25 YEARS OLD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 June 1938, Page 7

25 YEARS OLD

MOTOR GARAGE PROGRESS. LOCAL FIRM'S HISTORY. On May 1, 1913. when motor-cars were a rather expensive luxury, a new garage opened in Masterton. Full of enthusiasm and with unbounded faith in the possibilities of motor transport, Mr H. J. Jones, in partnership with Mi’ F. G. Holloway, commenced trading in the premises situated on what is now the corner of Chapel and Jackson streets. Motor-cars then were primitive mechanical contraptions, but the two young engineers tackled their problems with energy. The Morris and Fiat agencies were soon gained and thus marked the beginning of a long and pleasant association with the nat-ionally-known firm of Dominion Motors Ltd. Two and a-half years later, the present garage in Lincoln Road was built and business operations were shifted to the new premises. The next development was the building of a new showroom fronting Lincoln Road. This was done in 1924 and in 1928. when the future of the business was fully assured, the firm was incorporated as a limited liability company, H. J. Jones and Co. Ltd. In 1932, Mr Jones purchased Mr

Holloway’s interests and since then the firm has been wholly a family one with the father and three sons as the principal executives. Mr Jones points with considerable pride to the fact that his firm sold the first Morris car in the Wairarapa. Even today he has a 1913 Morris Cowley still in running order and in recent pictures illustrating the latest addition to the premises, this old trusty holds an honoured place. In 1920, he acquired the Hudson agency. Born in Masterton, Mr Jones is proud of the development of this district, and the way in which he has been supported by local people. On a business trip to England in 1934, when he visited the Morris factories in Cowley, the Morris engineering works in Oxford, and the Wolseley works in Birmingham, he spread considerable propaganda concerning the district and found that motor executives in England were keenly alive to the increasing value of the New Zealand market, not the least unit of which is the Wairarapa.*