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News of the Week

FIRST YORKSHIRE TRAFFIC COURT SITTING 'THE first public traffic court sitting in 'Yorkshire, following the end of the war in Europe, was held on May 31 at Sowerby, near Thirsk, by Sir John Maxwell, Transport Commissioner for the Northern Area. It was marked by a verbal battle, in which were invOlved an applicant who sought to enter the road-haulage business and five estab lishedhauliers who opposed the appli cation.

It was stated that the applicant had been working a farm for his mother, but the farm had now been sold, and the son asked for an A licence to operate as a haulier the lorry which had been employed in connection with the farm, He put forward a petition which about 30 farmers haci signed in support of his application, and called a number of witnesses to testify to his claim that there waS need for his services as a haulier. The objectors, whose case was pre

sented by Mr. Milton, secretary of the R.ILN:s Northern Area Submitted that, as certain of their War-time traffic had declined, they were quite able to handle the work which applicant sought to do.' One of the objectors was stated to be doing work for farmers who had.

given evidence in support of the appli cation.

Sir John Maxwell reserVed his decision.

INCREASE IN PROFIT OF "MAIDSTONE AND DISTRICT"

APRELIMINARY announcement of the results of working of the Maidstone and District ,Mbtot Services, Ltd., for the year ended March. 31 shows that, after providing £279,370 for income tax and E.P.T., and £74,655 for depreciation and renewals, the profit amounts to g.88,594, compared with £71,046 a Year earlier.

General reserve receives £20,000, and a final dividend of 5 per cent., plus a bonus of 11 per cent, on the ordinary shares, making, with the; interim pay per_ cent., less tax, for the year, is to be paid. The amount' earried forward is £59,618, compared with 39,7,11 brought in.

B.R.F. BULLETIN .REACHES ITS CENTURY •

rONGRATULATIONS to the British Road Federation on the issue of its

100th Monthly Bulletin, With the exception of a brief leader, kept strictly to the point on some. relevant subject, the Bulletin has always been a factual.

record which is issued for the benefit of Members of Parliament, local authorities, and the Press, and many expressions of appreciation have • been received by the Federation.

The " leader " on the " century Bulletin consistS 9f a mesSage from the chairman, Mr. G. N. 'Wilson. He points out that it has appeared every month for more than eight years, with

the exception of the last four 'of 1939, and he emphasizes that it contains no Et dvertisement$. [This; incidentally, is a pleasant. change friam softie others

which endeavour to compete with the legitimate functions of the organs of. the Trade and Technical Press.—En.] He adds that the Bulletin is published without comment, and only on the first page does the Federation, express its own views. It is intended to provide a recold of road information.

DEATH OF MR. F. G. BRISTOW IT is with a feeling of personal loss 1 that we record, with the greatest regret, the death of Mr. Frederick George Bristow, C.B.E., M.Inst.T.,. which occurred on June 2 at his home at Putney. He had been ordered to take an extended rest, but his condition had apparently improved so much that it was hoped he would return to his duties this week—in fact, he was working in bid on papers relating to the industry only five minutes before he died.

Affectionately known throughout the industry as " Freddie Bristow," he was a man of exceptional ability, keen perception, and good humour. He had just reached the peak, of a long and distinguished career in the cause of road transport, as he. was the first director of the National Road Transport Federation, the representative body which includes the R.H.A., T.R.T.A., and p.v.o.A. He waa chief executive officer of the C.M.U.A. from 1906, chairman of the Royal Society for fbei Prevention of -Accidents, a member of many advisory and consultative panels, honorary joint secretary of the Road and Rail Central Conference, honorary secretary of the B.R.F. from 1933-36 and 1939743, author of many publications mainly concerning the regulations

for commercial vehicles. Despite ail this, and much more, he found time to be a City Councillor of Westrninster arid Master, of the: Company of Carmen. His energy and enthusiasm will be greatly missed in the industry.

A. memorial service to which all his friends are invited) will be he15.1 at St. Margaret's, Westminster, at 2..15 p.m., on Wednesday, June 27. _ LEYLAND TRADING PROFIT SHOWS GOOD ADVANCE I N respect of the year ended Septern

ber 41,, last, Leyland Motors, Ltd., announces a trading profit, 'after deducting E.P.T., of £987,822, compared with £853,354 a year earlier, the net profit coming out at £171,203, as against 2160,354. The amount carried • forward is 2275,339, contrasted with £.207,561 in the previous year.

