THE EARLY DAYS OF MOTOR VENICLES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 150, 25 February 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE EARLY DAYS OF MOTOR VENICLES.

The motor has now so completely replaced the horse for light vehicular traffic that it is difficult to ponc-eivo that twenty years ago no mechanicallypropelled vehicle could legally thread the streets of London without being preceded by a man on foot carrying a red flag. A Motor Car Show had been organised in 18 ( Jo. and a few gentlemen—Mr. Evelyn Ellis, Sir David Salopians, and others —already possessed cars when the Light Locomotives Act of August 18!'G legalised a speed of 14 miles ail hour. Motor Car Day, Nov. 1-1, 18t)6, bad hardly been alluded to by the papers till about a week before. But tlio idea had evidently "caught on" among the general public, for thousands of people crowded Whitehall Place to see the start for Brighton and give a "send off to the new traffic. Probably few realised the real importance of that procession—comical enough we should find it nowadays. The thirtythree vehicles (not one over six-horse power!) were of the strangest and most varied shapes and sizes. Twenty more had failed to turn up—some probably had broken down on the way to the meet. Except for a Hoi lee tricycle, all prevent fully deserved the name they I,ore, "horseless vehicles": they were built like horse-carriages without shafts, and a motor was placed in sonic convenient spot, before or behind as the ease might be. After the Motor Car Breakfast at tho Hotel Metropole, the Earl of Winche'sea solemnly tore up a red flag, and the procession started, headed by a gentleman whose d'vss was a happy compromise between that of a yachtsman and a Hungarian bandconductor, and lie bore a purple banner duly inscribed. A dozen or t>o of the cars were reported to have reached Brighton, and all England rung with such startling news.