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The Overseas Annual: for 1915.

28th November 1912
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Page 1, 28th November 1912 — The Overseas Annual: for 1915.
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The Editorial staff of this journal is now busily engaged upon the compilation and arrangement of the text and illustrations for the 1913 Overseas Annual. The Overseas Annual of THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR was first made a separate publication in the year 1910, owing to the fact that we found it impossible to deal in a satisfactory manner in the ordinary weekly issues with matters to interest readers both at home and overseas. The Overseas Annual, therefore, is a unique publication, and one which is wholly circulated in the Dominions and Colonies of the Empire, and in other selected places abroad. It is a concise review of the year's performance and progress, and the whole is condensed to convey an effective summary in educative style, together with suitable illustrations. For some years now we have published a thin-paper edition of THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR each week, for the benefit of overseas subscribers, and some thousands of persons are thus kept well informed of current happenings and progress in the Old Country. The Overseas Annual goes out to newly-chosen partieo, who are not yet regularly in touch with this journal as subscribers to the thin-paper weekly edition. Its object is to attract new readers, and it goes without saying that our lists for next month's mailings have been revised and brought up to date in every particular.

The subject of revised lists has received the closest attention, and we may point out additionally that there has been a gratifying response to the request for advices from our existing subscribers in far-distant parts of the world of new names of likely buyers, which request was published in our issue of the 19th September last. These current and useful replies, from individual overseas readers, are much appreciated by us, and we like to receive such evidences of interest and close touch, because our desire is that the 1913 Annual shall reach all parties who are likely to be newly interested, either at once or in the near future, in the possession of authoritative and correct information about commercial motors and all kinds of supplies for them. Such advices continue to reach us.

Practically no copies of the Overseas Annual are circulated in the United Kingdom. Provision is, of course, made for the issue of voucher copies to advertisers, and we are again prepared, as in previous years, to issue a limited number to persons who may specially desire to obtain conies. for purposes of referenee or in order to mail them direct to friends overseas. This year. the charge for such copies will be is. each, and it will be necessary for orders to be placed with us on or before the Fith December We shall also be prepared, on receipt of a written request from any home reader, to send out a copy to any established trade house, Government official or Municipal officer, in any of the Dominions or Colonies, or in any foreign country, but in no case will two copies be sent to the same individual. An application of the kind. in our mail of Friday morning last, from a well-known firm of export merchants in Manchester, may here be quoted as a typical instance of such application. It reads: " Could we have a copy of your 1913 Overseas Annual, and, if so, what is its price We wish to send it to our Bagdad (Turkey-in-Asia) manager, to whom we send weekly your valuable journal, as we have several chars-it-banes and cars out there." It should also be noted that copies will be placed on sale at various bookstalls, bazaars and shops in the countries and territories throughout which arrangements have been made for the Annual to be circulated.

Many of our home supporters are probably unaware of the widespread Press interest which is taken in the Overseas Annual for which this journal is responsible each year. We have pleasure, accordingly, in quoting three typical notices, regarding the Overseas Annual for 1912, all of which appeared in the month of February last.

From " The Straits Times" (Singapore) :—

" The Overseas Annual of THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR epitomizes practically all there is to know about the motor in the spheres of public work and industry. It is, in some measure, a revelation to those whose business does not yet embrace the motor as a means to success. . . . In this connection, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR'S useful Annual serves as a guide. It deals with everything."

From " Indian Engineering " (Calcutta):—

The receipt of THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR Overseas Annual gives us an opportunity of" opening a, subject in our pages which has, so far, been treated only casually. . . . The Annual contains a fund of data on the subject of motor vehicles not easily obtained in the compass of a single publication."

From " The Toronto World" (Toronto):—

" The Overseas Annual of THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR (London, England) is a most interesting and noteworthy publication, showing, as it does, the enormous size to which the commercial motor business has grown in the Old Country. . . Anyone interested in motor trucking should make a point of seeing the Overseas Annual of THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."

Special features of the forthcoming Annual, apart from the usual effective and special Editorial treatment of matters concerning the full ranges of vehicles for goods and passenger transport, will include: an article devoted to motors for municipal services, inclusive of fire-engines and ambulances ; an article devoted to traction engines and other heavy-purpose hauling engines.; an article in the accessory and component section. devoted to vehicle-lightieg systems; an article about repair-shop equipment and machine tools ;an article devoted to wheels, rims and tires; a resume of the latest developments in connection with agrimotors ; a summary of to-day's position in regard to paraffin carburetters and vaporizers ; a full index to the notices of various manufacturers' products ; an alphabetic guide to types of commercial motors, with names of makers for each ; examples of ascertained costs and performances ; references to and illustrations of approved models.

Parcelears at Olympia.

The cyclecar is the great attraction just now at Olympia, where motorcycles and all classes of light self-propelled machines are on exhibition, but "Pointers" are not lacking to show that the parcelcar is about to come to the front at an accelerated rate. The three-wheeled or four-wheeled parcelcar is the cheapest and handiest expression of the commercial motor, and this type is rarely put before the progressive man of business without its appealing to him successfully, and making a buyer of him forthwith. The fact that only a round sum in. the neighbourhood of £100 has to be put down, in order to acquire a complete parcelcar with engine of adequate power, counts for a lot with the shopkeeper or tradesman who has to weigh the likely results of any such expenditure upon his delivery and transport branches against the known results. from a like expenditure upon the stock within his premises.