The year's interim dividend on the • ordinary shares, in lieu of a final dividend, of 15 per cent., less tax, was paid in April laSt. In the three previous years, a 10 per cent, interim. dividend was followed by a 5 per cent. final dividend, making 15 per cent. :for the year.

B.R.F. AND N.R.T.F. ELECTION POLICY

A SHORT statement of policy for the F. information of candidates 'at the General Election has been issued by the British Road Federation and the National Road Transport Federation. Inquiries concerning • this and any observations will be welcomed by the bodies concerned.

It is pointed out that road transport, in 1939, gave direct employment to 1,300,000 people, and that freedom is essential for the motor industry to develop. The greater the home market for road vehicles the larger our chair:es of selling abroad at favourable prices. _ It is believed that competition is essential in a country like ours if brains and industry are to be given the proper impetus to produce and operate the most efficient vehicles of the age, and, therefore, .we must maintain the form of commercial enterprise that has kept this country in the forefront. The danger of ,inertia is paramount under any form of nationalization or bureaucracy,

4 It is in the public interest. that it should be possible to send goods or passengers any distance by road, and that both traders and the public should have freedom of choice of their means for transport.

Taxation' by vehicle licences and duties on fuel should be applied only to the extent necessary for road transport to pay its fair share towards road improvement and maintenance. No taxation, other than for this purpose, should be imposed on it, as this, directly affects the price of commodities required for British home-s and for sale abroad.

There should be a continuous programme of road „development by the construction of new arterial roads concurrently with the improvement of

those existing. Continuous employment will thus be provided in motor manufacturing, road construction, catering, hotel, and many other trades and industries. This programme would, also, attract visitors from abroad.

Road sense should be cultivated in every type of road user, and road safety realized by constructive, rather than by restrictive, measures, which do little but impede traffic. ALLEGED OVERCHARGE FOR FURNITURE REMOVAL

THE wife of a fitter in Devonport Dockyard employed Messrs. J. Alford and Sons, removal contractors, of Keybam, Devonport, to move certain articles of furniture from one place to another in Plymouth, and others to an unspecified Address in Torpoint.

The woman, Mrs. Bennett, said that the charge originally made was £4, but on her complaint it was reduced to £3 10s. She applied to the R.T.C. for the South-Western Area to determine whether the charge conformed with the conditions of the Road Haulage and • Hire fcharges) Order, 1942, slating that the job/ occupied two-and-a-half houre from start to finish, and that the furniture had been conveyed over the same route in January, 1944, for £2 by an unnamed carrier. No information was given as to the quantity carried, hut the contractor said it was the contents of four rooms and scullert,r, with sundry loose items requiring packing, that two men vere employed, and that the time taken was four hours, the distance involved being Stoke to Ford two miles, Ford to Torpoint six miles, with an empty return, also 4s. 6d. had to Is • paid for a ferry charge.

The R.T.C. consulted assessors from the haulage industry and trading interests, but their views differed and caneerled out. He reached the conclusion that the evidence was insufficient. to justify giving any direction under the Order.

POLICE OPPOSE SPEED-LIMIT REDUCTION . • WHEN a discussion meeting was held W in Manchester, last week, on the M.O.W.T. report on road safety, •Chief Superintendent A. Aberdein, Manchester City Police, gave a clear warning that the police authorities would oppose any reduction in the speed limit in the city.

He pointed out that the greatest difficulty at the moment was to get

traffic through the city during rush periods, and that any reduction in.the speed limit would add greatly to this difficulty. " Speed limits," he went on, " must always _be considered in relation to problems of congestion."

The meeting was called by the SouthEast Lancashire, East Cheshire and District Federation of Accident Pre vention Councils. •

R .A. BIRMINGHAM MEETING THE next general meeting of the Birmingham Sub-area of the Road Haulage Association will be held at the White _Horse Hotel, -Congreve Street, on Monday, June 11, at 7 p.m. .

BOOKLETS FOR BUSINESS MEN

TWO more booklets of the series "Hints to Business Men" have been issued by the Department of Overseas Trade. They concern Iraq and .Spain and the Canary Islands, and can be obtained from H.M. Stationery Office, ALBION DIVIDEND DECLARATION IN respect of 1944, the directors ofJ. Albion Motors, Ltd., have declared a dividend of -12-i per cent., less tax, on the ordinary shares of the company. The net profit for the year amounted to £121,654, compared with £126,899 in the previous year.

