UNHEEDED TREASURES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 245, 14 September 1929, Page 14

UNHEEDED TREASURES.

RELICS ON THE WAYSIDE. ENGLAND’S OLDEST SIGNPOST. Are motorists ali/e to the. things of interest to be found on the wayside? A. correspondent of a London newspaper suggests that many things .are missed by British motorists who might be only to glad to linger if they knew more of England’s less famous treasures. “The reflection,” he writes, “is prompted by an experience I had a few days ago. “At Brownhills, in Staffordshire, there is what is believed to be the oldest signpost in England. It is made of oak, dated 1770, and points the way to London, 119 miles, to Salop 35,''to Newport 21, to Chefter (Chester) (5.1. Yet of all the motorists who passed it while I was there, not one slowed down or left Iris car to examine this relic of the old road life of England. I doubt if any knew of it. “Again, how many motorists who make delightful Broadway, Worcestershire, their objective know that within 2£ miles is the old stone, the Kifts Gate Stone, where Kings of England were proclaimed down to the time of William IV.? The stone is only about 400 yards from the four cross-roads at Long Hill, but because it stands inside a road hedge on rough woodland few ever seek it.” TRAVELLING BATHROOM. RAJAH’S NOVEL IDEA. A travelling bathroom is the latest use to which a motor truck has been put in India. This was built on a3O cwt. chassis to the order of the Ruler of Bhopal for use in big game shooting expeditions. The body is completely equipped with a porcelain bath, wash basin, divan, and dressing-table. The water heating apparatus is controlled by a thermostat, and transfers the heat from the engine to the bath water system. The interior is enamelled in blue and white, and special glass is fitted to the windows, which permit a clear view from the interior while preventing people outside from getting a glimpse of the Rajah performing his ablutions. The occupant of the bathroom can communicate with the driver through a microphone, the necessity for which is obvious when he is trying to shave while the vehicle is under way in the jungle. BRITISH EXPORTS. Although the export figures of the British motor-cycle industry for the month of June were £55,097 below the corresponding month last year, the total for the first six months of this year shows an increase of £285,066. The depression, incidentally, was a general one in nearly all classes of the country’s export trade.