Automobiles

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 248, 28 August 1902, Page 4

Automobiles

The day of the motor-car see us io be rapidly approaching. Its tdvooafcea tell us that tha rivolulion worked by railways is a sraill ;hing compared with the revolution to be produced by the motor-car. Mr Balfour, himself an enthusiastic motorist, predicted a few months ago that the new means of locomotion would solve the housing problem by opening up the country to the town dweller. Certainly it promises to revive the roads in England to a far greater extent than the bicycle ha 3 done. A good indication of what may be expected in the future comes from France, where certain bankers have begun to send motor-cars round through the country districts to collect the savings of peasants who have few opportunities of going to the towns. These cars are really travelling banks, being in charge of cashier and clerk, and containing safe?, writing materials, and bank ledgers. They have not advanced so far in England, but even there, as a London paper points out, " the motor-cars collect vegetables and fruit and bring them to the London market. Doctors go their rounds in motors, the stores deliver goods in motors, the municipality waters the road by motors, and the ■ respectable citizen is talking airily of taking the family for the summer holidays direct to the seaside by means of a motoi omnibus to save time, temper, and cash, all of which are expended freely by the old system of cabs, suburban train, main line, and another cab at the other end, with the worry of luggage at every change." The average " respectable citizen," however, is not likely to get beyond the stage of airily talking about a family motor-car until the price of motors comes clown considerably. It may be cheaper even now to keep a motor-car than a carriage and pair, but only a minority can "afford to pay £IBO for such a luxury, and that is stated to be the ' cheapest pi ice. at which' a new motor-car can be obtained. A'ith tr further improvements in the ■ mechanism may come a cheapening in price, and then, and not before, we may look forward to N the " boom " so confidently predicted.