NEW ASSOCIATION OF WAR EHOUSE KEEPERS ANOTHER new body, known as the 'National .Associttion of Inland Warehouse Keepers, has been formed, with Mr. Boyd Bowman as honorary secretary and offices at 83, Pall Mall, London, S.W.1. Its a.g.n. was held at Leeds on May 24, and the following were elected -to the executive committee ;-----Messrs. John Weber (John Weber and Co., Ltd.), chairman; W; J, Chester (Grand Union Canal Company), honorary treasilrer; J. F. Archbold (Archbolds Storage, Ltd.); G. Drake (Longton Transport, Ltd.); H. Palmer (Co-ordinated Road Traffic Services); E. E. Roper (E. E. Roper, Ltd.).

HAULIER . WINS OIL-ENGINE SALE CLAIM

LAST Monday, Mr. Justice Atkinson, in the King's Bench Division, gave judgment in, an action ariSing out of the sale. by Holden and Hartley (Burnley), Ltd., a. concern of motor engineers, of Central Garage ,• Church Street, Burnley, of a Perkins oil engine I or a lorry to Mr.. John Thomas Dickerson, haulage and removal con tractor, of St., Aubyn's, Waltham Road, Scat-thou, near Grimsby, .

Mr. Dickerson, who was .stated to have agreed to buy the engine for £400, after it had 'been adVertised iii an issue of a weekly trade journal, during April, 1942, alleged that there was breach of warranty on the part of Holden and Hartley (Burnley), Ltd., and h sought to recover damages against the company. The engine, he alleged, was not in good .condition,

Holden and Hartley (Burnley); Ltd., denied that there had 'been a breach of any Warranty on its part. Mr. Dickerson, it maintained, bought the engine after. seeing it and testing it.. He sought no advice or assistance from any representative of the company in making his decision to purchase.

Mr. Justice Atkinson upheld Mr. Dickerson's claim and awarded him £250 damagesand costs.

"EASTERN COUNTIES" RESULTS.

I N the year ended March 31 last, the total revenue of the Eastern Counties Omnibus Co., Ltd., was £592,901, which compares with £619,819 a year earlier. The net profit amounts to £73,789, as against

£75,905. The preference dividend • absorbs £10,000, and an interim dividend of 3 per cent., tax free, on the ordinary shares, is followed by a final dividend of a similar amount on those shares. General reserve receives £15,000, and the amount to be carried forward is £60,638, compared with 157,200 brought in.. "CHURCHILL HIGHWAY" A 40D-MILE MOTOR ROAD

CONSTRUCTION of a 400-mile

motor road through Britain, to be known as "Churchill Highway," in honour of the Prime Minister and built by German prisoners of war is suggested by Mr. E. L. Leeming, surveyor to Urmston (Lancashire) Urban District

"The proposed road would • by-pass, yet serve, the great centres of Birmingham, Liverpool and Man' chester, as well as London and Glasgow. Within a liMit of 25 miles on each side, about 75 per cent, of our population is located. Work could begin immediafely," said .Mr. Leeming, who indicated that two days of war expenditure would defray the 'cost.

SOUTHERN SECTION FOR THE INST. OF T.?

AMEETING of members of the Institute of Transport in the counties of Dorset, Hants and Sussex will be held at Southampton

to-morrow, June 9, to consider the formation of a Southern Section of the Institute. It will be held in the Conference Room at the Civic Centre, and has been convened by Mr. E. Burrow, of the Southern Railway.

GLASGOW. DISTRIBUTOR . CHANGES TITLE

ly/E are informed that ArmOur and YV Melvin, Ltd., of Glasgow. has changed its titll to Armour Motors (Glasgow), Ltd. Mr. John A. Armour remains managing director, Mr. James L. Spence, who has been with the company for over 24 years, is works director, and Mr. R. Mair, late sales manager of Messrs. Cameron and Campbell, 171, Bothwell Street, Glasgow, C.2, is sales director.

YORKSHIRE OPERATORS PLAN ELECTION CAMPAIGN

" VERY Yorkshire operator a crusader in the fight against nationalization," is the slogan adopted for a road-transport campaign in the county to mobilize political forces on the industry's behalf in the coming -, General Election.

For the organization of the campaign

• there is a joint election committee representative of the R.H.A., the T.R.T,A. and the P.V.O.A. Yorkshire bus companies have also been invited to co-operate. Propaganda measures which are already being arranged include the supply of posters for exhibitionon motor harries, vans and buses, small leaflets or slips for distribution in the wages packets of road transport workers, and labels for attachment to operators' Correspondence; the issue of a pamphlet presenting the case against nationalization of Jransport; 'mass meetings at various centres, for operators and employees.

