"N.Z. ROADS GOOD"

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 275, 10 February 1928, Page 13

"N.Z. ROADS GOOD"

CONDITIONS EXAGGERATED MR. MORRIS DELIGHTED (.From Our Resident Reporter.') WELLINGTON, Thursday. “New Zealand roads are much better than I expected to find them,” declared Mr. W. R. Morris, Britain’s leading motor manufacturer, in a special interview. “We hear so much about Dominion conditions in the Old Country, and things tend to get exaggerated, but considering the age of the country the roads are remarkable for the time you have had in which to make them.” Mr. Morris said he was delighted with New Zealand, and he wished he were staying here longer. “We feel just as much at home here as we do in pngland,” he said. “We have had a delightful tour round the North Island, and the scenery is wonderful. “We have travelled over as good a variety of New Zealand roads as we could possibly pick in order to get some idea of the conditions. While some of the roads are very bad, some are wonderful, and the highways of Taranaki are as good as any in England. TRACKING AND CLEARANCE “Since leaving Auckland last week,” said Mr. Morris, “I ha/ve driven my 15.9 car the whole way, and have covered 1,400 miles over all conditions of roads, some of them the worst we could find, in order to get a knowledge of the roads and be better able to cater for the needs of the public. “I am of the opinion that half the talk we hear about wide track and high clearance is American propaganda, for I have not found one solitary road where wide track would have been necessary, although 1 was using a wide-track car. “The worst road we could find gave us a clear space of four inches between the under-carriage and the top of the loose metal when the wheels were in the ruts. We did not find one place where the small Morris car would not have gone equally as well with its narrower track. We are making cars with standard tracks, but we are confident that the small car with the narrow track is a better proportioned job. and is well up to any of the requirements of country. ‘The argument that a big-powered engine is necessary is absurd, and people are beginning to realise the advantages of the small high efficiency engine in point of durability, economy and speed.” Mr. Morris said he was surprised at the number of service cars he passed on the roads. They were unknown in England, where buses and motorcoached did tire cross-country work. The roads of New Zealand seemed singularly empty of traffic, however, compared with British roads. “Britain has set out to get overseas markets, which should be hers by right, and she means to get at least her full share. Britain is sound to the core industrially, and her labour market is probably even in a better position than New Zealand’s, while there is no workman in the world to compare with the British workman. “Britain,” said Mr. Morris, “is the best customer of the Dominions, and through most of our great factories all over the country we have displays of Empire produce in the workers’ canteens, and we encourage our people in every way possible to buy Empire goods. It is up to the Dominions to buy Brtish manufactures in return.”

(By special arrangement Reuter’s World Service, in addition to other special sources of information, is used in the compilation of the overseas intelligence published In this issue, and all rights therein in Australia and New Zealand are reserved.)