From Our Australian Correspondent.
Page 15
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After waiting for nearly three mouths, the regulations arising, in New South Wales, out of the Motor Traffic Act of 1909, have been gazetted. Speed limits have been almost universally abolished, except in urban areas, where limits to 15 miles an hour exist, which is an increase from eight. The Act gives direct recognition to commercial motors, and it will be remembered that, in the middle of last year, this journal, through the writer of these notes. took active steps to obtain such recognition. These cars are not subjected to any special speed limits, and the only extra requirements made are that there shall be painted on them in plain black letters I in. high: the owner's name; the registered weight of the vehicle unladen; and, if a trailer be drawn, a cluplieate of the number must be placed or painted on the rear of the trailer. Thus, the commercial motor is recognized without restriction, and permission is taeitly given for the drawing of one trailer.
Some of the finest scenery in Australia is notably found in the 'Blue Mountains, and amongst the mostpopular scenes must be numbered the Jenolan Caves. As these are situated some 35 miles from the nearest point on the railway, it has for many years been a difficult matter for tourists to visit this beauty spot with any degree of comfort. The advent of the motorcar suggested many possibilities, with the result that services of one kind and another soon sprang up. At the time of writing, a number of private cars, mostly 24 h.p. F.I.A.T.s, are employed on this work, and during the summer months the cars are called upon, almost daily, to accomplish the 70 miles, starting from Medlow Bath and Mount Victoria about nine o'clock and returning between six and seven o'clock. As the cars seat about seven passengers, and the fare charged is Ms. per head, it will he seen that a substantial profit is yielded. It has been suggested, at one time or another, that motor chars-it-banes seating up to 20 should be employed at
popular fares, hut, up to the present, nothing has been done here anent.
The Frankfort Sausage Co., of SydlieV, has purchased a small 8 h.p. de Dion car for business purposes. It is a touring chassis, provided with pneumatic tires, and has been fitted with a Liliputian box-van body. This has been done deliberately for the purpose of advertisement, more than anything else, and the van will be used for odd deliveries to distant suburbs. It is hardly likely at any time to be called upon to carry more than one or two cwt., but it is interesting to note this appreciation of advertisement value.
Having had considerable experience with commercial-motor vehicles generally, and having been connected with manufacturers in the Old Country, agents here regard me as a sort of " father confessor " to whom to bring their troubles arising out of the apathy of business men„ and out of the meagre support they sometimes get from the manufactures'. I have also been shown several agency agreements, in support of various vontenHons. and one of these, which has recently been brought to my notice, was in support of a problem regarding which I find myself in the peculiar and pleasant position of being aisle to sympathise heartily with both sides. Sydney agents complain that they are not able to reap the full benefit of their work on account of firms' deciding what to purchase and then doing so through their London house, or some London shippers, with a view to saving—as far as possible-the agent's profit. The agent not unnaturally feels that the manufacturer ought to, and could do. more to protect his interests, and in that I am able fully to feel for the agent. On the other hand, I know full well that in most cases the agent is a man whom the mannfacturer has never met and whom he has very laisselv to take on trust, and, being English and used to English business methods, he fsels that, if the agent cannot secure his orders himself or safeguard his Lien interests, it is his own look-out, and not the place of the manufacturer to safeguard them for him. Here. I sympathize with the manufacturer, who, if he did all that the agent desired, might he protecting an intolc at noun who did little to earn his commission, or to look after the manufacturer's interests in the colony. There is, however, such a thing as is satisfactory agent and the unsatisfactory business man, and it is surprising what a number of leading business men in Australia invariably adopt in such cases the penny-wise and pound-foolish policy of deciding what they want on the spot, and put'chasing at home, with the avowed intention of overcoming the middleman's profit, irrespective of the work lie may have done to earn it. In these eases, the position, accordingly,
amounts to this. The agent works hard and spends money in interesting a buyer, who, haying made up his mind what he wants, orders through his London house, so that the agent works for the benefit of the manufacturer for nothing at all, and anyone will admit that this is not only unsatisfactory but highly undesirable. The manufacturers who are represented by satisfactory agents can undoubtedly do much to safeguard their interests, by making inquiries as to where vehicles are to be skipped, and by agreeing to allow the agent at least some over-riding vommission to cover out-of-pocket expenses, in eases where he can reasonably show that an order has been partly or largely secured through his efforts. Nearly all shippers in the City of London deal.with particular parts of the world, and, if manufacturers took the trouble to inquire, they would know that it was highly probable that if the order came from .Tones it was intended for South America, whilst, if it. came through Smith. it would certainly be going to Australia or New Zealand. Manufacturers have every interest in assisting and encouraging good agents, and T feel certain that it needs but a word in putting the case for them to take steps to safeguard the interests of
their representatives. E.F.B.