For the financing of the campaign, there will be an appeal for operators' "support of a freedom fund, -of which Sir George Martin, of Leeds, has offered to act as hon. secretary.

The joint election committee held its first meeting on June 1, in Leeds, when

it elected as its chairman Councillor Robert Barr, of Leeds, who is chairman of the Yorkshire Area of the P-.V.O.A. Other representatives on the committee are: Alderman Charles Holdaworth, of Halifax, chairman of the West Riding Area, R.H.A.; Mr. Frank Thompson, of Leeds, chairman of the Yorkshire Area, T.R.T.A.; Mr. J. A. M. Bright (R.H.A.), of Selby; Mr. G. E. Gilbey (R.H.A.), of Wakefield; Mr. Robert Hanson (P.V.O.A.), of Huddersfield; and Mr. H. 0. Andrews (T.R.T.A.), of Leeds. •

A SYMPOSIUM OF PAPERS ONJune 27, at 2 p.m., at the Institution of Civil Engineers, Great .Georg n Street, London, SAVA, there will be a joint meeting of the I.A.E., • ICE., I.M.E., and I.o.T., at which a symposium of papers will be read on the subject of " Post-war Development of Road Motor Transport ": Part I, on " Roads," by Mr: H. E, Aldington; Part _11, on " Vehicle Design," by Major E. G. Beaumont; Pa‘rt HI, en "Traffic," by Mr. J. S. Nicholl, followed by a discussion. Admission will be only by ticket.

OBITUARY

One of the earliest operators to run motorbuses III Yorkshire, MR'. WALTER CAMPLEJOHN, of DaTfiel d, near Barnsley, has died at the age of 76 years. He was senior partner in the firm of Messrs. Camplejohn Brothers,. bus proprietors and . haulage contractors, and proprietor of another haulage concern—the Darfteld Motor Co. PRECAUTIONS FOR " BASICRATION " DRIVERS THE Minister of War Transpoet asks drivers who are returning to ,the road, particularly when their Vehicles have been laid up for some time, to satisfy themselves that the brakes and steering are in good working order, to accustom themselves to handling the vehicles before venturing on busy thoroughfares, to make allowances for 'other unpractised drivers on the road, and to keep a sharp look-out for pedestrians stepping from behind street airraid shelters and other obstructions,

People walking should also be on the alert, and all road users are rtminded that most children up to the age of nine or ten have had no expe2ience of crossing roads under the busier condi • tions which will now prevail. Exceptional care will, therefore, be necessary not only on te part of drivers, but also on' that or parents and all who have charge of children.

MR. SEWILL TO ADDRESS LT.A. IN LONDON

.THE next meeting of the London I. branch of the Industrial Transport Association will be held on Tuesday. June 19, at 6.30 p.m., at the Institution of Automobile Engineers, 12, Hobart Place, S.W.1, when the speaker will be Mr. R. Sewill, M.A.„ M.Inst.T., director of the. Road Haulage Associa

tion. His subject will be " Inland Transport."

GROW:qr....16 DEVELOPMENT

PROCEEDS ARACE

WE are advised by the National Association of Road Transport Groups that a number of meetings of hauliers has been held recently with a view to the formation of additional

groups, During the past few weeks meetings have taken place at Oxford, Stough, Portsmouth, Southampton and Oldham, all of them being addressed by Mr. F. Rudman, chairman of the Association.

At some of these meetings lively discussion took place, as there appeared to be some misunderstanding about the fuudanaerital aims and policy,of the 'ASsotiation.

In all of these towns, further meetings are being arranged or have already taken place, with toe object of forming 'local groups. Groups in Blackburn, Leicestpr, Pontefract, Scunthorpe, Wakefield and Wolverliampton have 'recently applied fOr membership of the National Association of Road Transport Groups and we leain that arrangements are well advanced in 10 other areas.

Further development is likely to be stimulatad by an announcement that the N.A.R.T.G. has concluded an agreethent with one of the leading hirepurchase finance houses, under which group members will receive a substantial reduction on charges for hirepurchase finance.

AN AMERICAN MARKET RESEARCH SERVICE.

WE are asked ,loy Universal Trade W Press Syndicate, 724, Fifth Avenue, New York, 19, N.Y., • U.S.A., to say that it is offering a Special fast service of authentic reports on industrial and technical developments to makers of motor, aeronautical and plastic pro ! ducts outside the United States. It • comprises a fortnightly air-mail report, which includes a continuous bibliography of important articles and news. Subscribers 'are also offered the special research facilities of the organization. The syndicate has been serving the business and technical Press of America and abroad for over 20 years.