MOTOR TRANSPORT

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 270, 29 October 1932, Page 3

MOTOR TRANSPORT

ROAD AND BAIL COMPETITION. The motor secretary of the Association of British Manufacturers has supplied a copy of the 1932 edition of the year book of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (London). This publication contains a comprehensive statistical review of all phases of the British motor industry and of motor transport during the preceding year. The society makes a special appeal for the better co-ordination of rail and motor transport, in the coruse of which it is stated:— ‘ ‘ Difficult as the problems of the railways undoubtedly are, though, indeed, far less serious than those of the main industries of the country, is there anyone who would deny that but for that comparative encouragement which has been given to road transport and. the vast material consequences thereby arising, the situation of the railways, and indeed of the heavy industries of the country, and the national welfare itself, would have been infinitely more difficult? So it is we see in such Dominions as Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand that the stifling by the State of socalled competitive road transport,, however successful in itself, has failed to do more than to be accompanied by colossal railway losses. It has irritated the public, it has increased production costs, it has created unemployment, and has but aggravated the economic difficulties of the States concerned, while depriving the British motor industry of orders for vehicles which in their turn would have created traffic for our home railways and helped in no small degree to reduce the gravity of the world position. “Tragic though the past months may have been and pitiable the publicity given to a so-called controversy (in Great Britain), between two of the greatest industries of the country, may the first words of this historical review make the plea that the salvation of private enterprise must depend upon the productive industries, whether of Great Britain or of the Empire, uniting in the demand for that freedom for and encouragement of enterprise which itself created the railways, and which may yet serve to turn the wheels of national, Imperial, and international commerce.’’