WHAT PETROL AGE MEANS TO N.Z.

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 120, 11 August 1927, Page 11

WHAT PETROL AGE MEANS TO N.Z.

VANISHING DOBBIN EFFECT ON COUNTRY’S ECONOMICS (THE SIX'S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON. Wednesday. A lament for the vanished days of horse-drawn transport was raised by Mr. F. Waite, Clutha, during the Budget debate in the House of Representatives this afternoon. He pointed out that the huge sum spent on motors now went out of the country, but admitted that there was no way of meeting the problem. Mr. Waite took the House back to 1903, when the first motor-cars came to New Zealand. Once, he said, the whole of the road transport of the Dominion depended upon horses, and chaff-production was an important industry. while the blacksmiths and coach-builders were kept working hard. All the money spent on the maintenance of horse-drawn transport remained in the country. He quoted figures to show the decline in the total acreage sown in oats during the Last quarter of a century. From 1899 to 3 905 the average total acerage was 608,000: for the years 1920 to 1926. the average total had dropped to 445,000. The number of horses in the Dominion had dropped steadily since 1910, when there were 404.000: in 1920-21 there were 337,000. and in 192526. 315,000. The number of brood mares had shown a tremendous decline; where as there were 36.000 between 1905 and 1910, there were now onlv 14,000. These figures, said Mr. Waite, were positive evidence of the strong competition of the motor and tractor. Of course, no Government could help it. To-day, the money that formerly had been spent on horse-iransport was going out of the country. He estimated that the amount of money annually leaving New Zealand in payment for motor-cars, petrol, oil, and accessories, was over £8.000.000.