WIDER OUTLOOK

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6544, 28 February 1928, Page 10

WIDER OUTLOOK

WHAT THE MOTOR-CAR IS DOING Under the heading "The Motor Car Makes a New Countryside," the Melbourne "Herald" recently published an article that deserves re-printing. All over Australia and New Zealand and all over the world, the motorcar is making a new countryside. Those little towns which onco were all sufficient to themselves and which looked for no trade outside their own boundaries are, by reason of the new mobility, rapidly becoming a part of the general scheme of things. Their insularity is being broken down, and the change is doing them and the whole community a vast amount of good. The ideal state is one in which the people are of a single mind and heart. That condition has not yet been altogether achieved hero or in any other part of tho world A community is built up of many isolated sections which are more or less at loggerheads with one another. It ie only when they have a common interest or are faced with a common danger that they achieve unity. The war taught us that. But whereas we are capable of single-mindedness in the face of a common foe, we have yet to learn how. to unite in the ideals of peace. Tho motor-car is showing us the way to promote unity and mutual development. It is at present doing more for communal harmony than any other agency devised by man. It is compelling tho two halves of the community to mingle, and is making the one beter known to the other. It is acomplishing in the way of unity what no other agent has yet been able to perform. Because the motor-car with its occupants goes far alield at week-ends it is creating a new rural life. It is making tow. . of what wore once villages It is forcing city standards on the country, because the city man will bo satisfied with nothing less. The little community which was once satisfied with itself and its surroundings in learning that it is a part of a greater concern, and that there are certain things it must do and aspire to become a real part of the whole. Th country is beginning to discover that opinions expresed round the parish pump arc not the last thing in politics; and. the city is finding that the point of view of the country demands atention. A wider horizon has been opened up everywhere, and the local problem is ao more the only problem. These changes arc being effected, not by strenuous propaganda, but through the matcilal agency of trade. The übiquitous motor-car has not only shifted people, but has transferred business. The city man who takes the road at week-ends is demanding tho standards of tho city in tho country. He takes with him money for the purchase of his needs As a consequence, country towns have begun to cater for him. Newer and more up-to-date hotels arc springing up in rural areas. Commodities which tho travelling population demands are being stocked for sale. The country service station is ready to supply the travelling city motorist with the things he needs; and the roadside vendor of marketable commodities has become a regular institution. All these things make for unity and understanding. It has often been said that better and quicker communications will bring about peace of the world. Mobile populations are undoubtedly the best, because intermingling creates understanding. If quick transport is a factor in uniting a single country, it must also have its value in the wider sphere of international affairs. Unity, like charity must begin at home. When we have created a solid community through the modern process of travel, we are ripe for that greater understanding which will bring peace -where once the shadow of war always lay.