OLYMPIA MOTOR SHOW.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17609, 11 November 1922, Page 17

OLYMPIA MOTOR SHOW.

CLOSING DAY.

The Olympia Motor Show, which has been attended by thousands of visitors from all parts of the Don i->ion will close to-night. It seems remarkable that a city the size of Christchnrch should be able to produce each year an exhibition as Ir.rge as Olympia when it is authoritatively stated that it is not exceeded in this connexion anywhere outside of Britain and Amerira. It has been supported so well by the motor trade and the public that its existence as a permanent fixture seems as well assured as the A. and P. Show and the races held every Carnival Week. No one visiting the 1922 Olympia can fail to be impressed with it, especially when it is remembered that not until 1899 was the motor-car seen on a New Zealand road. To-day the industry is responsible for hundreds of large garages all over the Dominion, employing thousands of hands. New Zealand was quick to take advantage of conditions which made motoring a pleasure instead of a penance. It has been stated that the first motor-car landed in New Zealand was brought in by Mr N. Oates, in October, 1899. But though Mr Oates was undoubtedly one of the earliest of the pioneers of motoring, the arrival of the first car antedated his importation by something like twelve months. There seems no question that the very first car driven in the Dominion was imported by an Auckland firm in 1898, and sold by them early in the following year to Mr William Wardell, of Christchnrch. It was manufactured by a Wolverhampton firm on the exact lines of the German Benz car of that era, and its appearance on the streets to-day would probably attract as much attention as would a well turned-out dog-cart. Equipped with a gas engine of 3} horse-power, this car could develop a speed of rather under 20 miles an hour "on flat good ronds"; climbing hills its rate of progress Beems to have varied from two miles an hour to nothing at all. Its owner had to be something of an athlete as well as the mechanic that all motorists ought to be, for when he wanted to slow the engine, he had to jump out, open the bonnet, and close the throttle. Mr Oates reached Christchnrch with his car, which was possibly the second to be imported into the country, about six months after Mr Wardell had startled the city with his quaint machine. The newcomer, made by the Kaglan Co., on Benz lines, had taken its owner on a prolonged tour in England before being shipped out here. About this time a De Dion Bouton tricycle, with a 2 h.p. engine, was brought out. By 1902 there must have been quite a number of cars in New Zealand, for a photograph of a "meet" on Park terrace in that year shows some forty or fifty machines of comically archaic type. That year was also made memorable by a car, known as a "locomobile," being driven by the representative of an American firm from Chris'tchurch to Dunedin for the first time, the actual, driving time being nineteen hours. This locomobile seems to have been a popular car, for a chronicler of the day tells of the American buyer selling a dozen in Wellington at £250 apiece, a price, it was added, "a little prohibitive for Oamaru at present." Ideas have changed since then; £250 would not stop many an Oamaru resident from buying a car to-day. Twenty years ago there were possibly two or three hundred cars in all New Zealand. To-day we' are told that there are 37,500, that one person in every 35 of the population is a motorist, whereas Australia has ahout one to every 67, and Great Britain one in 96. The Dominion is placed twelfth in a list of sqventy-seven countries in which the motor-car is used. But, le3t we grow proud at this distinction, it may be mentioned that the proportion of motorists to population in the States is one in ten, and in Canada one in sixteen, so we have some way to go yet before wo can challenge these countries. In the meanwhile we are advancing steadily, a fact to which the fine display at the Olympia Exhibition bears eloquent witness. The first of these exhibitions was held ip. 1919 in the Colosseum, which would not afford space for anything like the entries which crowd the 70,000 square feet of floor space in the present exhibition in the Barracks and its annexe, for wWch the entry of cars alone, numbering 150, is almost double that of two years ago. The approximate value of this year's exhibits is £150,000, and they would have been much more numerous if the promoters had been able to find room for all that were offered. The entrance to Olympia is lighted by a 2000 candle-power lamp with a radius of 50t) feet. Visitors may obtain refreshments at wellconducted tearooms, and the playing of Willyams's Olympia Orchestra adds greatly to the enjoyment. Olympia is open from 9 a.m. to The musical programme to-day includes "Toreador "Soiig" from "Carmen" (Bizet), "Tesoro Mio" (Buccio), "Zampa" (Herold), "Hungarian Dance No. 5" (Brahms), "Chu Chin Chow" (FraserSimson) "Barcarolle" from "Tales of Hoffmann" (Offenbach), "Swanee Blue Bird" (Conrad), Xylophone Solo.