Future Motor Shows at Olympia.
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We have been able. notwithstanding the absence of coinmercial motors from the present Olympia Show, to deal at some length, in our present and last week's issues, with the more important sundries which are now exposed to view in the spacious building at Kensington. The really enormous proportions of the private car section of the industry, as much as the rapidity with which successive developments have been brought about during the last three years, leads us to ask whether the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders will find it possible, on more than one further occasion, to open the portals of its November Show to the present highly diverse classifications of exhibits. We are inclined to believe that resort will have to be made, in that event, to yet another enlargement of the main building, if a still greater sub-division of the floor space, with accompanying restrictions upon the number of chassis to be shown by any one maker, is to be avoided.
Applications for positions at the exhibition to be held in March next, when commercial motors and motor boats, together with their own peculiar accessories, will he on view, have more than come up to the expectations of those who advocated the separation of the shows. As a matter of fact, the vehicle exhibits promise to exceed their allotted area, and it is not unlikely that a few new corners in this branch of the industry will find themselves obliged to be satisfied with accommodation where it was originally intended to have only motor boats. We feel sure that, a year later, the limits of the building will be taxed to the uttermost, and that the display of utility vehicles will rival, even in point of attractiveness, shows of the class of that which is now enjoying universal notice throughout the country. The fact that success is already assured for the Society's first Commercial Motor Vehicle and Motor Boat Show furnishes additional proof of the sagacity and far-sightedness of its council and
officers, whilst makers and users alike owe no small debt of gratitude to a body which had the pluck to, decide to encourage the commercial motor at, if necessary, the cost of a subsidy front the more popular branch of the industry. We believe, however, that confidence in the future of the commercial motor is becoming, month by month, a prevailing opinion. It is, also, clear that, although one can hardly look for an attendance at the March Show of more than, perhaps, one-third of the total admissions which will have been recorded at Olympia by Saturday next, everybody who does go there, when the show opens its doors less than four months hence, will go upon business intent ,..and from. no mere promptings of idle curiosity. Another. thing is assured : no subsidy from the profits of the-November shows will be needed for the Society's new undertaking.
Provincial Licenses for Omnibuses.
One of the several important resolutions which were approved last week, at the Hotel Great Central, On the occasion of the National Conference of Automobilists, is that which was adopted on the motion of Dr. Hele-Shaw, F.K.S. This reads : ' rhat the refusal of a local authority in the provinces to license motor vehicles for public service, or the imposition by such authority of impracticable conditions, should be subject to an appeal to the Local Government Board." it is ridiculous that the licensing of motor omnibuses and motor coaches should be regulated, as it now is, by the terms of the Act which became law in the year 1847. Certain provisions of this statute, The Town Police Clauses Act, were embodied in the Public Health Act, of 1875, and a careful reading of the two Acts confirms the view that in neither of these Acts was the advent of widely-circulatingmotorcars contemplated. Some owners claim that the licensing of the vehicles and their drivers under the Motorcar Acts of 1896 and 1903 is sufficient, except in the Metropolis, but we fear their supposed immunity is illusory. The law will not, of course, be settled on this important point unless an operating company fights a test case against some urban district council, a course of action which is not likely to be taken when fresh legislation is expected. Procedure for appeal against the decision of any local authority is a safeguard which nobody can fairly gainsay, and we hope the next Motorcar Bill will contain a clause to effect it.
We do not say that there may be no good grounds for opposition, from purely local circumstances, in many cases, or that local authorities may not frequently be justified in refusing licenses to unsuitable persons. The denial of a locus to the local authority would be as unjust to them as their present absolute power is to motorbus operating interests. Narrowness of view on the part of a few councillors should not be allowed to prevent the institution of new passenger services by private enterprise, and we can see no guarantee of equitable treatment if the same authority, in the absence of any right of appeal, is to be maintained as the supreme power to judge other schemes when it is, at one and the same time, running its own tramway services. That scandal is only one of several, but its effects are, generally, most rife in populous cities • and towns. 'Iristhe innumerable 'small councils along the line of country routes which_possess, and,
sometimes. exercise, an entirely disproportionate measure of control : this, by pure accident, has been vested in them by the incorporation of the 1847 Act with subsequent Acts relating to local government in this country, and the motor industry cannot afford to witness the continuance of the uncertainties involved. Hundreds of orders are dependent upon a settlement of this difficulty, and upon the elimination of the disturbing and unsettling influences which ever attach to uncertainty of tenure.
