1926-08-04 — Page 8

12714

114]

No other tyre will give you the same safety mileage & comfort

as

DUNLOP

CORD BALLOON

TYRES

BRITISH BEST

AND

THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4TH 1928

THEY COST NO MORE THAN OTHER TYRES.

DUNLOP RUBBER CO., LTD.

LOCAL BRANCH Orrick-16; Des Voeur Rods C. (TEL. CENTRAL 1534) DISTRIBUTOS:

HONGKONG HOTEL GARAGE,

DEMAG ELECTRIC HOIST,

The ideal form of hoist › for Garages, Repair shops, and any places where weights have to be moved vertically or horizontally.

Can be used with all voltages.

Sole Agents:

LEYSECO CHINA CO., LTD.

BANK OF CANTON BUILDINGS (4TH FLOOR).

SHI

(Shell)

SHELL

SHELL

DELIVERED BY OUR OWN

LORRIES Direct into CERTIFIED

SHELL PUMPS

́IS ALWAYS THE SAME

PERFECT QUALITY AND CORRECT MEASURE

The Salle Petroleum On, 15.0.124

Incorpore in England)

TEL. C. 1221.

SOCONY

MOTOR OILS -

AND

GASOLINE

[A.Eu]

Motoring Notes:

A Weekly

Review dealing with matters of interest to all local motorists. Hire and Time Payment Problems

[BY AN OWNER-DRIVER. }

It costs about ten dollars a day to hire a car in this Colony if you are prepared to drive it yourself.

The various garages will no doubt make private arrangements with anyone who gives them the order to repaint the body work or overhaul the working mechanism of a car. But it comes to about $10 a day in the end.

pride in the appearance and smooth run ning of his car; may .care to have a thorough overhaul once d year.

In which case he is without his car for

Insurance.

CHINA, AUTOMOBILES AND INVENTIONS.

The imfamous "red flag"-act, which, limited the speed of all motor-vehicles in England to four miles an hour and made it compulsory that a man with a red flag should walk in front of such vehicles, was repealed in 1997

It is an interesting speculation to estimate the delay in the evolution nË the motor-vehicle because of that ridicu- lous legislation. "

CAPABLE PEOPLE.

There are, to-day, in Europe and North America, a far greater proportion of the adult population who are possessed cr mathematical, scientific and engineering knowledge, than was the case fifty years ngo..

A GOOD ADVERTISEMENT.

4 correspondent writes to enquire who The insurance companies, as with other

"invented the motor-car? It is im- people in business, are not working possible to give any one name. Great capable persons in proportion to popula- It is not argued that the number of tirely for philanthropic roRSONS.. They

inventions are practically never the work tion is greater to-day than in Hellenic - have to do the best they can for the of any one man shareholders. They usually behave very is a combination of numerous inventions. That is also the case when we compare The modern automobile times. it is, however, a fact that we are more capable in certain directions. generously towards their clients. It pays It represents the triumphs of many in the present intellectual activities in the end. It is a good advertisement:

people in Western Europe, North America One of the local insurance companies"

and Asia. fails to remind clients that if they are members of the local AA they are

vantors.

11

of

Any statement of the names of those It usually takes about a month ther

who have made" the petrol driven less able to do other things-such as writ- We, of this generation, are perhaps oughly to do up an automobile The

rehicle would have to include a scara oring-plays-than-were the ancient Greeks. very particula: owner, who takes a great entitled to a reduction in the annual ideas for the perfection and creation of may be less capable than Orientals in more of experimenters who produced Anglo-Saxons, French and Germans the gas engine. Then came the idea of matters connected with literary criticism using liquid petrol instead of coal gas and that mysticism" which does not Daimler and Benz in Germany; De Dion appeal to practical minds. and Bouton in France; Gibbon and Lanchester in England; Olds, Ford and influences the outlook of these Oriental One suspects that intellectual arrogance the Dodge brothers in the U.S.A., and scholars. They despise anything that score of others in Europe and America savours of what they call materialism. could be mentioned. It is noticeable. Yet modern civilisation employs many however, that however long we make the thousands times as much art as ancient list of names there is no representative society employed, and it continues to of Asia in the list.

employ more and more.

about a month.

premium. It would pay them in the end to attach a printed ship to that effect on the renewal notices. People like to feel that they are being treated with coa aideration even in business affairs.

