SURPLUS MOTOR VEHICLES.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 March 1919, Page 5

SURPLUS MOTOR VEHICLES.

DOMINION MUST BUY FROM MANUFACTURERS. (From Our Own Correspondent) Wellington, March 10. Brigadier-Ceneral C ~s Richardson, in a letter to the Minister fcr Defence, mentions he has been informed that the iv;i!;,-r,; of motor lorries and cars used by the army have arranged to have the vehicles returned to t'lem on demobilisation. "If this is true.'' he says, "tli» New Zealand Government will require to and not from the War Office" This 'nforniati'in was supplied by the general in reply to a suggestion made to the New Zealand Government by member? of Parliament last session and forwarded by th.j Government to the New Zealand Headquarters in England, that steps should be tak»n to secure, for local bodies in this country some of the motor lorries that have been used by the armies in the field. It was considered that these lorries would be particularly suitable for use in the Dominion and that probably they would be sold cheap when the armies were demobilised

"he arrangements mentioned by Henoral Richardson does not. seem to have" heVn made llio subject of an official announcement in the TTnitcfl Kingdom, but information that, lias reached trad'? circle* in this country confirms the report. The manufacturers, it appenn, have been rriven an undertaking that the. Imperial Government will not throw upon the open market the thousands of motor veliio'ei that have been acquired for army purposes during the last four years. If this were done, the market would bj dislocated, pr-ces would fal\ ;irr! nmniifiie.riirprs would find themselves deprived of their normal order;, fur a,long lime to pome Tn order to gunrd against this, the surr.lns vehif'es will be returned to th« mani'fact.vireri. who will be Ml to make their own arrangements for thci>- dispi'.tnl. It is otrite nosoible that New Zealand will still be able to make a" ndvantflgcntif, dcel wit l, simie nf these iiinrnfr,ctiircrs-

A simiN-y rirrangemen' lies been di--ci'~c.l in (!,■•■ Uniled Slates. "To soil what trneks come back at auction in the .-'> en m-irk?*..' - -iivs ■'Tile Commercial Vehicle." "would (brow the commercial v.nt.ir h-""'.; nnv'-'et i'l'o a 'tale of clinos which wonld take several yea' 1 ? • t ,\ ~v ,v,. r „,.... ■ n, r - nf the Riiogc?tions made in the United Suites is J ,h-it the ".,.■,.,..-.„.>,.( o i.rnM nso „,finv „f the returned motoi'-lnrvics in a big scheme of I-.....1 ,M,"-fvi>(i(.n under direct Government supervision.