Passing Comments
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AS an example of the way in which the huge increase in the oil tax is hitting operators, it may be mentioned that the additional cost to the Scottish Motor• Traction Co., Ltd., and its subsidiaries is something like £200,000 per year. We also learn that, solely as a result of this oil tax, Norris, Henty and Gardners, Ltd., maker of Gardner oil engines, has had to discharge 218 workpeople.
WE learn from Mr. L. W. Gupwell that a commerVV cial-vehicle driver has actually given a broadcast on the life, conditions, etc., of a long-distance driver. The man concerned is employed by Mr. Gupwell's company, and the broadcast was made from the Midland Station last November and occupied 20 minutes. We would like to hear it repeated from the other stations.
KTROL engines governed by centrifugal devices rt many cases have separate throttle valves in the induction pipes—one for the carburetter, the other for governing. It has been found that this may be an uneconomic system, and a case recently came to our notice where a pronounced reduction in petrol consumption had been effected by eliminating the second valve.
MUNICIPAL authorities are becoming increasingly lYlair-minded, in connection not only with the provision of aerodromes, but with regard to air travel for their representatives, and a number of delegates to the recent annual conference of the Municipal Tramways and Transport Association made the journey to the Isle of Man by air. A representative of The Commercial Motor was to have flown direct from Heston to the island, but, owing to severe thunderstorms, the service had to be cancelled at the last minute, and he was obliged to make a part of the journey by ground transport. The enforced change of plans had, however, its compensation, for our representative found himself, on the flight from Liverpool to Douglas, in the company of Councillor Arthur L. Chown and Mrs. Chown, of Northampton. TN his instructive paper read at the Isle of Man 'conference, Alderman A. L. Gledhill, J.P., traced back to 1905 the composition of panels of Traffic Commissioners. In the report of the Royal Commission on the Means for Locomotion and Transport in London, of that date, the setting up of a Traffic Board was recommended, comprising a chairman and two other members, which is the basis of the present panels of Commissioners.
AN interesting letter on the influence of tramways on road safety has been sent to the Minister ot Transport by Col. Walter a'Beckett. He points out that, after a careful study of the causes of accident in one of the four official black spots in London, i.e., Lewisham, he has definitely traced the tram or tramline as being connected with 94 per cent, of the casualty list, and suggests that, until the tramlines ba abolished, the toll of the road cannot be appreciably diminished. In reply, Mr. Hore-Belisha said that some most dangerous sections of road are those with tramway services. He was satisfied that more mobile units not requiring rails in the road bed make for safety and he would do all he could to encourage them.