With reasonable care and supervision, the inclusive cost of running a parcelcar, which is capable of taking loads which may vary inweight between 2 cwt. and 6 cwt. according to the bulk of the commodity that is carried, experience shows that 3d. per mile run covers the total cost, inclusive of depreciation. Some owners claim to get the inclusive cost down to 21d. per mile run, but against that must be set the statement at the other end of the scale that bad driving may run the cost up even to Od. per mile. Of course, when one comes to go into the question of cost per mile, it has to be remembered that the driver's wages alone may make a big difference on that form of reckoning. For example, if a youth receives 4s. a day, and the parcelcar is only sent a distance of 30 miles in a day, the driver alone works out at 1.6d. per mile run. On a more-usual mileage, such as 60 per day, the charge for the driver would fall to 0.8d.

We wish to direct attention to the illustrated references to the parcelcar exhibits at Olympia which will be found in another part of this issue, and to the short introductory comment upon the advantages of parcelcar delivery which precedes those Show references. The Olympia Show, we may add, will remain open until Saturday evening next, the 30th inst.

The Amenableness of the Road Board.

The Road Board has had to bear varying degrees of abuse during the year which is now drawing to a. close. Hereanent, we may possibly be excused for quoting a chance remark from the lips of one of its members, Sir J. H. A. Macdonald, K.C.B., on his being asked how the members of the Board felt in this connection. His terse reply was: " The man who cannot stand being cursed is not worth his post." The greatest outcry against the Board has probably been that from the Provinces in regard to the proffered contribution of £875,000 towards the cost of a new western approach highway for London. As matters are shaping, it looks as though the Board's contribution would come down to a figure more in the neighbourhood of £130,000, provided the scheme to carry the highway from a point near Gunnersbury Lane, instead of from the West Cromwell Road, be adopted. That probability may furnish the reason for the relaxation of attitude to which we have now to refer.

Setting out with the firm intention not to fritter away its income upon odd improvements in London, the Board repeatedly intimated its unpreparedness to grant money for street improvements in any of the London borough-council areas. Recently, however, no doubt after recognition of changed factors in the situation, the Board has, in our judgment very fairly and properly, been making contributions to specific improvements in those areas. The latest example is a grant of 21,000 towards the cost of strengthening the foundations of particular roads in Stoke Newington, ny reason of the tact tnat neavy-motor traria: along those thoroughfares has become considerable. and every justitication be tnis change ot b..cause there can be no questioti Whatever that runny necessary improvements within the area of the Metropontaa boroughs will be indetuntely delayed in the absence of such grants from the Tunas at tne disposal of the Board. We should like to see particular stretches of badly-paved highway, over which much taxed traffic passes, and in the majority of cases much motorbus traffic, improved forthwith, instead of their being left for the allotted time to expire according to the booked estimates of the borough council that is affected.

Owners of motorbuses and other petrol-driven commercial vehicles continue to be mulcted in respect of excessive wear and tear, due to their vehicles running over these unsuitable pavings, and they have a very good case to urge upon the Road Board. We have pressed these claims before in our columns, and we now press them again. The specific improvement of certain highways in the heart of London, partly at the cost of the Road Board, ahead of schedule time, is a direction in which assistance from the proceeds of motor taxation should be unstintingly granted by the Board, but only so in cases in which the local authorities can make good the assertion that it is an improvement which they are undertaking. The element of time is the point which we fear Sir George Gibb and his co-workers fail to appreciate. We therefore repeat the argument. Left to their own resources, the London borough councils will allow these stretches of ill-paved highway to inflict—for several or more years to come—their oft-repeated damaging blows. They will probably be obliged to do so, under the terms of their sinking-fund schemes. If, however, members of the Road Board will recognize that acceleration of re-surfacing is an improvement within the meaning of the Act under which their constitution was established, the hard-pressed owners of petrol vehicles, who are paying both the tax. and the higher prices for fuel, may hope for some economy under the heads of tire costs arid mechanical-maintenance account.

Are Officials of London Borough Councils Criminally Negligent

The state of the surface of many of London's main thoroughfares, on several days last week, was such as to prompt one to question the possibility of charging the chief cfficials of some London highway authorities, or their executive officers, with criminal negligence. When highways were unduly dusty, in the old horse-traffic days, woe-betide any surveyor who failed to turn out his watereart : public opinion was at once roused. In times of frost and snow, one still witnesses attempts of a kind to cope with the climatic and surface conditions : grit and salt are spread about, according to the opinion which holds sway in a particular district, and numbers of the " unemployed " are engaged. at 4s. 6d. or more per day, to endeavour to sweep the offending snow and slush to the side of the highway or into the sewers, the while they in many instances incidentally hasten their own demise. Nothing is done, so far as we can see, when the peculiar characteristics of a November day cause a skim of sticky mud to render many of our street surfaces absolutely unsafe for the bulk of rubber-tired motor traffic. Ts this right ?

