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15th August 1958, Page 67
15th August 1958
Page 67
Page 67, 15th August 1958 — Easily Pleased
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

• WE are pleased to learn that active consideration is now YV being given to the other [road] schemes listed in our 951 report. . . ."—Report of the London and Home Counties "raffic Advisory Committee for 1957.

Vlichael Quixote

A 17-YEAR-OLD schoolboy, Michael K. Belshaw, of Bangor, Co. Down, is trying to " save Ulster's railways, With all he optimism of extreme youth he is taking on the Government. ne Ulster Transport Authority and_the Great Northern Railway. chairman of the Northern Ireland Branch Railways' Society. itho claim ,employees of U.T.A. and the G.N.R. among their 0 members, he is waging war with circulars, leaflets and public neetings.

What .a pity that the crusader's flame should be wasted on uch an unworthy cause.

[Thefts Galore

rHE relative frequency with which commeicial vehicles and their valuable loads are stolen is alarming. Taking motor chicks of all kinds, the number stolen in London alone has isen from 2,226 in 1952 to 5,053 in 1957, and the present year womises to be a record-breaker, with 2,619 disappearances in he first five months. Thefts from London's unattended chicks have also increased by more than 80 per cent. in lye years. Here is a subject for a depot 'poster.

3hilling Wise

THE reluctance of some small hauliers to pay for good advice in presenting licence applications seems to extend o the making of wills. A Liverpool operator who died in 956, leaving an estate of £6,000 net, made his will on a printed orm. His disregard for punctuation and paragraphing resulted n a Chancery Division action to decide what the haulier had eally intended.

Mr. Justice Harman commented that a home-made will on . printed form costing Is was the most short-sighted economy . man could make. It usually cost his executors £100 to scertain what he meant. A guinea for legal advice was money tell spent.

Vothing New

MERICAN investment in British industry is nothing new, for 102 years ago five Americans—partners in the American oncern of J. Ford and Co., New Brunswick—set up a ulcanized-rubber factory in Edinburgh. Thus the North nitish Rubber Co., Ltd.. had their beginnings.

John H. Dunning. lecturer in economics at Southampton Jniversity, in his recently published ook, "American Investment in British 4anufacturing Industry," says that the artners believed that higher profits ould be earned by investing in the Jnited Kingdom than by expanding in le United States. Apart from that, cotland was chosen for the factory ecause English patents were not pro!cted there and could be exploited rithout paying royalties.

The factory set up in Edinburgh ias entirely American designed. and pecialized machinery and a nucleus f key workers were shipped from the J.S.A. About 10 years later, however, :ading conditions in Europe became unfavourable. and the parent company wanted to enlarge their own manufacturing facilities, so the entire U.S. shareholding was repatriated. American connections were severed from that time until 1946, when the U.S. Rubber Co. bought part of the shares in North British Rubber.

Truth About Women

THERE has been a rapid rise in the number of women I drivers of commercial vehicles, Mr, .1, Davies,general secretary of the United Road Transport Workers' Association, tells me. Many employers prefer them because they ate reliable and conscientious. The Association have a number of feminine members, who are mainly connected with bread sales and laundry work.

Another authority on the subject • of 'delivery work made the point that women take more care of their appearance and uniform than men.

Certainly the number of women holding driving licences must be increasing rapidly. When I looked in at one of the Rootes driving schools in the provinces 1 was told that the proportion of men to women learners was equal, whilst one instructor said that in the majority of eases his pupils were women.

One Man's Meat

pOSSIBLY the recession in the Lancashire textile industry may benefit bus operators in the north-west. This week and next are the last of the 1958 Wakes holidays, and 21 towns and villages in the area are taking their summer break. Although travel agents report that more people than ever are going abroad-mostly to Belgium, but a lot to Norway "—the cotton trade's troubles have undoubtedly caused many others who would have followed suit to stay nearer home. Blackpool and other resorts on the Lancashire coast will certainly benefit, and so will public transport in those districts.

Six a Side

,LENDER witness, giving evidence on train capacities before 6.-) the North Western Traffic Commissioners: " The ordinary box compartment holds 12 passengers."

Mr. Henry Backhouse: "Six a side? Is that your size or mine? Pack me in like that and I couldn't even get at my tobacco pouch."

Quacks

I ET Britain set the standard as the most courteous country in the world and tourists will flock to our shores," Lord Brabazon of Tara said last week.

Unless. there is a radical change in the British summer they will be greeted bya nation of ducks.


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