MOTOR BODY BUILDING

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 35, 10 February 1926, Page 8

MOTOR BODY BUILDING

(To ttw Editor.) Sir,-r-I can quite appreciate JOTS co-respondent "Car-owner," hot wish* ing to become entangled in this controversy, especially as he has no firsthand information to put before your readers. This is clearly shown in his reference to "my information" and "I am told," which so frequently appeal* throughout hi« communication. la the ordinary way a man .with a superficial knowledge of any subject is look* ing for entanglements if he relies o« others for his facts. If L.A.E. quote* the erroneous conclusions of JJf.C, he must expect to be corrected, although his noin de plume covers his discomfiture. . With regard to. importations of Americal vehicles during the last decade, I said, '' Very few importations wert made" in reply to the assertion that the country was "flooded with America* vehicles." Depression or the reverse in thY motor-body trade in Australia is reflected in tho following figures which were procured last month from tho Commonwealth and New Zealand Statisticians:— / Hands Employed. Motor bodies only. All vhcielea. Australia. New Zealand. 1906 .. 3,350 .. 1916 ./. 1165 1920 .. 8,200 .. 1920 .. 1014 1921 .. 8,225 .. "lt>2l .. 1166 1922 .. 8,896* .. 1022 .. 1021 1923 ... 11,420 .. 1923 .. 1127 1924 .. 14,718 .. 1924 .. 1302 Increase in hands employed: Australia, 439 per cent.; New Zealand, a loss. As I have accepted an invitation to address the Motor. Workers' Union your correspondent refers to, on Thursday next, I will endeavour to secure the actual figures of the importations of horse-drawn vehicles over a period of years, as well as to decide the ques= tion as to whether 35 per cent, or 20 per cent, was the duty assessed in those days. I would be pleased to arrange for your correspondent "Car-owner" to reply to any statements I may make if he has the inclination to follow up the maitter further. In »y former letter T inadvertently omitted to include, the following name* of the men of the old school: Jama Robin, Mark Sinclair, Bobert Black.-* I am, eta, E. C. HABYI& '