MOTORING
Accidents in the Commons Some revealing statements and suggestions were made in the House of Commons the other day when the House went into Committee of Supply on the Ministry of Transport vote, as well as others less interesting but far more amusing. Mr. Leslie Burgin's cautious speech was not specially hopeful —or at all events did not read so the next morning. He attributed the majority of accidents to carelessness and lack of consideration, as every experienced observer has done since the rising toll of the' road became a question of national urgency—several yearsand he remarked that without the whole-hearted co-operation of all road users there would continue to be casualties " on a scale and at a rate frightening to the intelligence." They axe not far off that now.
The Lot of the Five-Year Plan- - . • Admitting that there was much to be gained by progressive segregation of traffic, he must have disappointed his hearers as much as the general public when he told them that out of an approved £93 million under the five-year plan no more than £23 million had been spent up to May 31st last, the total at the end Of the year to be £34- million: -Other and more urgent calls on the country's resources were in part respons- ible for the falling off in expenditure. The only con- crete suggestion he put forward (as distinct from expreisions of hope) was that motor-cars should carry a red reflector in addition to a tail-lamp. It appears that investigation by the Ministry has shown that one cause of accidents is due to tail- lamps being sometimes obscured. That is certainly news, but the rest of the speech told us nothing we have not known for a long time, and committed the speaker to as much.
Blind Justice Sir William Brass _ argued, with Exhibit A in the shape- of a windscreen panel, that toughened glass was a source of danger owing to its liability to burst into small pieces and that only laminated or " sandwich " glass should be permitted in screens. That is more likely to ha,ve repercussions than Mr. ,Leach's joyous onslaught. He said 'that neither cyclists, pedestrians nor children were responsible for accidents ; that no road vehicle should be built capable of more than twenty-five miles. an hour ; that driving licences should be granted only to teetotallers; that all motoring offences should be tried by non-motoring magistrates (a hint that Justice can see through her bandage?) and that all cars should have wheelguards in order to prevent those who had been knocked down from being subsequently run over. It is reported that the House laughed. It must have been glad of the chance. There was nothing else in the debate to enliven the gloom.
The Bog of Allan It is altogether a place of peace. You come to it from Dublin by a straight road, from the west and south by more 'devious ways, leaving. behind you scenery that is either (for 'Ireland) comparatively plain or (for Ireland) of remarkable beauty—which is a stupid way of saying that you arrive all unprepared for 'the singular loveliness of this curious expanse of peat. YoUr road to the Bog of Allan, froth any point of 'the compass, is of the kind that prepares you for anticlimax. There is none. There is a violent contrast—if anything in Irish landscape can be called violent—but if such a thing is possible the end of that stage is more beautiful than any other part of it. You pass, in a mile or two, from reality to dream: Anyone would be put to it to sketch even the 'vaguest outline of 'the Bog, whether by pencil, brush or word of pen. There is nothing you can grasp, mentally or by eye, and say, " This is the Bog of Allan—this is its colour, its spirit, its form. 'By this 'or that indeterminate feature I, stall always remember it." There is nothing Nothing but immeasurable distance, a horizon that is now a mile away, now fifty, the foundation of all the colours in the world, a sky in which they.are 411 reflected and transformed, the everlasting smell of clean earth and water and growing stuff.
The Red Lake Not so far away are the Slieve Bloom mountains—there are not many lovelier names than this—and Lough Derg, the Red Lake, liOth places of exceptional charm. You go to both from the Bog country and each comes well up to your Irish expectations. The Slieve Bloom hills have, on the right sort of day, the iridescence of soap bubbles in the sun —an Irish sun, a little diffused by the Atlantic—and if 'you think there is nothing like them in the world you are probably right. Lough Derg is one of those rare pieces of water that has' nothing obvious to distinguish it from another, everything you can only feel, to put it in a company of one. I have seen its waters red at a suitable sunset, and in the same hour people dancing on rudely contrived floors hewn out of the banks, dancing to the scrape of the traditional fiddle what I took to be traditional jigs and reels. These things, agree- able enough, have nothing to do with the fact that Lough Derg is essentially lovely for no identifiable reason. It shares with the Bog of Allan a quality that is certainly not of our age. It is impalpable, indefinable beauty of the sort that catches at your heart. It is a -sensation rather than a presence. It has a little of- eternity in it.
Modern Light Engine Oils It is interesting, in view of the almost immediate past, to hear from those who should know best that the most efficient and economical engine-oils today are the thinnest. That , may not be the technically correct • description, but everybody knows what it means. The oil recommended for my engine in 1934 and for some time later was as thick as _warm treacle, whereas the brand I am trying now—the New Pete= Castro] XL—is so thin that I am sure I should hive onlx‘put it into the sump then if them had been' dot** g else to be had—and driven with my heart in my mouth. So far I have only driven about 2690 miles with it, and the ssecond most important quality, liability to carbonisation, sannottbe judged until I have the head off. The most important qualf0 is the absence of stickiness, and that you _,h ye, in full measure in this oil.
1,600 M.P.G.
There is no perceptible drag when the oil is stone-cold, either- on the starter or one's arm. I have abandoned the conscientious habit of preliminary hand-swinging—and .w-,411 much relief: The third advantage, to which I attach , the ledSt importance, is economy. I find, as I did with another Of these new light oils, that I use a good deal less per thousand Miles:than with 'Me old types, even with the thickeit of the treacles. So far 'the average in my to-year old z-litre Six (as yet un- hired) wOriS out at about 1,65o m.p.g. as against about 1,000 with the thick stuff.
False Economy That means nothing to me, for I am conservative enough to believe very firmly indeed in the prinCiple of changing the oil at least once every thousand Miles, -regardless of how much has been lost. I am quite certain that it pays to be extrava- gant with oil. However good it is, it must be better when new than after it has done i,000 miles' work.
- - -JOHN PRIOLEAU, • [Note.—Readers' reqiiests fa advice from' our - MOtoring Correspondent ;on the -choice of new ran should he accompanied by a ..itampecLand-addressed envelope. The highest price payable must be given,,as.well.as the type of body required. No advice ca!;_hegipen on the purchase, sale or .exchange qt_used err.]
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