Perhaps the Secretary of the AA be able to persuade the insurance com- panies to do this in future.

will

On the other hand there are car owners| who take such very good care of the body-work and yet are not anxious to

The usual practice, when premiums are have it always just spick and span; they will let the car go for two or three or being calculated, is to take into account even four years before it is repainted.

act only the value of the car but also Small adjustments may take two or

the horse-power. Thus the man who. is three days. We are now

so dependent content to drive a car with a small horses- on cars that some of us cannot be with-power rating scores. out one for a day. In which case we are glad enough to hire..

کو

If the car is being repaired at one local garage they will let you have a avo-senter for $15 a day but you must and your own patrol and oil.

For a whole month the figure is about 3200 without oil or petrol.

•

Unless the car is being used for busi ness purposes it would probably pay to hire whenever the car is needed, rather than take it on by the month.

Special rates would probably, be quoted for daily trips to Bepulse Bay for bathing or to Deep Water Bay for golf."

RATE CUTTING.

It is said that very few of the garages that let out cars on hire by the hour make any profit. We must remember that the wear and tear is considerablę.

It is astounding that some of the hired cars can manage to carry the crowd of Passengers that are often to be seen packed in them.. Do they pay extra

But there has never, it seems, been a case of a frame of a local car giving out because of the great load. That speaks volumes for the materials used nowadays.

The depreciation of the mechanism must, however, be considerable with, such loads. With an extra heavy load an engins becomes overheated and the transmission gear must be overstrained.

It would be of interest to know. what is the average life of a public vehicle that is owned by Chinese. Supervision with regard to using proper oil and grease, etc., seems to be essential. It is, however, unfortunately, a fact that very few Chinese appreciate the great need for careful supervision.

were

TOURING ON LEAVE.

It is now becoming a common practice for those who go "home" on leave to purchase a car with the object of seeing the scenery of the old country.

MENTAL ABILITY."

So long as human beings have babits there will always be a certain amount of There are, it is suggested, two main inertia in adopting new methods. It is factors in the making of inventions. the inertia of the East that keeps back They are (4) the distribution of the tide of mechanical progress in China. "mental ability in the population and It is, however, only question of time. (2) "the existing status of culture.” There will be roads stretching many Men, unlike the lower animals, are as thousands of miles across Asia /before Count Korzbski has called them, time-the end of this century. A generation binders as well as space-binders."

will be living in Hongkong who will motor Their achievements and behaviour at any "home" and see all of the wonders of one time are influenced by the accom- the romantic scenery of the countries that plishments of men who have gone before lie between Kowloon and Calais. them.

CUMULATIVE EFFORTS.

ره

The success of the automobile is due There is no better way of spending in Europe and North America.

to the cumulative efforts of many men Olds' holiday. In order to be as carefree as I cars and Ford's cars, built between the

(it is about two guineas) to the A.4. that the cars of that period had less possible it is well to pay a nominal fee years 1893-1869, moved along the roads. but it is no insult to those men to say in England. They will provide you with resemblance to the Rolls-Royce of to-day You also have all of the advantages of U.S.A. full details about, any tour you may fancy than the cave-man had to the modern politician of France, Britain or the the AA road service and hotel privi- leges.

за

The two most popular tours are (a) through the West of England and...(b) through North Wales.

It is related that Charles King, pedal ling a bicycle, followed Ford's car and fell off during the trial trip. picked up the bolts and other parts which

A BROKEN AXLE

As evidence of the luck of inventors Starting from London the journey to the following story is told of Olds. He the West of England should include the gave a demonstration in order to obtain lanes of Sussex, with a halt at Retworth, funds to build another car. This early model snapped its axle shaft. Fortunate. so that you may see the lovely Leconly, this happened just before the car field Park. Then on to Winchester, reached a slight downgrade. The car where the Cathedral' and the School are was rua to the gradient on its own momentum. It coasted down to Olds' of great interest.

shop door. There the prospective cas- After that you have the new Forest,tomer alighted, ignorant of the fracture unspeakably English and glorious in the of the axle. He completed the bargain by signing the necessary papers, being autumn. Take the road along the quite satisfied with the demonstration. Southern coast and see the picturesque Devoushire villages. If you play golf you will find some delightful courses.

