Development in Travel.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4264, 26 May 1936, Page 6

Development in Travel.

REVIEW OF PROGRESS. CHANGE OF CONTROL NECESCESSARS . j A review of the progress in travel ' and transport during the brief spoil of New Zealand's history was given by the Minister of Transport (the Hon. R. Semple) in opening the second reading debate on the Transport Licensing Amendment Bill in the House of Representatives last Tuesday. No study of the transport problem, Mr Semple said, could be complete without recognition of the startling developments that had taken place during the last few years. In the days before railways, the Minister said, transport was carried out on foot or with horses, by canoes on rivers and by sailing ships round the coast. As roads developed regular coach services came into existence. In 1855, it had taken Bishop Selwyn I t days to travel from Auckland to New Plymouth. To-day that journey could be made by air in an hour and a quarter. In LSbO, J. H. Baker, one of the pioneer surveyors, travelled from Riverton to Wairaki Station in 33 days. That same joinney by aeroplane to-day occupied under an hour. Another famous pioneer. Sir Arthur Dudley Dobson, had made a trip from Blenheim to Westport in 1871) in three days, that could be made by air to-day in 52 minutes, or by motor car in a little over seven hours. FIRST MOTOR VEHICLE. “Our railways system started to develop in 1880. when wc had 1140 miles open for traffic,” Mr Semple continued. “Hi 11)00 there were 2100 miles, iu 1920 3000 miles and last year 3320 miles. Then came the era ol motor transport. There is some doubt about when the first motor vehicle appeared on New Zealand roads, but Mr Cecil W. Wood, of Timaru, was the early pioneer, and in 1871) he constructed his first motor vehicle with a motor cycle engine. According to the import figures the number ol motor vehicles in New Zealand iu 1914 was 20,000. To-day the number of licensed motor vehicles has reached 220.000. jPetrol imports in 1911 totalled 0,800,000 gals. Fur 1935 08,000,000 gals, of lons. For 1935 08,000,000 gallons of petrol were imported. Now comes air transport, which has just passed an important stage in its history. Regular services are now operating between Napier and Gisborne, Palmerston North and Dunedin, and Wellington. Nelson and Hokitika and South Westland. Negotiations arc proceeding for connecting New Zealand with Great Britain, through Australia, on the west, and with the United States on the east. These factors give some idea of the marvellous developments which have taken place iu our transport system, and prove that wc have to measure up as lar as our methods of transport control are concerned. We see some countries which are sticking to the old customs, and which have failed to keep step with science, invention and discovery. The producer and the consumer are being brought more closely together, and new systems of transportation and communication have brought the people of the world closer together. As H. G. Wells says, the modern in great modernised communities stretches his hand half-way round the world for every other mouthful.” REDUCED TIMES. Travelling times between Auckland and Wellington were quoted by the Minister as evidence of the progress in transport. Before the completion of the North Island main trunk railway, the journey took 33 hours 20 minutes. When the railway was completed the travelling time was cut down to 14 hours 10 minutes. The journey had been made by car iu 10 hours 49 minutes, and to-day it could be made by air in 2 hours 45 minutes. “Wc are carrying on discussions with Union Airways at present,” Mr (Semple added, “and it is hoped to have a passenger and mail service by air between Wellington and Auckland covering the distance in three hours, with stops at Palmerston North and New Plymouth.”