The nearest approach to a precedent in support of the claim, that local authorities should have no licensing control over public-service vehicles which ply through and beyond the limits of their jurisdiction, is in the Metropolitan Public • Carriage Act of 1869. Section 5 of that Act exempts any such vehicles from the control of the Chief Commissioner, provided they pass beyond the limits of th? Metropolitan Police district each journey.
Business in Motorvans Good Agents Wanted.
Briskness in the demand for motorvans is reported to us by several leading members of the industry, and there is every reason to believe that the long period of probation, which inevitably precedes all forward movements in any trade, is now rapidly approaching its termination so far as the x-ton and 2-ton delivery van is concerned. There is, too, an increased tendency on the part of manufacturers to make arrangements in various large provincial centres for the adequate supervision of their local interests, and this valuable aid to fresh business should not be overlooked by those who have not yet taken it into account. It cuts both ways the maker and agent gain equally. New purchasers of these vehicles will be more and more easily found if steps are taken to satisfy enquirers that somebody is at hand to " father " their new purchase when it is in service, and no amount of cajolery on the part of a manufacturer can pery:liade a large number of prospective users that this can be effectively done from the works alone. The bona-fide middleman, who has the necessary energy and resources to combine with his other lines in motor engineering that of an agency for sound commercial vehicles, provides the surest means of increased turnover, and testimony to this fact may be seen in all directions. Where a manufacturer has not been wise enough to entrust his interests to representative local people, very little trade has been secured, whilst the same manufacturer, in other cities and centres, has, where local interests have been secured by the appointment of a competent agent, seldom had occasion to regret the adoption of that policy. If van builders, garage proprietors, and others who are desirous to extend their business by embrac
ing a new branch which is not subject to the vagaries of season or fashion, will address themselves to the subject, we are satisfied that they will have no occasion to regret the departure we now commend to their most serious consideration. The qualified middleman has an improving future.
Tractor Performances and Claims.
A correspondent, who desires his identity to remain undisclosed, has supplied particulars of some severe tests which were recently carried out with a standard 5-ton Aveling and Porter tractor. Advocates of independent haulage units, as distinguished from motor wagons which carry their own propelling mechanism, will be interested by these results, because increasing attention is being given to the modern tractor, or steam horse, by road haulage contractors, builders, municipal authorities, and other users of mechanical transport. The tests in question were carried out between Strood and Gravesend, embracing the heavy gradients of Strood Hill and Gad's Hill, and two traction wagons, loaded up with cast roller wheels and other engineering stores, or a joint weight, including three passengers, of 13 tons, were hauled. The engine, as it took charge of its load, weighed 6 tons 7 cwt., and it is important to note that spring draw bars were not employed. The essence of the test was that the tractor should haul twice its own gross weight. Over a total distance of z9 miles, just below 3 cwt. of coal were used ; the water evaporated totalled 155 gallons ; and an average speed of close upon 4i miles an hour was maintained, notwithstanding heavy road conditions.
Those who criticise light steam tractors, which are built in accordance with the Motorcar Acts of x896 and 1903, under which it is necessary to have an unladen weight of five tons, or less, exclusive of the weight of any fuel, water or accumulators used for the purpose of propulsion, generally allege that, owing to the comparatively small load upon the driving wheels, sufficient adhesion for work upon paved surfaces covered with wet mud, or upon exceptionally steep hills, is not furnished by this design. The foregoing results will probably come as . a very great surpt ise to such parties, and they certainly confirm the claims of makers of tractors that these machines deserve more notice than is accorded them. Although the self-contained steam wagon is more generally applied with success by owners who can provide steady loads themselves in the course of their ordinary business, there are many arguments in support of the claim that tractors are better able to serve the needs of contractors and carrying companies, whose freight is derived from sundry customers, and who often find the convenience of a separate haulage engine to be of great practical importance.