THE MOTOR AGE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20707, 3 May 1929, Page 8

THE MOTOR AGE.

It is nothing short of a revolution. in traction and transport that has been! brought about in our own times bjr : the advent of the motor vehicle. Newt Zealand has participated fully in thq changes that have been introduced* The motor car may be almost describee! as übiquitous in our midst. For puv--poses of business and pleasure it hafj; become indispensable. People , movd 1 about as they were never able to del in the past. The garage has become artaccepted feature of a desirable sub-1* urban residence. A new problem iq relation to road construction has created in this age of the motor*. Lit sixteen years the expenditure on roads* in Great Britain was multiplied by» : four, reaching an amount of almost! £60,000,000 in 1026, yet, admirable asl British roads are in the eyes, of Visitor.! from the dominions, the provision; of 1 a system of main roads, direct, wide,s and capable of. taking the 'existing; volume of traffic, is regarded as sadly ; behind present requirements. In the ' existence of the traffic congestion, .the cost of which to business men is estimated at a ■ prodigious figure, Mr Lloyd George finds the justification for the programme of road construction out of borrowed money that occupies a prominent place in the Liberals’ election policy. There are over 2,000,000. motor vehicles in Britain; in the world there are over 29,500,000, and nearly 80 per cent, of them are in the United States. In 1927 the production of motor vehicles in Canada and ,the ,United ’ States reached a total of over three and a-half millions. Such figures, picked out almost at random from the wealth of detailed information concerning almost every aspect of the motor industry that is contained in a special supplement dealing with that industry, issued by The Times, would furnish a reminder, were any needed, of the place which it occupies in relation to the commercial outlook of the day. While the question of noise in relation to speed and ■ modern traffic is generally considered in this publication from an expert standpoint, the problem of securing greater safety for Everybody —those who drive and those who are driven over—is probably looked upon as outside the scope of trade considerations. In Britain the motor industry has been congratulated by the Minister of Transport on a year of steady progress. .Arid considerable emphasis is laid in The Times, as we would expect, upon the importance of developing a great British motor export trade, which would prow an immense benefit to the Old Country and to the Empire.