A DECADE OF THE MOTOR CAR

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10069, 15 June 1910, Page 4

A DECADE OF THE MOTOR CAR

Marvellous is a fitting epithet to . describe the progress of the motor > car within the last ten years. In that comparatively brief interval road locomotion has undergone a radical alteration in character, such as none of the select band of motoring en thusiasls of ten years ago could ever have dreamed of. Who, for instance, in 1900, could have imagined that ten years later there would actually be more motor cars than horse-drawn •vehicles in the chief streets or London, or that a speed of two miles a minute would have been achieved, making the automobile the undisputed speed champion of the world? Lord Montagu, who is a recognised authority among automobilists, contributes to 'lhe Times a succinct : retrospect of what has been done by motorists in the past decade. To- ! day, not only animal traction, but railed traction, is seriously chal- . lenged by the new method of loco- ; motion, a method that at first, like all great innovations, was greeted i with incredulous and good humour--3 ej contempt on the part of > the public. Ten years ago , automobilism was laughed at as an 3 exciting but dangerous pastime, and t one confined to a few ami possibly f crack-brained members of thewealthy 7 classes. However, it haa passed f through the various stages until it . has been almost accepted as pait and & parcel cf everyday life. In 19C0 e there were less than 1000 motor cars - in Great Britain, whereas to-day e 180,000 ' motor vehicles- are regise tered there. What may be the cona dition of affairs in 1920 it is imposs - lble to predict, but it seems as M t fresh triumphs are in store fjr the i- ali-conquenng motor.