Bird's Eye View
Page 80
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Given the Bird
By The Hawk
JOHN MOON, technical editor, has spent several hot, greasy days taking part in Ministry of Transport vehicle examinations on the road. Although he is a hard-boiled case, the experience has opened his eyes wide. But he has enjoyed a few hearty laughs as well.
Guffaws echoed over Warwickshire when he heard of the examiner who, during a full-scale check, placed a prohibition notice on a vehicle. The driver was given the choice of having it repaired on the spot with the load in place, or of removing the load and driving to a garage. He chose the second course and the sky was filled with carrier pigeons.
Light Fingers
I READ with lifted eyebrow that a Mr. M. A. Ghafoor. I general secretary of the bus workers' union of Karachi, has complained that about 15 per cent. of the local bus conductors are pickpockets. How inscrutable is the mysterious East! In this enlightened country the travelling public usually puts the blame on the operators!
March of Time
LIKED the story related by Mr. Charles Hodgson, chairman I of the East Midland Traffic Commissioners, at a luncheon given by the Lincolnshire Road Car company. Mr. Hodgson is a man who prefers to do his travelling by train or bus,
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perhaps because he was once a railway solicitor. Progressing gently through rural Nottinghamshire, a bus conductor told him that in the good old days they used to do the trip in half the time.
"Why don't you do it in half the time today?" asked Mr. Hodgson.
"Because the Traffic Commissioners won't wear it," came the stern reply.
Sweet Martini
I T did these old eyes good to read that a Birmingham haulage man had sold a religious picture by Martini, bought for £2 10s. 10 years ago, for 0,000 to the city's art gallery. This happy circumstance, as far-seeing as any one might meet in the business, suggests that Mr. Alfred Stannard, of Selly Park, would find profit, as well as pleasure, in the art-dealing profession.
To multiply his outlay 1,600 times in 10 years is no mean achievement, even in road haulage. Our costing king points out that had Mr. Stannard's investment earned 20 per cent, it would have been worth as much as £3 at the end of a year. On the other hand, in 10 years. depreciation might have written it off altogether.
Oh! Calamity !
CHAIRMAN at annual meeting: "I only regret that the solid achievements of all who labour in your interests have not been apparent in the financial results of the year under review."