AMERICAN MOTORS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3041, 30 March 1917, Page 6

AMERICAN MOTORS

' BIG INFLUX LAST YEAR WHERE THE MONEY GOES r Recently His Majesty's Tiade Coinf missioner for New Zealand (Mr R "\V - Dalton) asked tho municipal and crfunty authorities tlnoughout the Dominion to assist him in tho collection of statistics regarding the registration of anotor-cars,and motorcycles during' the jcar 1916 The figures he has secured show that last jear no fewer than 5756 motoi-cars and 3191 motor-oycles % ..'were registered m Now Zealand for fthe first time They were newly-im-ported vehicles, antl the striking feature of the figures is the enormous preponderance of imputations fiom the United States. The detailed figures, showing the country of origin, are as follows — Country of ongin Cars Cycles Umtea Kingdom 594 2,464 United Stato3 '. 3,398 620 Canada . 1,551 — Trance J, . 127 — Italy . 21 _ Belgium . . 13 44 Other foreign . 4 31 Origin, unknown 53 32 5,756 3,191 j The number of new cais is xinprecedontcd", and may be regaided as a result of the high prices that are being received for tho prnnaiy products ot the Dominion British Snauufacturers 2we held their own well as fai as the motor cycles, are concerned, but it appears that the Amerioan firms have been able to take very full advantage of the fact that the British manufacturers of.'motor-cars have their attention concentrated on wai work The Americans are interested to a large extent in_the cars credited to Canada, since Amencan caßjiaj has been employed ,to develop the motor-car industry across the border with the primalv object of a\oidine Customs and preferential duties The figures indicate /that of the extra money paid by tho United; Kingdom tb .New Zealand for ■wool, mutton, dairy nroduce, etc , at , war prices, a very large sum has been used to buy American motor-carb The new motoi-eais and cjcles were distributed over the various districts as follow — Districts ' Cars Cycles Auckland and Poverty Bay 1,356 519 Hawko's Bay > 561 280 Taranaki 480 227 Wellington, Bangitikei, and Wairarapa, " 1,278 789 Kelson and Marlborough 218 98 Canterbury 954 6 98 Westland . 113 g6 Otago and Southland . 796 494 5,756 3,191 The North Island districts appear to nave- established a very substantial lead over the South Island as fai as the 1916 purchases of motoi-cars and cycles are concerned