From Our Berlin Correspondent.
Page 18
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The Volunteer Fire Brigade at Waidhofen (Lower Austria), on the River Ybbs, has decided to acquire an electric'driven fire-engine, also a mechanical self-elevating ladder.
A Successful Line.
It is of peculiar interest to observe that the motorbus line between KleinRosseln and Forbach, established over a year ago, has worked so satisfaotorily,r that the company is to carry the mails. This appears to be the only postal line in Lorraine.
Possibilities in Roumania.
In an official German organ, I notice a reference to a report by the Swiss Consul at Galatz. on the possibilities of :trade in industrial vehicles with Roumania. The transport of grain in .Galatz, says the Consul, is handled by -means of small one-horse wagons for a useful load of half a ton at the most, :and, during the export season, such wagons earn easily from 15 to 20 francs per day. With a light, cheap, motor "lorry capable of dealing daily with four times as much grain as the horsed wagon can manage, a good business, he thinks, might be done. The Roumanian tariff, which was modelled Much on the lines of the new German tariff, makes no distinction between industrial or passenger automobiles; it .graduates the duty according to weight —the lighter the vehicle the heavier the
duty pro rata. 1 subjoin the rates likely to come into consideration No. 752. s,000 kilos. or more, 30 francs per Jac, kilos.
,(b) Under sopoo kilos., down to 500 kilos., 45 francs per I00 kilos.
It is not unlikely that the Consul's fellow-countrymen will take the hint and see what can he done with this class of motor in Roumania ; the Swiss specialists turn out good work, and are steadily pushing trade on the Continent, especially in Germany. At a recent sitting, the Corporation Saarburg (Alsace-Lorraine) accepted a motion to guarantee for six years the interest on the capital necessary for the foundation of a motorbus line connecting up the city with Dagsburg.
A Suburban Service.
The Boxhagen-Rummelsburg Cor_ poration is abolt to establish a trial motorbus line to the Wuhlheicle, suburb which lies to the east of Berlin. Whether the needs of traffic between the points in question warrant a permanent line will be seen from the results of the trial.
Bavarian Motorbus Lines Pay.
Bavaria's State motor lines have done better than private concerns, many of which were insufficiently financed, badly managed and, as a corollary frays the first mistake, worked with inferior rolling stock. Agreeably with a Ministerial statement in the Diet, the profitableness of all existing lines is assured. The tariff. which formerly stood at 5 pfennigs per kilometre (just over id. per mile) has been raised to 6, 7, and so, according to the line. At first the State ran single omnibuses, with not very satisfactory financial results ; but subsequently trailers were brought into service, and they converted a loss into a profit. At present the State's rolling stock consists of 28 motor omnibuses and as many trailers. Each motorbus cost ..:1,000, twice as much as a trailer bus. By the use of trailers, careful management and selection of material—it is well known that most of the vehicles were made at Marienfelde—working expenses have been reduced from 30.8 pfennigs per kilometre to 14.4, or less than half—a most remarkable reduction. The further development of motorbus lines in Bavaria will be watched with deep interest. The Diet recently voted 2;1; million marks for such development. . The lizeudijksch Stoomtram Maatschappij has submitted to the Ministerie van Waterstaat plans for the construction of a -steam tramway ljsendijke. to Philippine, Sas van Gent and Moerbeke (Belgium), and has also applied for a similar concession in connection with the Hoofdplaat-Terneuzen road (via Zaamslag).
Motor Plough Works in Berlin.
Amongst the new concerns registered in Berlin is a MotorpflugEabrik Gesellschaft (Motor Plough Works) with a capital of 52,000 marks (2,5oo), which does not constitute a particularly broad financial basis for an undertaking of the kind. Engineer Paul Friedrich Stumpf has technical charge of the company, to whom he transfers, for the sum of 17,000 marks, a number of patents and models.
A Semi-State Saxon Line.
The motorbus company which works the Mittweida-Burgsdidt-Limbach line, in Saxony, closes the year with a deficit of 20,000 marks, or ,47„1,000; but there are grounds for expecting that this will be levelled up in the course of the present twelvemonth, since the deficit was mainly due to a fire which damaged the rolling stock, and necessitated a heavy bill for repairs and naturally impaired the company's earning powers. Yet the shareholders lose nothing, five per cent, interest having been guaranteed by the parishes interested in the concern. At the. general meeting, the shareholders sanctioned an agreement with the Saxon State Government for a subsidy of 30,000 marks, also a modification of the articles of association whereby the supervisory board shall henceforth consist of seven members elected by the shareholders, .three by the above-mentioned towns and two by the Royal State Government. Thus, in future, the line will be partly under State control.