“WE WILL PENETRATE”

Southland Times, Issue 20201, 11 June 1927, Page 11

“WE WILL PENETRATE”

j NEW ZEALAND AND BRITISH CARS. ' ! A COUNTRY WITHOUT DISAPPOINTJ ] MENT. VIEWS OF MOTOR MAGNATE. } “We are determined to penetrate this market and give New Zealanders 5 a car that will meet the competition of the world,” stated Mr W. E. I Rootes, the English motor magnate, i to an Auckland Sun reporter. “We > have been right through the North Island and have not had a disappointment. You have patriotism, good roads —and better comings marvellous scenery, and all that is wanted is the support of the Dominions to make inter-trade within the '• Empire a success.” Mr Rootes, accompanied by Mr H. Heath, 1 who has been investigating New Zealand and Australian conditions over a period of two years, and Mr S. Blackley, of Welling1 ton, have just arrived in Auckland, having ' motored in a Hillman car through Napier, ’ Taupo and Rotorua. AMAZING DEVELOPMENT.

“Considering the population and resources of the country, we were amazed at the development, particularly the road development,” stated Mr Rootes. “There have been great achievements in the engineering field in the matter of correctly graded roads and general development, and there will be a time when New Zealand roads will rank among the first of the roads of any of the dominions. Formation on the present system of grading, followed by sealing, will effect wonders.” He of course realised, as anyone iffust, that the conditions in the country were ' far more strenuous and would be so for many years, than they had to cater for in 1 Britain. { “Still, as far as I have gone, in the investigation of the probable British car markets, the development shown in a comprehensive scheme of road formation in New I Zealand is the best that I have seen.” | Mr Rootes has been duly impressed with I the scenery on the trip and would have liked to see some of the more, famous trips. The country between Napier and Taupo, the view over Lake Taupo, Aratiatia rapids, the view approaching Rotorua, and the Mamaku Bush, all impressed themselves on him NOT A DISAPPOINTMENT. I ’T believe that the hills and the general 1 condition of this road from Napier to Auckland is considered as fairly testing on a . car,” remarked Mr Rootes, “but I cannot ; say that we encountered anything on the road that showed us any necessity for any 1 radical—or any other —change in the pre- ; sent-day construction of the British car. We had to use chains over a deviation in the Mamaku Bush, and we got several punctures, but these things would have happened to any car. So far as New Zealand is concerned the English cars meet the bill. “We have not had one disappointment in New Zealand, either in the reception, the ’ conditions, or the prospects.” | Concluding, Mr Rootes said that the I Home market was now in order, and 90 , per cent, of the cars bought in Britain were British. The manufacturers were now in a position to make a definite attack on the colonial markets to regain the trade lost during the war years. The trade had now recovered largely from the switching , over of its factories to munitions during the war, and from the industrial troubles that had followed in its wake.