A MOTORING PEOPLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 162, 11 July 1925, Page 8

A MOTORING PEOPLE.

Dominion registration of motors has had the effect of providing reliable statistics of vehicles. According to the interesting statement made by the Minister yesterday, the number of registered cars is much above the previous estimate. There have been registered under the new Act 104,582 motor vehicles, of which 70,266 are ordinary cars. The current "Whitaker's Almanack" gives an estimate of the number of "passenger cars" for several countries compiled by the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce, New York. The number of cars in New Zealand is given as 45,000. Assuming that the classification is the same, and allowing for the increase in importations in the last few months, this American estimate is very much under the mark. According to it, however, New Zealand stood last year high as a user of motor cars. There were seven persons per car in the United States, thirteen in Canada, twenty-seven in New Zealand, forty-four in Australia, and seventy-four in the United Kingdom. Taking the Dominion's population at March 31 last, 1,379,000, and the number of cars registered, we find that this year there is a car to every nineteen persons. If we take all motor vehicles, there is one for every thirteen persons. The number of cars is increasing all the time—too fast for financial health, some think—and the improvement of roads stimulates the desire to own cars for pleasure and business. New Zealand may be described as a country of motorists.