Manawatu Daily Times The Motor Age

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6919, 27 May 1929, Page 6

Manawatu Daily Times The Motor Age

rjpilE figures given in our issue of Saturday concerning the advance in motor traffic in the United States were certainly startling in their revelation of the enormous growth of this form of transport. The increase for the year of 1,359,883 brought the total registrations for 1928 up to the colossal figure of 24,493,124, which does not include 117,946 motor-cycles also registered. While America shows such expansion in the motor industry Britain also is giving evidence of the growing popularity ol motoring both for personal and commercial use. The Ministry of Transport has issued figures showing that the use of motorcars has increased fourfold since 1925. An instructive comparison, which was prepared by the engineer of the Durham County Council, of the traffic statistics taken over a period of years on the Great North road, between Durham and Gateshead, showed that in 1913 only one motor-omnibus, sixteen motor lorries, and 105 motor-cars used that thoroughfare per day. In 192 G there were 311 motor-omnibuses per day, 3SI motor lorries, and 1138 motor-cars. It is interesting to observe that the number of horse vehicles dropped from 284 per day in 1913 to 78 per day in 1926. The increase in the motor traffic on that road may be said io be illustrative of the increase on all the main roads of Great Britain. What has been said with reference to the growing use of motor vehicles at Home applies with certainly no less force in New Zealand than it docs there. Indeed, the United States and Canada are the only countries in which there arc more motor vehicles per head of the population than there are in New Zealand. Where it is all going to end is one of those matters concerning which it would be rash and foolish to speculate. There is no present sign of the possible emergence of any competitor that will challenge the claims which the motor-car has established upon public favoua Any displacement of the car by the aeroplane for personal use in years to come seems to be rendered wholly impossible, if for no other reason, by the consideration of the respective sizes of the machines and of the space required for the housing of them. Moreover, the production, as may be expected, of motor-cars at prices considerably lower than those at which they are now offered is likely to lead to a continued extension of the market.