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Commercial Motor Markets in Australia.

26th July 1917, Page 15
26th July 1917
Page 15
Page 15, 26th July 1917 — Commercial Motor Markets in Australia.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

By Our Australian Correspondent.

Slowly but surely indications are growing throughout Australia that must make for a big extension of Motor transport in the future. -The heavy loss ineurred by all the railways in the Commonwealth is leading the public to ask why it should be; and the conviction is now being borne in on people that the answer is "roads."

At the New South Wales St-ate elections held recently every candidate was invited to give a written pledge to support a vigorous road policy, and when the next Victorian elections 'come round candidates will be similarly treated. A Royal Commission is at present sitting in Victoria to inquire into the enormous losses on the Victorian railways, and as I write I find the chairman of the Standing Committeeon railways stating that attention should be turned to the settlement of land near existing lines. That is, of course, merely a Parliamentary way of saying "build roads." The Road Users Association, too, has been invited to express its views to the Commission on the same subject, and is preparing to show five ways in which road construction affects railway revenue. The recommendation made is summarized to include tearing up rails on ghastly financial failures and 'making roads in their place. If beauty spots are well worth advertising to attract tourists, they are worth road communication to the nearest railway. Many miles of railway through arable land without a single road means that produce cannot be marketed, and suggests an obvious remedy ; whilst developmental railways many miles into the bush without roads show the same lack of intelligence. Lastly, road extension beyond railhead is far more valuable than an extension of a. railway, which is usually absolutely unjustifiable. The public begins to see this. I al/IF-convinced that the era of indiscriminate railway construction has ceased, and that it will he followed by one of well-planned road construction. In a country stiell as this of vast areas, it means that the usefulness of the commercial motor is unlimited with good roads, and after the war this fact will become as quickly realized as it has been in America. The commercial motor is, without doubt, going to be the .determining factor as to whether people will remain on the land or seek life in the cities, and whether ..kustmlia, is going to maintain herself as one of the producing countries of the world.

This brings one back to the old question : "What are British mant faeturers preparing to do in regard to the Australian market /" There are indications that not all intend to proceed with the old pre-war 'slowness. Quite recently, I was talking to an Australian representative of one of the biggest British manufacturers, and in the course of cdnversation he told me that it was now over 12 months since he had received an insulting letter from his principals, whereas formerly he got several in reply to any suggestion he ventured to make. This gentleman is himself an Englishman from the Midlands.

The B.S.A. Co. I am told, have decided Oil specialization, in order bo meet American competition.

These traders are only two out ef many who have shown some indication of what they propose to do after the war, and I have on the tip of my tongue a number of leading names in the commercial-motor world who have not only shown no signs of awakening, but continue in their former wicked ways.

want to see every British commercial-vehicle manufacturer whose name is a household word in England in the same position here, and I am thoroughly convinced that, if manufacturers elect to treat this and other colonial markets seriously, they can all do a big and satisfactory business. Australia's efforts at manufacturing are, of course, well known, but it is inconceivable that in the next 15 years there can be any serious local competition in the direction of motor manufacturing. The total population does not amount to 5,000,000.

After a recent visit to other States, I am convineed that the field in Australia with the richest possibilities, at the moment, for the sale of commercial vehicles, is Victoria. It has been sadly neglected in the past, and aioa State it has the second largest population and the greateSt density of population per eq. mile of any. Any manufacturer rwho is disposed to run a selling campaign for six or 12 months in Victoria wo-uld'do well to establish his permanent centre in Melbourne, and campaign branches in Geelong, Ballarat, Bendige, and either Warragul, Traralgon or Sale to cover Gipps12uad. In that way he would be able to get into touch with the people that buy, and be able, at relatively small cost, to demonstrate in the districts where they live.

Personally, I divide Victoria into four districts: the western district, which is dairying; the central dig-, trict, which.is agricultural ; the northern, which is wheat-growing' and Gippslaud, which is dairying. That leaves out the extreme north-west, in which Mul dura is situated. For those four districts I have named a centre in the same order, and in each of the two dairying districts alone there is plenty of room for hundreds of motor lorries. Let the British manufacturers wake up and see that their lorries get into those districts.

All the, other States lend themselves to similar treatment, although perhaps not all so simply. The first esse.ntial is that manufacturers should themselves take an interest in this work, and not leave it to people or firms whose sole interest is to pick up_commissions.


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