The Select Committee of the House or Commons, which is about to inquire into the. causes of street accidents, will not fail, we sincerely trust, to take account of the disgraceful extent to which streetcleansing methods lag behind the requirements of the times. Motor traffic averages more than 50 per cent. Of the whole traffic in many a London thoroughfare. vet the cleansing and seaveneing departments therefor simply allow matters to slide, and the motorbuses fi.nd other rubber-tired motor vehicles to do the same. Drivers are called upon to perform a series of balancing feats, and conditions are such that particular streets, of winch we especially nave in mind several within the area of the Borough Council of Holborn, are ior long hours on end in a po:Acively-dangettnis state tor the ordinary pedestrian. The foot-passenger is endangered, even more than the user or a public vehicle, by this state of affairs.

It is useless and wrong to seek to lay the whole blame upon the motorbus driver or the motorbus proprietor. Local authorities have at least a moral duty imposed upon them to deal with their streets in a fashion that is in keeping with the class of traffic passing over them, and according to some plan which is varied to suit the atmospheric conditions. It is, surely, more negligent for road surveyors and their committees to adopt a laisser-faire policy under such conditions, than it would be for them to leave snow and melting slush upon the highway, or to fail to use water during a hot summer.

People are killed, unfortunately, from time to time and vall very much greater frequency than anybody can possibly observe with indifference. Who is to blame ? The verdicts of coroners' juries practically in every case exonerate the driver of the motorbus or other rubber-tired vehicle. What, then, is the underlying cause, or one of several, which may account for these numerous fatalities ? Is it not largely the apathy of the departments which are entrusted with the cleansing of the highway, and which departments have not made sufficient changes in their methods, and have not altered them from year to year to suit the needs of predominating motor traffic ? We find a big slice of the true answer to the previous questions in those facts.

The state of some of the highways within the 'last few days, and the likely recurrence of that state on many occasions during the muggy days that lay before us this winter, is such as to lead us emphatically to suggest that it would be not far removed from the possible to prove criminal negligence against parties other than those who are responsible for the running of motorbuses and various rubber-tired vehicles. It is almost inconceivable, but the fact is none the less one that is outstanding: mud of the consistency most calculated to induce skidding is left on the surface of the road for many successive hours, and is neither watered nor removed. Our public bodies do little more than attend conferences and pass pious resolutions expressing their horror at the list of deaths that are reported week by week. The remedy is probably to be found much nearer home than they think. Why do they not brush or flush the muddy streets? A smart shower cures the trouble ; watering or flushing will alleviate it. This view is one which certainly ought to be put before the Select Committee, though we regard it as the A.B.C. of present-day requirements in a modernized cleansing department for any London borough.

Improving Rural Transport.

We understand that the Road Board, acting in conjunction with the Development Commissioners, has in hand a far-reaching scheme of road improvement, and that the scheme will be of enormous benefit to rural transport. Hitherto, by its use of its funds in payment or part payment for improvements only against current revenue, the Road Board has not been able to carry out any extensive or, large-scale improvements.

We have strongly advocated, since the earliest days of the Road Board, the utilization of part of its funds to provide interest and redemption charges upon loans which might be applied to some considerable schemes in replacement of contemplated or projected light railways. A closer co-operation between the Road Board and the Development Commissioners might attain that most-desirable object. The Development Commissioners are authorized, under the Development and Road Improvement Funds Act, to spend

money upon the improvement of rural transport, but it is obvious that road improvement is a condition precedent to any comprehensive treatment of a particular scheme or a particular district. Nothing definite is ascertainable with respect to the decision of the Road Board and the Development Commissiohers in this matter, but we confidently look for an early announcement of far-reaching importance. An incidental occurrence, hut one which is of no small interest to the heavy motor industry, is the decision of the House of Commons to omit from the Light Railways Bill the clause empowering the Light Railway Commissioners to authorize trackless-trolley systems. Promoters of trackless-trolley schemes will still have to go to Parliament, under the rules which govern private-bill procedure. and it appears that this course was considered preferable by them to the Fteceptance of a clause which specifically made their undertakings responsible for road damage.

As is well known to our readers, we are not enamoured of trackless-trolley proposals, and we regard them as wholly inferior to proposals for trans

port by independent motor vehicles, except in those cases where it is desired to increase the load of an existing electrical undertaking. There has to be a considerable capital expenditure on overhead equipment, and this equipment limits the service to a particular route when once laid down. For that reason, if for no other, we maintain that the independent motor vehicle is to be preferred, and there is no question that its installation for any particular work is much the cheaper of the two. Whilst the tracklesstrolley system does cost very much less per route-mile to be served than any ordinary electric-car system with a permanent track, it sutlers from the fundamental drawback of inability to adapt itself to varying demands from day to day, as regards branch or extended services, to all of which the independent motor vehicle lends itseif admirably. The tracklesstrolley system is an inelastic one. We regard this dropping of the trackless-trolley clause from the Light Railways Bill as one which will indirectly favour fresh opportunities of employment for independent motor lorries and motor omnibuses.


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