Passing Comments

13th November 1953, Page 60

13th November 1953

Page 60

Page 61

Page 60, 13th November 1953 — Passing Comments

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Looking Back on 34 Years

WHEN he retires in a few days from the position " of South Eastern Licensing Authority, Lt.-Col. F. Gordon Tucker will end a 34-year-old association with transport and 514 years in the public service. Hejoined the Ministry of Transport in 1919. Since that time he has seen. 17 Ministers of Transport come and 16 go,and 'he was private, secretary to about seven of them:. ' .• • He took control of the road transport department of the Ministry in 1936 and was closely concerned with the Road Haulage Wages Act, 1938: He was also intimately engaged in the organization of essential transport just before and during the war, and in this work he was, as he graciously acknowledged last week, conscientiously assisted by the road transport associations, out of which the present Road Haulage Association grew.

Mr. Herbert H. Crow, chairman of the Metropolitan and South Eastern Area of the Association, and Mr. B. C. Floyd both paid sincere tributes to Lt.-Col. Tucker at a small luncheon party last week. Mr.' Crow said that since Col. Tucker joined the Ministry there had been eight major Acts of Parliament dealing with road transport (although it was not suggested that he was responsible for them), and of them all, the Wages Act had been particularly welcome.

826 Col. Tucker said that long public service had ingrained reticence on controversial affairs, but knowing the ability of the leaders of the industry,. he had no doubt that they would do a fine job in the denationalized system of road transport. • That was as far as he could be persuaded to go In exiiresSing his , opinion on the future. . ' •

:Meat Transport and Its Future. . ,

,FIGURES given by the Minister of ,Food at the recent luncheon of the Meat Transport Organisation, 'Ltd., showed that this had carried, up to-the end , of last year, 38m. tons of meat, 71m. head of liVestock. and a large quantity of miscellaneous goods.

The Minister emphasized the importance of freeing transport from the constant threat of upheaval which might result from a changeover of a few hundred votes in many constituencies.

The chairman of the organization, Mr. P. T. R. Tapp, C.B.E., M.C., M.Inst.T., said that the M.T.O. had 6,900 vehicles of which 1,500 were on charter. They had been allowed to carry beyond the normal 25-mile limit. They were now entering the _" freedom " period, and whilst there was no compulsion to remain in the organization, he asked for an 'interim period of, say, two years, during which the meat hauliers could continue to work together as formerly. •

Peat Prospects in the Shetlands

SHETLANDERS are making efforts to produce good burning peat to supplement their other fuel supplies. Normally peat takes some time to dry. It is cut by a special tool, stacked, then turned and later heaped. In experiments in Scalioway, however, the peat is being forced through a fairly long pipe in a new machine. Fed into a hopper, it comes out in dry cylindrical form about 4 in. in diameter, but the main problem is that of transport. The machine is situated some distance away from the peat bed and the material is heavy, having a high water content.

It has been suggested that the machine should be erected on the site of the bed, but the fuel is obtainable only on the surface and peat trenches cover a wide area. If the machine could be made mobile and supplies delivered regularly by lorry, there are good grounds to think that the idea would be successful, but owing largely -to the high fuel tax, lorries are expensive to run.

Peat is used to quite an extensive scale in the Hebrides, scarcely at all in the Orkneys, whilst in the Shetlands, there is some call for it.

A Foden at the Motor Show

WHAT a remarkable man is Mr. William Foden of Fodens, Ltd. Said to be 84 years old, he refuses to look upon his age as demanding rest and quiet, and on the first day of the Motor Show he was found chatting away enthusiastically on the Gardner-engine stand How many others he visited is not known. Asked by the editor how he was, he humorously said he "Felt like a whisky!"

Later he appeared on television in the game" Guess My Story," where he defeated the panel.