RESURRECTION OF THE HORSE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 4 October 1924, Page 3

RESURRECTION OF THE HORSE

-• ■ RETURNS TO LONDON’S STREETS. * The following extract from the Sydney Sun of September 7, 1924, has been issued by the commonwealth Clvdesdale Horse Society (N.S.W. branch):— “A few years ago the horse was in danger of’being driven off the streets of London by the motor, but repentant business firms are now leading him back. It has been discovered that for “short work” about Loud,on thoroughfares the horse van is more economical than the motor van. In addition, the horse lasts longer than the motor engine. A horse is fit to work until it is fourteen or fifteen year, s old, but .the motor engine is fit for the sera]) heap long before that time. And the cost of feeding a. horse is not much more than the cost of keeping y a motor van in good running oialcr. There is no tax on horses, but the motor van has to pay an annual tax of £1 per horsepower. Moreover, the horse doesn’t break down on the road, as the motor van is apt to do, after it has seen its best davs.

“ ‘My motor lorry was worn out before it was paid for,” said one London man in a small way of business, who purchased a lorry on the instalment, system. It was never such good value as the horse and van.' -Reliability means more to me than rapidity.’ “It is an interesting fact that many of the London municipalities, after using motor lorries for the collection of house and street refuse, are going back to the old horse, vehicle. The Westminster City Council has over fifty horses in use, and the municipal veterinary surgeon, in a letter to the Council, refers to the probability of more horses being needed for municipal work, ‘having regard to the fact that other corporations are back to horses.’ . **

“The horse-drawn vehicle has been blamed for t,hc congestion of traffic, in the main thoroughfares of London, which, results in a long queue of vehicles of every description being held up at every street crossing during Ihe busy hours of the day. It has been contended that slow-moving traffic, such as horse-drawn vehicles, should be restricted to the side streets during the busy hours; but this would only partially solve the traffic problem, as the slow moving vehicles must cross the main thoroughfares at many points. A more drastic proposal for the complete abolition of the horse-drawn vehicle from the streets of London is to come before the London County Council, but in view of the fact that many firms are finding the horse more economical than the motor, and that the animal is replacing the motor in municipal work, this proposal is not likely to be carried.”