ROAD TRANSPORT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18172, 17 February 1921, Page 3

ROAD TRANSPORT

ITS IMPORTANCE TO DEVELOPING ' COUNTRIES. INTERVIEW WITH SIR RAYMOND DENNIS.' On® should not speak of the future of motor transport, in the opinion of Sir Raymond Dennis, who is at present on a visit to the dominion in the course of a world tour, and has been spending a few days in Dunedin. “ Its day, ’ he contended in an interview yesterday, “has arrived. Sir Eric Ceddea, Minister of Transport, has stated that the internal combustion engine won the war in the air, was the heart and soul i of the tank, .and provided the all-important transport on the road. Prince Arthur of Connaught went so far as to say that without our wonderful system of motor transport it is quite probable we never .should have been able to win the war at all. The great railway strike in 1919, perhaps even more than the war itself, demonstrated to those at Home the mobility, elasticity, and reliability of motor transport, and its extended use by the Government enabled every essential public service to be maintained. Sir Raymond Dennis is managing director of Messrs Dennis Bros. (Ltd.), who supplied 7000 motor lorries to, the military authorities, and at Guildford and at the White and Poppe Factory at Coventry, which they own, and which was visited by the Queen and Princess Mary during the war, they were employing at the date of the armistice over 15,000 hands. He is making a ■world tour for the purpose of. investigating local conditions and needs, and has already visited India, Ceylon, Burma, Dutch East Indies, Federated Malay States, China, ; Japan, and Australia. “In all these countries,” said Sir Raymond, “the authorities are alive to the great part motor traction will play in their development, and important schemes are on foot for road extension and improvement as a means of opening up new country, not in competition with, but as feeders to, existing ■ railway systems. _ In China the administrator of the province of Shantung is building 1600 miles of roadway to connect the various towns and provinces, while Japan has sent one engineer to the United .States, to study the latest methods of making mads, and another to find out what are the best materials. Java is threaded with good rc-ads. and all the main roads throughout the Federated Malay States and the bridges are being strengthened to carry up to a gross load of 10 tons. In Japan the policy of road development has received a great stimulus from the action of the Emperor, who has given 2,000,000 yen towards a fund for the improvement of roads in Tokio. . .... “ Australia,” he continued, ‘ is more backward in this matter than any country 1 have visited, and yet, with its almost complete absence of navigable waterways, and somewhat limited railway facilities, it is more dependent upon road transport than any of the great countries of the world. This fact, I am glad to see. is now being realised, and there is a ‘ certain liveliness ’ in dealing with this important subject. Nowhere in Australia did I mptor over so good a road of anything like its length as that connecting Launceston and Hobart.

I have motored some 600 miles ov&r the i roads in the South Island, and I have been agreeably surprised at their quality. The hills, though steep, are well within the compass of a good motor lorry fully loaded, and the road metal that is used, in which you are very fortunate, is of a good wear-resisting nature and suitable for mechanical transport. There are some stretches of loose metal which is, in consequence, shot off the road by passing vehicles, but this would be avoided and the road repairs would be more pasting were a fine material used to bind ‘the larger metal, and the whole well rolled in with a steam roller. “In Auckland,” added Sir, Raymond, “I saw more ferro-ooncrete roadway t)ian in all the other cities I had previously visited put together. I am glad to see this method of road making been employed in Dunedin. The initial cost is very high, 'but it is, undoubtedly, the cheapest in the long run as our own experience at our works has proved.” In discussing Great Britain’s capacity to meet the engineering demands of the world, Sir Raymond Dennis pointed out that Eng- ' land, as the result of the enormous developments that took place during war, is one huge engineering shop. Moreover, the liberal contributions by the Government, amounting to 50 per cent, of the cost of all approved factory- extensions and plant equipment, with a writing-off allowance on plant of 25 per cent, per annum during the war, has placed the country in the position of being able to manufacture in large quantities at a cost which will place them in a very favourable position, compared with other countries, and provided the trade unions do not paralyse industry by strikes, there is every prospect not only of regaining England s former ascendancy, hut of securing even a larger share of the world’s overseas trade than was enjoyed before the war Asked for. the general impressions of his tour. Sir Raymond stated that he was very gratified with its result from a business point of view, while he was laying up a store of knowledge, both political and economic, of the world generally, and of the dominion in particular, that ho hoped to be able to put to good use on his return home. In alljthe countries he had visited he had been stfuck by the desire to obtain goods ‘of British manufacture, which had been denied to them during the war, when British factories were engaged on purely war work, and other nations naturally seized the trade opportunities thus presented to them. This feeling was so .pronounced in those places outside the Empire and free from British ties as within the Empire itself, where, as one would expect, comradeship ond a common suffering during the war, combined with !a natural patriotism, strongly favoured every action that might assist in re-establishing pre-war trade conditions. , It is said,” added Sir Raymond, “that sentiment docs not exist in business, but my personal experience enables me to refute that, or, at least, to_ claim that patriotism does. Just as Britishers the world over united in the great common cause in and after 1914, so, I am glad to say, from my own observation, are they, now rallying to each other’s support, in fostering our trade within as well as outside the Empire, and taking a survey of the world’s economic condition at the present time, and having in mind the colossal war debts every part of the Empire is labouring under, I am convinced that such co-operation .was never more necessary than it is to-day.” Messrs Dennis Bros. (Ltd.) are the ■world’s largest manufacturers of fire engines. and they were the only firm allowed during the war to make them by the Home Government, who installed them at all the great munition centres throughout the world, including such far-spread places as Vladivostock, Archangel, Bagdad Cairo, and Basrah,, as well as at Gretna, Richborough, Avonmouth, etc,, at Home. They are the only engines in use in the native cities of China. It is interesting to note that the London Fire Brigade has 168 of these machines, and there are over 50 in use by the brigades of Australasian cities. There are 16 in Sydney alone, and they are to be found in the brigades of Dunedin Auckland, Christchurch. Timaru. Hamilton! "Wanganui, and other towns in the dominion. Two Dennis fire engines established the record at the great Salonika fire of pumping for 11 days and nine days respectively without a single stop. Sir Raymond Dennis was accompanied in his tour of the South Island by Mr Jas. Brown. Mr R. Lee. Mr E. Duthie, and Mi' R. T Duthie, of the New Zealand Express Company, which has been appointed sole agent for the Dennis motor lorries and charabancs. He will sail for Panama, on the Ruahine at. the end of this month, anti after visiting the States of South America will return to London by way of New York. S : r Raymond Demr's will leave tor Christchurch by the second express to-day.