The Commercial Motor in the Highlands.
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From a Local Correspondent.
At this time of the year, the shooting season, the visitor to the North is struck with the enormous number of automobiles which are in evidence. Inverness, the Capital of the Highlands, resounds with the blare of the motor horn. Indeed, it may safely be said that motorcars outnumber horse-drawn vehicles for several weeks after the famous "twelfth." The point to be noted, however, is that the cars do not belong entirely to the visitors. Many of the all-the-year-round residents in the Highlands have discovered that the automobile is indispensable ; it allows them to be independent of the usually unsatisfactory train service, and it has, in fact, frequently to serve their needs when there is no train service at all. In this connection it is well to note that Messrs. Macrae and Dick, of Inverness, who have now been in the motor trade for some years, have recently erected a garage which is said to have a larger superficial area than any other in Scotland. The cars which ran in the Scottish Trials—there were about zoo of them—were all easily housed in their premises, and accommodation could have been found for as many more. That the firm should have felt justified in building such a large garage looks well for the motor trade in the North.
The comparative absence of the commercial motor must, in view of these facts, strike the inquirer as strange. Apart from a few, old-fashioned, heavy, steam traction-engines, and a combined steam-tractor and wagon, there are no heavy motor vehicles in Inverness. That there is plenty of room for them is beyond all doubt. The firm which owns the steam tractor deals largely in timber, the tractor being used for bringing in wood from out-lying country districts. Owing to the mountainous nature of the roads, and the long distances that have sometimes to be traversed, horse cartage is an expensive and difficult operation. In fact, in some cases, landed proprietors are left with large wooded estates on their hands, unable to sell them through the lack of carting facilities for the timber, which is the only valuable asset. having these facts in view, it is altogether surprising that the motor wagon has not been hailed as the solution of the difficulty.
Makers should send wagons North, to visit the principal towns, such as Inverness, Dingwall, Nairn, Fort William, Grantown, and Wick, and give some demonstration runs. Northern merchants are as enterprising as any, and there can be little doubt that, if they saw what the niObor wagon would do for them, good business would result. The great point to be remembered is the lack of railway service over large portions of the Highlands. This gives the motor vehicle a start which it has seldom hitherto obtained in its bids for popularity. In regard to the wagon required, the great essentials are strength and power. Those who have not experienced them can form no idea of some of the Highland hills. • The competitors in the recent trials of the Scottish Automobile Club loudly bewailed the stiff nature of some of the ascents that had to be negotiated : yet the route chosen was more or less limited to the main roads. The manufacturer who supplies motor wagons or tractors to the North is struck with the enormous number of autoor " wind " themselves, up mountain paths—the " road " is very often undiscernible l This, at any rate, would be one of the requirements of the timber merchant, who deals in one of the greatest industries of the Highlands, and whose claims would therefore have to be treated with every consideration. At present, he is frequently forced to decline otherwise advantageous offers of timber, on account of its inaccessibility.
Another opening for enterprise on the part of motor manufacturers lies in the supplying of motorbuses, chars-a-banes, etc., to the Highlands. There are a limited number already running in outlying districts which used to be served by mail coaches, and they, it is satisfactory to note, are paying well. Although it is not generally known, the mail coach still survives in many districts of Scotland, and it is now surely time for them to be ousted from their position! For example, although only sixty miles separates Inverness and Ullapool, it is impossible, under present conditions, to make the return journey in one day. The traveller leaves Inverness at zo o'clock in the morning, and trains to Garve; from there he has an uninteresting drive in the mail coach, for 33 miles, over the bleak Dirrie Moor, arriving at Ullapool at 6 p.m. The mail coach takes six hours on the journey, including a short stoppage half-way. A motor would do it in less than half that time. There is a considerable passenger traffic between the two townships, and, besides having a monopoly of this, the motors would probably divert much of the Ullapool trade from Glasgow to Inverness, on account of the great saving in time which would be effected. The trade from Glasgow to Ullapool is by steamer, and there are only two boats each week. This is only one instance in which the mail gig might profitably be supplanted by the motor, but there are many others.
The mail-gig charge works out at slightly more than 3d. per mile per passenger—a rate which should provide handsome dividends for a motorbus doing the same run. Mail coaches, however, are more usually run by hotel proprietors than by companies, and these former are the men the makers should seek to convert. The few proprietors in the Highlands who have yet gone so far as to purchase motor wagonettes seem to prefer to keep them upon station work, and for the use of the shooting and angling visitors who come north during the season. If the mail coach is to give way before the motorbus, the latter, must, like the wagon, be powerful. One of about 4oh.p., with seating accommodation for about twenty, and plenty of luggage space, would suit in most instances. If the engine could possibly be made to run on paraffin in an emergency it would be a very great recommendation : petrol is not always readily obtainable in remote Highland villages, and, in the event of the fuel's giving out, when in the mountainous districts, serious trouble might arise, and long delays would he experienced while petrol was obtained to replenish the tank.