Calculating average speeds
It is interesting at times, when a number of motorists congregate together, to hear the subject of speed averages discussed. There are no doubt a good many motorists, especially the younger members of the fraternity, who take a pride in exaggeration, and consider it a virtue to claim a very high average over any given route. When you hear a man stating that his average over a long road has been 30mph or even more, you may safely begin to doubt his story. Of course some people do at times average a fairly high speed, but to keep up an average of 30mph is mere road speeding. It is, fortunately, very seldom done.
Competent motorists have on several occasions while touring worked out average speeds for a day's journey, and have found that for really comfortable touring it seldom came to more than 15 to 18mph, according to the road surface, and frequently less, over the day.
Touring speed, unless the tourist’s object is merely to cover the ground, is naturally less than that of a man on a journey, whose only object is to get to his destination. For a long journey, including the necessary stops — whether to fill up with oil or petrol or to have lunch and tea — an average of 19 or 20 miles an hour over a long day is a very creditable performance; if speed is an object and the stops are curtailed, a good driver will add three or four miles an hour, or even more, without laying himself open to any charge of recklessness or inconsiderate.
Future salmon industry foreseen
"Make no mistakes," said Mr L.F. Ayson, the Chief Inspector of Fisheries, to a Marlborough Express reporter, "The salmon-canning industry is going to be a big thing in New Zealand before many years have passed, and I anticipate that the Pelorus and Queen Charlotte Sounds will be to New Zealand what the Puget Sounds are to America as regards salmon fishing." Mr Ayson arrived at Blenheim on Wednesday with the largest shipment of salmon eggs ever packed in New Zealand — eight cases of 75,000 each, or a total of 600,000 eggs. Mt Ayson considers that the Wairau is a very suitable stream which will mean easy trapping of the fish when the industry gets on to a commercial basis. In addition, the proximity of the Sounds should prove attractive to the fish. So far there has been no actual proof that salmon are running in the Wairau, but Mr Ayson believes that salmon caught in the lower Wairarapa lake originated from the Wairau. He says a strong current sets in from Cape Campbell to Palliser Bay finding plenty of feed to the outlet from the Wairarapa lake. Similarly, others would get into the current through the straits, and found in the Wanganui bight and round there. — ODT, 26.6.1922
