REVOLUTION IN ROAD TRANSPORT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24022, 22 January 1940, Page 11 (Supplement)

REVOLUTION IN ROAD TRANSPORT

BOAD transport by motor vehicle, despite the. speed and efficiency of its present form, is no older than ,/ the present century, and the most significant advances in the. industry have all been crowded /V into the past quarter of a century. The perfection of the internal combustion engine, with all its multi' /' [y farious accessories, has been one of the most out- •' standing scientific achievements of 25 years that J ||f have been packed full of surprises. It has been |||i said that no country is greater than its means of communication, and New Zealand’s progress |||f would have been slower than has been the case ||-l had the country not been in a position to take -||' advantage of the products of invention over- f seas. The horse r relied on for so many years, still holds its own in certain spheres, but the anvil no longer rings in the wayside forge, and the uneven and muddied roads of an earlie day that were marked and rutted by the steelshod wheels of wagon and gig have taken on a smooth and easy surface which lends wings to the swiftly revolving tyres of the motor car and lorry, / the taxation of their fuel and accessories having made possible the construction of the modern H network of bitumised jP: ; ‘ highways throughout IF;' ; *."' , the country.

Early in the years of the first world war the motor car had ceased to be a rarity in most New Zealand towns, but even in so recent a past there were still those who were inclined to doubt the economic value and practical reliability of the automobile. In the years that have followed service cars, lorries,, vans, omaibuse*, and huge commercial trucks have established a, new field of employment in the carriage of passengers, merchandise, and even livestock from, one end .of the country to the other that threatened the national system of railways to such an extent as to cause the authorities to build up a road service auxiliary and supply mentary to the train schedules. The selling, tending, and mending of motor vehicles has become one of the major industries in the Dominion, and on a thousand farms throughout the countryside the car is a necessity instead of the luxury it was 20 years ago.