CAR REGISTRATIONS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3823, 19 October 1936, Page 8

CAR REGISTRATIONS

LAST YEAR’S EXPANSION OF MOTOR BUSINESS. CONSUMPTION OF PETROL. There was a great expansion of business in the motor trade during the year ended 31st March last. New car registrations totalled 19,469, this being only 1400 behind the record figure reached in 1930. Registrations of commercial vehicles were the highest yet recorded in New Zealand. These details are shown in the annual report of the Transport Department, which was presented in the House of Representatives last Thursday by the Minister of Transport (the Hon. R. Semple). The quantity of petrol consumed by motor transport, the report states, was just under 62,000,000 gallons, against, 56,000,000 gallons for the previous year, and 63,000,000 gallons in 1929-30. Receipts from all classes of motor taxation were just under £4,500,000 —a record. Close on £7,300,000 was spent on roads, streets, and bridges, this being an increase of £430,000 over the previous year. An additional 1300 miles of roads were classified according to load limits during the year, and rather more than 88 per cent of the main highways and 50 per cent of the rural roads are now classified. The report points out that for the first time on record the claims paid by the third-party insurance plan were greater than the premium revenue, the figures being: Premiums, £211,000; claims, £288,000. Receipts from premiums since the inception of the scheme in 1930 to 31st May, 1935, totalled £1,374,178, and the claims paid and the estimated liability for (claims outstanding for the period amounted to £1,188,374. Dealing with imports of motor vehicles the report shows steady growth in the share of imports of cars obtained by Great Britain, till the depression year, 1933, when 60 per cent came from that source. A drop followed upon the improving economic conditions. The same trend was noticeable in the case of commercial vehicles, but now Great Britain’s share was less than half that of the United States of America and Canada. In the motor cycle field the British entry continued to predominate, There was, however, a slight swingover to American machines during the depression years, probably due to firms using powerful American motor cycles as delivery vehicles in lieu of light vans, and the increased entry of other countries into the New Zealand market.