OPINIONS FROM OTHERS.
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The Editor invites correspondence on all subjects connected with the use of cammertial motors: Letters should he on ,o9I$ side of the paper only and typewritten by preference. The right of abbreviation is reserved, and no responsibility for views expressed is accepted.
How Railways are Rated—An Enviable Privilege.
lite Editor, TELE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[2374] Sir,—The report of the Departmental Committee (Cmd. 1674) referred to in the leading article of your issue of June 2nd relates to Scotland only, but English railways are also rated on the basis of net receipts. This is the first time it has been suggested that this basis is favourable to railway companies, as it is generally admitted that it results in their being called upon to bear a larger burden than other ratepayers. How it works out may be judged from the following example. The rateable value of two manufactories having similar sites and structures would be the same, although in one case the net receipts from the business might be £10,000 and the other £50,000. If, however, instead of manufactories two railways were concerned, the rateable value of one would be five times that of the other.
Comparing further the position of railway companies with that of other ratepayers, the receipts of the four groups for the year 1924, after deducting expenses other than local rates, amounted to £44,000,000. Out of this sum they had to pay £7,700,000, or about 171 per cent., in respect of local rates. According to the report of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue (Cmd. 2227) the actual taiable income from all sources in England for the year 1922-23, after deducting exemptions and reductions, was £2,063,000.000. The railway net receipts were £44,000,000, leaving £2,019.000,000 attributable to other incomes. The total local rates paid by all ratepayers in England, except railway' companies, was £149,000,000, so that the total taxable Income plus local rates was £2.168,000.000. Of this figure, local rates represent about 7 per cent., as compared with 171 per cent, in the case of railway companies. It will, therefore, be seen that, on the basis of ability to pay, railway companies are bearing an undue proportion of local rates and that how they are rated at present is by no means " an enviable privilege." —Yours faithfully, RArtwAYs. Westminster, SAVA.
Licence Duties on Rarely-used Vehicles. — [2375] Sir,—Your correspondent " Hearse Owner," voices our own grievance, except that we are even harder hit. During a rush week in January we had occasion to use a 31-ton car, the tax of which is £7 14s. The car worked just the one week and since then it has not been out.
We, too, on applying for a rebate, were told we could not get anything. We are, therefore, considerably out of pocket. If the tax could go on petrol it would be a real boon to small private companies, who are struggling against the burden of over taxation.
In this we are voicing without a doubt the grievance of thousands of firms in a similar position.
We should be glad to have this made public, in the hope that something beneficial may result. Yours truly, C. Ulla AND CO, West Bromwich.
Roads and the Community.
The Editor, Tan COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
123761 Sir,—It is quite a common practice for aggregate expenditure running into hundreds of millions of pounds per annum to be expressed as so much per head of the population. This practice, for example, is applied in respect of alcoholic beverages and tobacco. It is, therefore, a convenient form and one understood by the average man and woman in which to combat the suggestion, now being most sedulously put forward by railway protagonists, that the cost of highways is something enormous and unendurable, and for use in order to enforce the point that it is less than 1d. per head per day which falls upon the community.
I can quite understand the simple force of this figure not being appreciated in many quarters, for its broadcasting must discount the efforts of many propagandists who would prefer to see it suppressed.
Some of the extra money as a contribution towards the further average of an extra id. might, in my opinion, quite well come from the railway companies. They now, as you, Sir, have recently pointed out, whilst depending upon the roads to an enormous extent, pay in all a paltry £1,650,000 a year towards them.—Yours faithfully, London. EDWARD S. STIRAPYELL-SMITH„ Non-skid "Carpets " for Slippery Roads.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[2377] Sir,—Whilst all motorists appreciate the views of Sir Henry Maybury, Director-General of Roads, on the question of slippery asphalt surfaces and his recommendations to make them skid-proof, they cannot accept without question the assertion that motor drivers are primarily responsible for skidding, and that this is largely caused by the distributionof oil particles on the face of the road from motor vehicles.
The continued reiteration that these are the main causes of the slippery nature of the road surface would not appear to be a correct interpretation of the subject in its entirety, and it would be of interest to the public in general if further information were forthcoming respecting the nature and constitution of the materials forming the surface medium of the new arterial roads.
An investigation of the fundamentals o2 asphalt surfacings would show that the real danger is the asphalt itself. The finely divided, graded mineral aggregate and the bitumen contained in the asphalt mixtures, assisted by the methods of laying, form a natural smooth surface which is extremely susceptible to the polishing action of rubber-tyred vehicles, and certainly more so than any other form of carpeting material. Furthermore, investigation has shown that under certain conditions there is a gradual permeation of bituminous matter to the surface of the road which makes it greasy, and the application of water has the effect of chilling the carpet to a marked degree, a condition which makes the surface more hard and intensifies the danger of skidding. Further information on these points is essential to get a correct appreciation of this urgent problem.
The statement is made tlat our roads must continue to be made impervious to moisture. It is Interesting, then, to find that, in comparing the moisture-absorbing properties of properly constructed forms of road carpeting, the fact is revealed that asphalt surfacings are quite capable. of absorbing water, and more so when oxidation of the substance has taken place, -,rkd that other road-surfacing materials can be made as impervious to moisture as asphalt ; so no anxiety need be felt in that respect. The recommended treatment to secure a nonskid surface on these new roads is the application of "a suitable heated liquid dressing incorporating the largest possible quantity of clean, sharp crushed gravel or granite chippings," immediately rolled after spreading. This is surely an obvious admission not only of the failure of the pavement itself, but that the surfacing material does not contain a sufficiently large-sized aggregate to give a roughened surface and permit a greater wheel friction.
To persist, then, in laying these asphalt sur-, facings, and resort to artifice to make them safe,4 is to incur further needless expenditure to bolster up a surfacing material whose evils, although bidden for a while, are still in existence.
In view of this it would be to better advantage to use a surfacing material which contains the aggregate in larger-sized particles, giving a greater wheel friction. For some reason or other tarmacadam, a surfacing material which satisfies the above-named conditions in every way, does not receive the attention it !eserves in the matter of foundation, whereas asphalt derives a considerable advantage in this respect. Would it not be possible, one might ask, to construct a road of this material on a concrete foundation in the same way as asphalt and secure comparisons under similar conditions? A more correct value of the materials would then be arrived at.
To continue the laying of asphalt surfacing material and not recognize its fundamental evils appears very unfair to other surfacing materials and to the public in general.—Yours faithfully, London. NON-SKID.