notices of our Overseas Annual is to hand by the last mail from the East. The Editor of the Straits Times" (Singapore) gives this testimony, from Overseas, and from an important centre of demand for commercial motors, about our annual : "The Overseas Annual of THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR epitomises practically all there is to know about the motor in the spheres of public work and industry. It is, in some measure, a revelation to those whose business does not yet embrace the motor as a means to success. . . . This was wanted in Malaya, for, apart from the very extensive bus services that abound, there are comparatively few motor vehicles used in the course of trade here. What few there yet are, however, have more than justified their presence, and this fact may be expected to induce a greater use cf such vehicles. In this connection THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR'S useful annual serves as a guide, with the described experience of half the world for pointers. It deals with everything from taxis for the town
to 'tractors for the country: buses for everywhere ; motor ambulances and fire machines ; and transport wagons in great variety. The text is plentifully illustrated with photographs from all quarters, not the least interesting of which is a pie ture of an Ivel motor engaged upon cultivating work in the Straits Settlements. The owner of that machine may congratulate himself on being one of the pioneers of an enterprise that is bound to go far in Malaya."