Near the golf course at Bodleigh Salterton you will see a house labelled "Maskee."

You maybe tempted to enquire who lives there. It is someone from Shanghai. Old Hongkong residents may, however, be met in Devon.

It almost hurts one to think of the delightful days spent in a car during a lovely summer in England. Cornwall and North Devon are so different to Eong- kong; there is no wrangling with sor- vanta who do not, or will not, under-

stand.

...

The roada are good. You can easily make 120 miles a day. On some days we did 150 files.

One of the many improvements intro duced by the local traffic authorities has been the definite labelling of public. vehicles. Before that innovation there " pirates" on the road. Touts stood near the General Post Office and Make up a party of four and if you offered cars for hire. On more than one occasion the writer has been practically sure that it was a private car that was offered.

17

"A humble suggestion is made that, from time to time, the traffic authorities should stop the "public vehicles" (pre- ferably when they are not carrying Passengers) and, make sure that the drivers are licensed.

INSURANCE PROBLEMS.

It is almost incredible that anyone should drive a motor vehicle without being covered by insurance..

The great risk is the "third party " trouble.There are some people who are expensive luxuries, for the motorist "who has the misfortune to injure. them,

the better. If not, make sure that at least two of you can drive.

can all take a turn at the wheel so much

Don't hurry. Don't have a time pro- gramme. Just go on or stay as you fancy this or that place. You will find some comfortable resting place before night- with a smoothly running car. Perhaps Iall. "Oh to be in England now"-

next year or the year after, as the French sayTo live is to hope."

HIRE-PURCHASE” FINANCE.

تورگنی

chase system becomes more and more In all branches of trade the hire-pur- popular. It has come to stay.

It has, in America and Europe, grown to be a big factor in the motor-car in- dustry. But it does not appear to have- been, adopted in Hoogkong.

In England the Motor Traders' Asso- ciation has investigated the matter. No one wishes any harm to the de- They have made certain suggestions servedly popular senior members of the about deferred payments which show local cadet service. On the other that the purchaser pays more in the end hand any motorist may be unlucky enough if he fails to pay cash down for his car. to get mixed up in an accident that might There is an establishment charge of £5 cost such a valuable life.

which must be added to the cost of the If the emoluments earned by the un-car. Then the three items that must be fortunate individual fatally injured are taken into account are (1) fixed charges; $1,500 a month, then the motorist might (2) risk of logs, and (3) interest on money be called upon to pay a sum ascom- lent pensation to the relatives that would use The fixed charges are fairly constant up all of his hard-earned savings and still in all transactions. They consist of be not enough to meet the claim

stationery, enquiry fee, agreement stamp, office work, postages, etc. It is of in- toreat to note that the loss risk is higher on a low-priced car than on a high- priced one.

It is not the careful driver that always escapes. It is the other fellow that causes the trouble but it is not always easy to prove that he was në fault.

It was Olds who entered the field of

quantity production in 1900, but others made many of the parts of the motor. cars that he produced. In common with all of the early makers he used a bot tube to ignite the charge in the cylinder. Then an executioner at Sing Sing prison devised a mechaniam which em- bodied the spark-gap principle. He wrote about it to Olds and the modern electric sparking plug is the result..

CARS

Journalists of the future will pity this generation in Hongkong whose motoring activities are confined to the island and New Territories. At times we grow im- patient that there is so much delay.

INSURE

YOUR

MOTOR

CAR

WITH

GILMANS.

OCEAN

SINGER 10/26 H.P.

THE

COMPREHENSIVE POLICY

CARS

BRITISH· THROUGHOUT.

AGENTS:-

GILMAN & Co., Ltd.

4a.. "Des Vœux Road,

“BUSINESS and PLEASURE.”

AUSTIN SEVEN

When the day is finished in the City, the car will be ready for that delightful run

in the Cool of the even Easy to gai

it a requirements for space are as modest as it's price.

ALEX. ROSS & CO. (CHINA), LTD.

Bank of China Bhilding

4, Queen's Road Central, (Tel. 0, 97: Machinery Ofce: Tel. 07. 2487.)