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Hokitika Guardian, 27 June 1929, Page 4

It is nothing short of ;i revolution in traction mid transport that has been brought about in our own times by the advent of' the motor vehicle. New Zealand lias participated fully in the changes that have lveen introduced. The motor car may be almost described as übiquitous in our midst. For purposes of business and pleasure tt has become indispensable. People move about as they were never able to do in the past. The garage has become an accepted feature of a desirable suburban residence. A new problem in relation to road construction has been created in this age of the motor. Tn sixteen years the expenditure on roads in Great Britain was multiplied !>v four, reaching an amount of almost £60,000,000 in 1926, yet. admirable as British roads are in the eyes of visitors from the dominions, the provision of a system of main roads, direct, wide, and capable of taking the existing volume of traffic, is regarded as sadly behind present requirements. Til the existence of the traffic congestion, the cost of which to business men is estimated at a prodigious figure, MY Lloyd George finds the justification for the programme of road construction nut of borrowed money that occupied a prominent place in the T.'iherils’ election poliev. There are over 2 600,006 motor vehicles in Britain: in the world there ar.e over 29"060,(10(1. and nearlv 80 per cent, of them are in the United States. Tu 1927 the product ion of motor vehicles in Canada and the United States reached a total of over three and a-lialf millions, Such figures, picked out almost at

random from Llie wealth of detailed information concerning almost every aspect of the motor industry that is contained in a special supplement dealing with that industry, issued by The 'limes, would furnish a reminder, were any needed, of the place which it occupies in rehuion to the commercial outlook of the day. White the question of noise in relation to speed and modern traffic is generally considered in this publication from an expert standpoint, the problem of securing gfreator safety for everybody—those who drive and those who are driven over—is probably looked upon as outside the scope of trade considerations. In Britain the motor industry has been congratulated Ivy the Minister of Transport on a year of steady progress. And considerable emphasis is laid in The Times, as we would' expect, upon the importance of developing a great British motor export trade, which would prove an immense* benefit to the Old Country and to the Empire.