U.S. VEHICLES INQUIRY

Grey River Argus, 28 August 1946, Page 3

U.S. VEHICLES INQUIRY

Unsuccessful Tenderer RECKONS LOTS WERE TOO LARGE P.A. WELLINGTON, August 27. At the Royal Commission on American motor vehicles, Charles Matthew Read, motor dealer and mechanic, of Napier, came forward to give evidence after counsel had finished calling witnesses. He said he had inspected the vehicles when tenders' were being called. His impression was that they were being offered in quantities far too large for the ordinary dealer. The G.M.C. trucks were worth at least £150,000. He did not know of any organisation which would have tendered on that valuation. To Mr S. G. Stephenson (counsel for the General Manager of the Board, Brigadier Avery), witness said that his inspection was a superficial one, but the majority of the vehicles were “0.K.” To Mr W. E. Leicester (counsel for Messrs Goosman, Gerard, Broadfoot, and Sheat, Najonalist M’s'.P., in their private capacity), witness said he had tendered, unsuccessfully, for Lot Four of parts and scrap. He said the Board’s valuers should have had no difficulty in placing a value on the lot. It was, a good buy for a man on the spot at £l5 a ton, the price at which the Board was selling it. If the vehicles had been offered in lots of 10 or 20, buyers' would have been queueing up. No more evidence is expected to be offered. The Commission adjourned until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, when addresses by counsel will be heard. VALUATIONS OBVIOUS WELLINGTON, August 27. At the war vehicles inquiry to-day, William Stanley Goosman, M. P., called by Mr. W- E. Leicester, said he had more than 20 years’ experience in truck operation, and at one time had 75 trucks in use, in addition to road construction machinery. He had visited Seaview with a transport manager, who controlled 105 trucks, and considered that the value of the G.M.C.’s. was obvious. He had been amazed to find so many trucks in good condition for heavy work. Partly wrecked trucks- could readily be used for heavy trailers if they had been available at a few hundred pounds. The demand in several industries would have been heavy. Witness also commented on the value of the parts and accessories, including winches' and hydraulic hoists. He was also amazed to find what he estimated as only five per cent, of the tyres deflated. A G.M.C. tyre new, he estimated, would be worth £25, but allowing an average value of £lO for each tyre, at Seaview, there would be £120,000 worth of tyres alone. Witness had not heard before the inquiry a suggestion .to strip the vehicles for appraisal. A cursory cross-section valuation would have sufficed for the board’s purposes. He did not agree there would have been chaos if the vehicles had been sold in smaller lots, even if they had been auctioned singly to the public. To Mr. T. P. Cleary (counsel for the board) he said he did not know that several hundred former ex-Army G.M.C.’s at £l6OO each would be coming on to the market. He agreed that the prices at which Gillies sold the trucks' in relation to what he paid had been the main feature of the affairs which attracted his notice. He felt, as a public man, that he had a duty to look into the position.

SALES DETAILED WELLINGTON, August 27. Evidence about the sale of jeeps was given to-day at the vehicles inquiry. Hubert Lawrence Carter, a director of the General Repair Service, Auckland, said his firm had originally tendered £50,000 for all the Seaview vehicles and £14,000 for 546 jeeps alone. In the second series of tenders he was successful at £20,150 for the jeeps. Witness had sold 297 vehicles for £30,345 15s. Dealers bought 229 and individuals 61, including 36 returned soldiers. Of the balance 84 were total wrecks. Some parts from which might be salvaged, and 152 might be made mobile if parts' were available. The total number was 13 short of the advertised 546.

Those sold at an average of £l2O were not all necessarily complete, witness said. He did not expect such a high average return for the vehicles yet. unsold. Many of - the vehicles sold had to be fitted at wit-, ness’s expense with various parts. His- total expenses so far were £2,800, exclusive of interest. He expected to have to dump a lot of residual rubbish at the end of the nine months allowed to clear the park. When he took over he found a shortage of 600 wheels and tyres, including a spare for each vehicle. The general mechanical condition turned out to be better than expected. Witness' did not think the disposal of the vehicles' in smaller lots would have been practicable.