ART AND THE AUTOMOBILE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 303, 27 November 1912, Page 2

ART AND THE AUTOMOBI LE.

When the dogmatic but eloar-sigiitec John Ruskin pointed out that the beauty of an article lay in its perfect adaptation to its purpose, he enunciated r. .treat truth which automobile bvucloT. have only begun to realise in comparatively recent years. The motor-car bodv as turned out by the majority oi the’manufacturers even to-day, seemt to be in a transition stage, a,.. S . IJ retains sufficient of the characteristic!, of the horse-drawn vehicle to give it an -fir of quaint incongruity. There is, l.owever. one car in Hastings whirl i r <s realised Ruskin’s conception o, i p .. utv _the Silent Knight, now to be ,-n,‘n 'nt il'.e Tourist Motor “Mm-e7-a” ‘ Company’s garade. Mecliamcnily this ear is, of course tub cf beautv. It is made by tue .ua-U onMneers of Europe, the cleverest auto mobile designers of the worM. But fm <he first time in Hawke s Bay a e,.i j: firn highest graclo is shown ? >tn a hoc y which is thoroughly in keeping with it purpose. The purpose of the . dent Knight car is to glide swutly. pteasa t- -- W. noiselessly over the road Mli-fa<-e "and its new body, a three-seater is finished in a symphony of graceful curves. From radiator to back springs t’-'-re is not an ugly line, not a kinK. not n single gable-end projection, lhe l-.,jlv is called “ streamline.” and tne term fits it exactly. As graceful as a v-ieino- vaeht. as dignified as a grand gentleman, and as beautiful as a spring flower, the Silent Knight cars mark u wonderful advance upon the heavy, clumsv vehicles which, in the pas., hay represented the best achievements u. nwtor-bodv building. They are cars for the artist, for the connoisseur vwell as delights to the engineer. 1 he? arc something entirely different aminfinitely better.*