MOTOR TRADE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19374, 12 July 1937, Page 12

MOTOR TRADE

TWENTY YEARS' PROGRESS RECORD IMPORT FIGURES The tremendous development of the automobile industry and its offshoots during the last two decades was remarked upon by several speakers at a smoke concert of the Wellington Motor Trade and Allied Associations. It was stated that so far 1937 bid fair to be a record year for the trade. “The motor trade has entered into the lives of the people so much that to-day we are carrying on one of the greatest industries in New Zealand,” said the chairman, Mr. H. Anderson. “It is one of the largest employers and one of the largest taxpayers.” Similar remarks were made by Mr. Ashcroft Edwards, toasting “The Motor Trade and Allied Associations.” “I have seen the trade almost from its inception,” he said. “It is amazing ho v/, in what seems a small space of time, it has developed into one of the greatest businesses in the Dominion.” “For many years 1929* was regarded as a peak year. It was thought that such figures would never be attained again,” said Mr. J. F. Cousins, of the New Zealand Garage Proprietors’ Association. “But now a new record has been set. The June returns of automobile sales were far ahead of anything vjp have ever dreamed of. They were 30 per cent better than those of the same period of last yeair,” Speaking for the importers of motor vehicles, Mr. G. H. Scott remarked that the first tabulated official figures he could find for the imports of motor cars, motor-cycles, and • materials showed that in 1906 such imports totalled £17,756. “I should like you to compare that with the total imports of the motor industry in 1936 £5,534,000,” he said.