Men Worth Knowing.
Page 10
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Sir Alfred Lewis Jones, K.C.M.G., VicePresident of the L.S.-P.T.A.
The numerous official positions which are ably filled by Sir Alfred Jones include the presidentship of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce and the consulship in Liverpool for the Congo Free State. He is also one of the founders and a most active supporter of the L i v er pool School of Tropical Medicine, whilst his services to West Africa and the British West Indies deservedly gained for him the distinction of his being created a K.C.M.G, in the year 1901, about which date he was also elected an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. As is generally known, the Canary Islands are greatly indebted to Sir Alfred for his practical assistance in securing for the is
landers a new era of -prosperity
by the substitution of a fruit growing industry for the decay ing trade in cochineal, without which assistance bankruptcy must inevitably have resulted for many of the land-owners and farmers. In the same way, his far-seeing judgment has resulted in great advances on the West Coast, equally in respect of his efforts to stamp out malaria as of his wide trading connections. Jamaica is now receiving his attention, and the activities of the Imperial Direct West India Mail Service Company, Limited, are entirely to be ascribed to the subject of our sketch. It is no exaggeration to say that the Liverpool Self-Propelled Traffic Association was indebted to Sir Alfred Jones, during the first three years of its existence more especially, for valuable financial support in connection with its various ftrrictions and trials. On these occasions, as ever, Sir Alfred extended his hospitality to the many visitors who honoured Liverpool with their presence, including Sir David Salomons, Bart., and a large number of official delegates from Government departments both at home and abroad. He also found the time, amidst a multitude of other duties, to preside over numerous meetings and discussions, to which he contributed not a few valuable and practical suggestions. As our interests are those of the commercial motor movement, we are unable to do more than to touch upon Sir Alfred's unending energies in other fields. Our duty and pleasure is to acknowledge how much he did during the dark days of heavy motor traffic in this country. And we are glad to know that his belief in the growth of commercial motoring is maintained, for his varied occupations unquestionably embrace many openings for motor transport.
No reference to the services of Sir Alfred Jones to commercial motoring would be complete without a brief review of what he did some eight or nine years ago. When the Liverpool Self-Propelled Traffic Association was being constituted, in August, 1896, he gave his immediate assent to the proposals for the formation of that centre, which was the first and only successful branch of the parent body in London, of Which Sir David Salomons, Bart., was president. Sir Alfred formed one of the deputation which was delegated to wait upon the Earl of Derby, K.G., on October 151, 1896, when the invitation to become president of the L.S.-P.T.A. was proffered and accepted by Lord Derby, who was then Lord Mayor of Liverpool. On the occasion of the visit of Sir David Salomons to Liverpool, in October, 1896, to give his inaugural address to the members of the Liverpool body, which, be it noted, was at a date antecedent to the coming into operation of the 1896 Act, Sir Alfred gave a public luncheon to many prominent members of the Liverpool commercial and shipping community, to receive Sir David, and in order to assist in furthering the objects of the association. Later, in the year 1897, he offered a bonus of £i,000 for the preparation of a suitable scheme of road haulage between Liverpool and Manchester, and, when no adequate response was obtained, and acting on the recommendation of a sub-committee of the L.S.-P.T.A. council, he decided to support financially a series of competitive trials, which were inaugurated and carried through between the years 1898 and 1901. From start to finish, it is probable that Sir Alfred disbursed something like 4.2,000 in helping forward the commercial motor movement, and more especially the development of steam wagons, a fact which will always stand to his credit. This help was a generous action willingly rendered at a time when the whole movement was in a state of uncertainty. There is no doubt that, but for this wholesome assistance, England would not be to-day where she stands in the realm of the commercial motor.
A summons was recently taken out against Mr. W. A. Glynn, J.P., D.L., of Seagrove, Isle of Wight, to show cause why he should not remove an obstruction to the motor omnibus traffic caused by a bough of a large overhanging tree in Seaview Lane. Mr. Glynn pleaded that the Highway Act of t835 did not apply to motor omnibuses, and the Isle of Wight county justices reserved their decision for a week. The considered finding of the Bench was delivered by Admiral Sir Algernon de Horsey on Saturday last, when the justices found that a motor omnibus was a carriage within the meaning of the Act, and that the bough must be removed.