MOTOR VEHICLES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4912, 7 December 1925, Page 2

MOTOR VEHICLES.

DOMINION TOTALS. INTERESTING COMPARISONS. The Main Highways Board has issued a return to all. local bodies of the . number of motor vehicles registered up to And including October 31 r 1925. The Dominion totals are follows: > Cars, 78,698; trucks, one-ton 9234, ' two-ton 1962, three-ton 844, four-ton 695, five-ton 265, six-ton 48; and over six-ton 16 ; motor buses, 1186; traction engines, 367 ; trailers, 456; tractors, 168; road rollers, 68 ; fire engines, '101s; .ambulances, 58 ; motor-, cycles, 24,238. ■/ THE DISTRIBUTION. The return gives the registrations in the various main highway dis- ' tricts. The North Auckland district leads in regard to the number of cars with 9499. Wellington West has 9373, Canterbury Central 8978, and South Auckland 7281. ■ ' In one-ton trucks North Auckland also leads with 1759. Wellington West is next with 1191, .and South Auckland 1035. THE INDUSTRIAL SOUTH.' The proportion is about the same , for two and three-ton trucks, but in four-ton and. over the Auckland proportion becomes less and the Wellington and Taranaki increases. ; - Canterbury South has a very big •lead with 101 out of .the 367 engines,, and the other far southern districts have all. many more than the North Island districts. North and South Auckland together have 21 engines. • Trailers are more common in Canter- ' bury than in any other province, though three-wheeled trailers are more favoured in the two Wellington: districts, than elsewhere. PROGRESSIVE NORTH. »An indication of the work under . . way in .the Auckland districts to' bring the roads up to the standard required for motor-cars and heavy , motor trucks is the number of road rollers, registered. In the 18 highway djstrictg of .the Dominion there are . 68 road rollers. North Auckland leads with 13, and South Auckland has, 12. Taranaki comes next with 9, and Canterbury Central and South follow with . six each. The Wellington East district, which has almost one-quarter of the six-ton motor trucks, is one of the three highway districts which have no road rollers. With five engines and ambulances North Auckland has a big lead, ihe proportion of that district of the Dominion total being approximately one-sixth. Well over one-quarter of -the motor buses of the - Dominion are in the: North Auckland highway district, which has 307. South Auckland follows with 139, and Wellington West with 128, and Canterbury South with 70. , \ Christchurch must be the motorcycle agents’ paradise, for the Nbrth Canterbury district has registered ' about a quarter of .the motor-cycles of the Dominion. These cyclists must be city men, for in the South Canterbury district, which covers the Canterbury Plains from 30 miles south of Christchurch to 30-odd miles north of . Dunedin—well over twice the area of the Central district—has, less than . half the motor-cycle registrations.. The figures are: Canterbury Central. ; 41024 ; Wellington West, 3092 ; Auck-? land North, 2144; Auckland Souths 211-7 ; Canterbury South; 1984 Taranaki, 164 t.