Passenger-Vehicle Topics.
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At a recent extraordinary general meeting of the Manchester Taxi-Cab Co., Ltd., a resolution was passed to the effect that the company be wound up. Mr. Wm. Eaves, 15, Fountain Street, Manchester, was appointed liquidator.
We note that no attempt has been made by opponents of motorbuses on the Birmingham City Council, to deny the fine performances of the Tilling-Stevens vehicles in the town. We deal further with the Birmingham situation on pages 160-]81.
New Registrations.
Hadleigh Motorbus Co., Ltd., with an authorized capital of 12000 in 11 shares, and with its office. at Gloucester Manaions, Cambridge Circus, London, to carry on the business of proprietors of public or private motor conveyances, general carriers, etc.
Wolverhampton Motor Services, Ltd., with an authorized capital of 16000 in El shares, and with its office at 18, Darlington Street, Wolverhampton, to carry on the business indicated by the title. First directors F. C. Bishop and H. G. Townsend (both permanent).
Whitley Motor Co., Ltd., with an authorized capital of 13000, and with its office at la, Marden Road, Whitley Bay, Northumberland, to carry on the business of proprietors of motorcabs, etc., and to acquire the business carried on at Whitley Bay by W. Hedley, trading as the Whitley Motor Co.
Speed ol Buses.
At Stratford Police Court on the 26th inst., eight motorbus drivers were summoned for exceeding the speed limit. Four of the men were fined 13 each and costs, and four 20s, and costs.
A Feeler.
In an article dated the 28th inst., the " Daily Chronicle " advances the view that the bus and tube interests in London may be purchased by the State or the L.C.C., at no very distant date.
Eagineership.
The noteworthy inclination of the L.C.C. to take a more and more active interest in traffic matters generally, the impending employment of trailers behind many of the Council's tramcars, and various other considerations which need not be separately mentioned, cause a great amount of interest to reside in the competition for the appointment to the. vacant post of engineer to the Council, which post was rendered vacant by the resignation of Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice,
Motor Ambulances.
Dundee is to have an Austin chassis, for ambulance purposes, with a body by Messrs. Cuthbert.
The tender of the Scout Motors, Ltd., at 1480, has been accepted by the Sialisbury and District Joint Isolation Hospital Committee for a motor ambulance.
Administrative Changes.
Mr, 3. C. Mitchell, lately secretary of the London General Omnibus Co., Ltd., is now comptroller of the Electric Railways Co. of London, Ltd.' and of its allied companies. Mr. William E. Mandeliek has been appointed to succeed Mr. Mitchell as secretary, and Mr. H. Talbot is to be accountant.
Sir John Benzes Progress.
Last. week, in an address to members of the Eighty Club, at the House of Commons, Sir John Bean, who may after all be seriously revising his attitude towards the motorbus, stated that the municipal tramway services, highly efficient in every way, had suddenly been attacked by an unfettered competitor. He suggested that the burden should be lifted off the tramways, but at. the same time they should take care not to put further burdens on other classes of street locomotion. The rating of motorbuses was out of the queStion.
Sir John Benn did not apparently give any arguments in support of his contention that tramcars should be freed from assessment to local rating, which is the only taxation payment they make in respect of .their exclusive right to use the much-vaunted metal rail and steel wheel—the cheapest form, we have often been told, of locomotion.
Is it in conformity with Liberal principles, we again ask, that anybody should enjoy the exclusive use of a valuable franchise without some payment in the nature of firstcost value ? The tramcars crowd the ordinary wheeled traffic off the centre of the highway, to the sides of the road, which latter portions are repairable by the borough councils, and it is the barest equity that the tramcars should pay the paltry quarter of a million per annum, in local rating and highway maintenance, which they approximately bear at the moment.
Shortly, if not now, the motorbus competition will be so effective that a saving of 1250,000 a year by the tramcars will avail but little. Johannesburg Municipal Tramways, Gateshead and District Tramways Company, the Leicester Council, the Edinburgh Council, Halifax Tramways Committee, Bristol Tratnviays and Carriage Company, are all considering, or extending, existing or proposed motorbus services.
Motorbus Postal Boxes.
A daily contemporary has discovered the fact that motor vehicles on country routes are useful for the postal service. This is rather a belated discovery. Such mail boxes were used in the Isle of Wight more than six years ago, and instances of the kind are common in various parts of the United Kingdom. In some parts of Sutherlandshire, for example, residents in huge tracts of country rely entirely on the motor services for their mails.
Driving Test Peculiarities.
London motor cab -drivers are making complaints with regard to the requirements of Scotland Yard, by which they have to pass tests on every new type of machine they may have io drive. For example, they complain of the following instance. If a licence has been obtained by a driver in 1908, to drive a four-cylinder Unie, he may have, again this year, to pass a test on the same type of machine, because it now has a gate change. It is interesting in this respect to note that the Vniot and the Gladiator cabs have exactly the same change-speed arrangements, but that, nevertheless, the driver has to pass two separate tests for them, because one machine has the four cylinders cast en bloc whilst, the other has separate castings. An Undertaker's Enterprise.
Mr. W. Dyer is the owner of the 22 h.p. Darracq hearse here illustrated. We understand that a great demand exists for the
vehicle, and that during the first week it was in service It covered over 100 miles on funeral business. _ Borough Improvement.
It is stated that the Road Board is prepared to contribute a sum of £50,000 towards the cost of improved traffic facilities at the junction of Old Street and Kingsls,nd Road, London. Should this grant be made, it will be the first vote to any London borough council from the Board's funds. We hope that the Board will take care that the major portion of the benefit is not appropriated by the L.C.C. tramcars. Police and the Cut-Out.
The first prosecution of a motorist for unlawfully using a device which allowed gases to escape from the engine without first pass ing through a silencer" was heard at Bow Street recently. Sir Albert de Rutzen imposed a fine of ten shillings and costs. Inspector Bradley gave it as his opinion, to a correspondent, that the Order will finally read that no motor user shall " fit or use " a cut-out. This practically means that the police will inspect stationary vehicles to see whether any cut-out be fitted.
We understand that there are a few taxicabs already so fitted. Owners would be well advised to take immediate steps to remove them, in order to safeguard their licences.