Correspondence.
Page 20
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The Editor invites correspondence on all subjects con-nected with the use of commercial motors. Letters should be on one side of the paper only, and type-written by preference. The right of abbreviation is reserved, and no responsibility for the views expressed is accepted.
R.A.0 Trials Report.
The Editor, "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."
Sir :—Your interesting leader on the above whetted a gool many appetites with pleasurable anticipations of good things to come; judge then of our disappointment when we read the actual document.
True enough, it contains the promised 200 pages; but of what? I venture to say the larger part of it is merely a re-hash of the programme published previous to the trials. As for the six pages of conclusions, they are colourless and of little practical value. One compares the report regretfully with those of previous trials and is left with a feeling of pained surprise that so little should have been made of such large opportunities.
There are some strange discrepancies in the report which, it is to be feared, will go a long way to rob it of any value.—
Your obediently, H A. N gth March, 19°8.
Southend-on-Sea and Motorcabs. The Editor, "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."
Sir :—I beg to forward the enclosed cutting from Saturday's " Southend Telegraph "; I think it will be of interest to you as showing the short-sighted policy of leaving things undone until the last moment.
Had the cab owners of Southend said to themselves some time ago, " If we don't, then somebody else will," and had acted accordingly, I doubt very much if the present. application would have been made by the M. and P.M.C. Co.' Ltd. As Southend is down in a corner by itself, and leads to nowhere in particular, and has no large manufacturing towns near by, there would not he a healthy busi, ness for many motorcahs, and I should think that the. cab owners in Southend could have supplied all that would have been necessary for the requirements of the town. According to the deputation, they are putting it off for another year ! As there is the probability of outsiders coming in, why do not the cab owners here start now—why wait another year? It may be too late !
I am not a horse-cab owner or driver, but am interested
in commercial motor vehicles, being a driver at the present time of a 35h.p. petrol lorry and a to-1211,p. Humber car, and I was a driver on the Dennis buses here, in 1906. I have followed the bus and cab movement pretty closely through your journal, having been a regular subscriber for just over two years.
With apologies for having taken up so much of your time.—Yours faithfully, H V. BaRwoon. 35, Haygate Avenue, Southend-on-Sea, 9th March, 1908.
(We thank our correspondent for the cutting, which referred to a deputation of Southend cabmen and jobmasters in opposition to the granting of hackney-carriage licenses to the Metropolitan and Provincial Motor Cab Company, No licenses have been issued to date,--kind
Motorcabs for Country Station Work.
The Editor," THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."
Sir :—I happened to buy a copy of " THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR " on one of the station bookstalls the other day, when travelling up to town. I am not a motoring man, but, all the same, I have been interested in the accounts of the successful running of cabs in the Metropolis. I have, previously, been kept more or less up to date in motor matters by hearing my friends talk together, but in the future you may reckon on me as one of your supporters. I am an hotel proprietor, and I must say that I feel somewhat tempted to lay out a little capital in acquiring a motorcalx My place is just over three miles from the nearest railway station, and there are a number of good class residential houses in and around our village, and, marvellous to relate, only one gentleman owns a motor, all the others being " horsey." Now, it seems to me, that I might be able usefully to employ some form of light motor, because I do a large business in jobbing and, also, hiring. There is one branch of the latter that I am thinking about in cc>nnection, with motor vehicles and it is this : there are two " up" trains and two " down " trains which stop at the station I have mentioned, and these trains follow one another at intervals of, roughly, half an hour. On an average / may say that I have to send a conveyance to each of these trains about five days a week, and you see that it means four broughams and four horses locked up for this speciat work just at a time when they would be useful for trips, etc.; this applies especially to the summer months. If I had a motor, I am told that it could do the work easily, and this is one reason why I am looking forward to your issue of the 3oth April.—Yours faithfully,
WILLIAM MCGOWAN.