Our New Year " Extra " Issue for the Colonies and Abroad.
Page 1
Page 2
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
since the latter days of last week, our publishing and mail departments have been occupied in part \vitt' the
dispatch of " The Dominion and Overseas " Special Number—that extra " No. 300 " whose general make-up and convincing articles (from the pens of our own staff) will cause a real stir in heavy-motor circles when its contents are perused hereafter. It is no easy or routine matter, this dispatch of a costly production to useful recipients the world over. To that end, there have necessarily been exhaustive researches to retain only good names: in fact, even in the cases of advices from known correspondents and other friends in the Colonies and abroad, we have not. omitted to scrutinize. For one reason alone, that of possible duplication, this is essential.
Hero is a reprint of what we promised to do in the matter of distributing all the special sections together. They are going out to A.—Not fewer than 250 managers of established plantation and other rubber-producing companies.
B.—Not fewer than 250 chief officers of fire brigades. C—Not fewer than 500 principal officers of municipal and other public authorities, including engineers, surveyors, and medical officers, with special reference to ambulances and vehicles for sanitary or public-health purposes. D.—Not fewer than 500 carefully-selected addressees (estate owners, machinery importers, etc.). who are likely buyers of agricultural motors and all types of tractors.
E.—Not fewer than 500 railway and tramway officials (both state and joint-stock company), who value up-to-date information about passenger vehicles, tower-wagons, railcars, etc.
F.—Not fewer than 500 indenting houses and purchasing merchants of repute and standing—the names have been chosen with the assistance of local advisers and correspondents.
G.—The War Ministers, the Ministers of Ways and Communications, the Chiefs of Police, and the heads of particular other Government departments throughout the world.
H.—An aggregate of not fewer than 1,500 owners or potential users, such as contractors, jobmasters, brewers, millers, etc. (distributed between the countries. Colonies, Dominions and Protectorates given in the list of page 7 hereof), whose names have gradually come into our possession from reliable sources and informants.
The Consular services and officials of leading steamship companies have assisted us in this New-year propaganda.
As a matter of fact, the foregoing totals have been exceeded, and it may be noted that the destinations include the following principal countries, etc., etc. :—
Aden, Argentine Republic, Bahamas, Belgian Congo, Bermuda, Beyrout, Bolivia, Borneo, Brazil, British East. Africa (and Uganda), British Guiana, British Honduras, British West Indies, Canada, Canary Islands, Cape of Good Hope (Cape Town), Cape Verde Islands, Ceylon, Chile, Colombia (Republic of), Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Ecuador, Egypt, Falkland Islands, Fiji (Suva), Gambia, Gibraltar, Gold Coast, Guatemala, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Java, Liberia, Madagascar, Madeira, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Natal, Newfoundland, New South Wales, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Nyasaland Protectorate, Orange Free State, Panama (Colon), Paraguay, Penang, Persia, Peru, Philippine Islands, Queensland, Rhodesia, St. Helena, Salvador, Seychelles, Shanghai, Siam, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Australia, Tasmania, Transvaal, I' ruguay (Monte Video), Venezuela, Victoria.. Western -Australia, Zanzibar.
To each British Consul and Vice-Consul, as well as the well-wrapped and adequately-protected " hook " itself, there goes a letter of notification from the Editor, and the same conjunctive practice has been followed in respect of certain large importing houses in particular centres. Hence, apart from the great importance of being " First. out for the New Year," which promised factor has been, and is being, observed in respect of actual posting dates in London, the vital point of no waste, or the veriest minimum of waste that can be assured by care and forethought, of this unrivalled special number has been fully studied and secured. We do not yet knz.,.w exactly when the " home" voucher copies will be posted ; for the New Year, perhaps. There is no occasion for hurry on our part, as the point of importance is circulation overseas.
The 1911 Parade: A Proposal that
9. it be Held at the Crystal Palace.
The writer will table a suggestion, at the January meeting of the Executive Committee of the Commercial Motor Users Association, that the 1911 Parade be held in connection with the Festival of Empire at the Crystal Palace. We believe that such a change of venue, from Lincoln's Inn Fields, will be most acceptable. We are responsible for the suggestion, and we mean to use our utmost endeavours to carry the arrangement through to a conclusion. The date, of course, will remain Whit Monday, the 5th June : that date has been announced.
It must be apparent, at once, that the proposed cooperation should be of benefit and convenience to all entrants. In the first place, it is probable that facilities can be provided for the acceptance of custody of vehicles at the Crystal Palace at any hour from two o'clock on the preceding Saturday, and for their retention, in special eases, on request.. in safe custody until, say, nine o'clock on the Tuesday morning. Such a plan as that will enable any
drivers who might otherwise he unable to muster to travel down comfortably, with their friends, wives or children, on the morning of Whit Monday. Also, the catering arid other resources of the Crystal Palace are of no mean order, whilst the grounds and inside attractions possess features of real interest to all visitors. To owners or manufacturers of commercial motors of all types, there must also accrue an increased measure of advertisement, for the organizers of the Festival of Empire, in common with the proprietors of the Crystal Palace, will do all in their power to "boom " the programme. We confidently look forward to hearty support for this large-scale parade, for which the first four entrants have already promised no fewer than 48 competing vehicles.
The Man, the Road and the Machinery.
The evidence at the coroner's inquest anent the recent fatal motorbus accident in Regent Street, London, to which mishap we made two brief references last week, has made it clear that the driver lost his head. The jury found, as a rider, that there was " great negligence " on the part of the driver. What does that mean It can only mean one or both of two things: that he was not holding the steering wheel with sufficient intentness of mind behind his physical grip or touch; that lie completely hest his control as soon as the motorbus headed towards the kerb. We conclude, from an examination of all factors, that the man neither withdrew the clutch nor applied the brake. Had he done either, the violent impacts with the shop-fronts, after both pairs of wheels had mounted the kerb, could never have occurred. So much for the facts of the case. The public is naturally concerned to have some analytical review of the occurrence. There can be no doubt, on the evidence, that the steering gear and brakes were in good order and intact. We also endorse the expert view that a steering wheel is not easily knockeit out of a driver's control, and, that it is an exaggeration to say that the action of steering when a small obstruction hits a front wheel pulls one's arms out, Safe motor-driving is dependent upon three elements; the man, who may lose his nerve at a critical moment ; the road, which may have an unsafe or exceptional angle of side
; the mechanical system, including the steering gear and brakes, of which the man has charge. The comparative rarity of accidents as the outcome of the enormous total mileages of London motorbuses, which now exceed 100,000 miles daily, is the best answer to lugubrious reflections. It is very, very seldom indeed that the man or the mechanism fails. This journal, on sundry occasions, has published articles and arguments to prove that excessive angles of side-fall are common, and we have had questions thereanent addressed in the House of Commons to Mr. John Burns. In respect of the Regent Street accident, it is demonstrable that the road-constructional element did contribute to the cumulative effect of the original departure from the intended line of progression, and it appears to us that the impact between the kerb and the front wheels, the latter obviously at an angle to the kerb of considerably-less than the normal of 90 degrees, gave the shock to the steering wheel from which the driver never recovered. Tile whole circumstances of the ease paint to its being one of "nerves" ; the initial touch from the private car, granting that it did happen as is alleged, was not enough, had the motorbus driver acted with ordinary alertness and a reasonable' degree of self-possession, to cause disaster.