From Our Australian Correspondent.
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All efforts to save the Melbourne General Motorbus Co. have failed. The assets were put up for public auction, including the buses themselves,. some of the latter were ignominiously hauled off to be converted into lorries, whilst others could not even raise an offer. Two chars-h-banes fetched a fair price, but offers for the rest ranged about .2100. It is no use writing about what might have been ; after the company has done far more damage to commercial motoring in Australia than good, the best thing to do is to bury it decently, and try to forget about it.
In discussing heavy traffic with visitors, comment is frequently made respecting the marked difference in _ the number of commercial vehicles in use in Melbourne and Sydney. That it is marked is indisputable ; in fact, the latter city probably has some 12 machines to one in the former. One asks why is it? Sydney has narrow streets—the worst roads in Australia, which is saying a lot ; there are water-gaps, which have to he crossed in ferries at heavy expense ; and lastly heavy gradients. Melbourne has broad streets, the best surfaces, and no hills • further, there are more towns within motor range of Melbourne than of Sydney. The Post Office, for instance, buys its stores for all the capitals through Melbourne ; yet there are mare and heavier motors used over the same distance in Sydney than in Melbourne. The Harbour Trust and City Council employ quite a number of lorries, and the former has run them for several years on steel tires ; yet, in Melbourne, the port authorities, with far more reason owing to the greater distances, employs none, and the City Council, I believe, two against 12 in Sydney. Adelaide employs a, large number of 2-3-ton lorries in connection with its own little Covent Garden market, but Melbourne, with greater distances and easier roads, employs none. And so the matter might be carried out till further notice. On the outbreak of war, when commercial vehicles were seized right and left, more were taken in Melbourne than anywhere, and it is an open secret that most of the owners were not sorry to get rid of them so favourably, and that they do not seek to replace them.
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The object of these remarks is to emphasize the fact that a big untapped field for the commercial-vehicle trade lies ready to hand in Melbourne. Why it is so is difficult to state, but, as the field undoubtedly exists, the fault lies obviously with either the sellers or buyers, that it is not filled. Has the Victorian motor trade failed to treat the commercial vehicle seriously or intelligently ? Or have buyers as a class failed either to grasp the potentialities of the motor wagon or purchased unsuitable vehicles? In either case, the remedy undoubtedly lies with manufacturers wishing to capture the market. They must send representatives and demonstration wagons to work up the connection. Who pays does not matter; the agent would doubtless be glad enough to do so, if he could get business. Anyhow, in. Victoria lies a sleeping maid awaiting some bold knight to waken her! Any manufacturers desiring to get in touch with useful agents might communicate their wishes to me, and I will endeavour to plxace ther in toych with live agents.
Held up recently by a bad-thunderstorm, I filled in my time by studying the advertisement pages of the "Australian Motorist," and got to comparing the advertisement pages emanating from British and American firms. Some, I thought it worth while to cut out, and send to the Editor. of Tire COMMERCIAL MOTOR with a fele comments where they could doubtless be inspected on application. Generally speaking, American advertisers see to it that their announcements have local value. They alse name their local agents at length, and nearly all refer to their "factory representatives." Of the British advertisers, only two mention their local agents at all: the others expect would-be buyers to write to their London depot or factory, which means that the particular announcement is sheer waste of money. One manufacturer states with joy that his Victorian agency is situated in the Whitechapel of Melbourne. One can well imagine residents Of Park Lane proceeding to Petticoat Lane or the back of Shoredach station to inspect a new type of motorcar I Yet they are expected by ELF
'British manufacturer to do so in Melbourne.
During the last few days, I have sought a few individual opinions from prominent men as to the prospects for the British manufacturers of motorcars in Australia after the war, and their pessimism was quite disheartening. I have carefully refrained from discussing the matter with Colonials against whom stay-at-homes might be inclined to level the criticism of prejudice. The people include the British Trade Commissioner, appointed by the British Board of Trade, who has just returned from a trip home ; an Irishman who is general manager for a large British allied trade, and who was Sent here from Birmingham; and an Englishman, the general manager for another British allied trade, who came here from. London. Summarized, their opinions are that" the British manufacturer has killed or murdered his Australian trade, and that to recover it—if that be now possible—he will have radically to alter -his methods, and to take a lesson from his American competitors.
In conclusion, let me instance one concrete case that has come to my knowledge. It happened within the last fortnight. An 'agent in Melbourne for a British car, with which be hoped to do considerable business, found that every one sold developed a small defect which—in manufacture—might be easily remedied. He consequently wrote to England, giving chapter and verse, and at the same time communicated with the agents in the other Australian Stites and New Zealand. In due coufse these gentlemen reported exactly similar defects, and hoped that they would be remedied. The reply from the manufacturer, received a few weeks ago only, was to the effect that they did not get such complaints in England; and that judging by the sales the agent had made it was not very serious in his territory. When this letter arrived, a sale of three of these ears had just been effected to a wellknown Melbourne house. A week later all three cars developed this defect and were thrown back on the hands of the agent. To save his own good name, he has supplied gratis three American cars, and he intends to "turn up" this British agency altogether. It is a scandalous thing, and the unfortunate part of it is that there is not a single 'British car manufacturer trading in Australia who will not indirectly suffer for the act of an impertinent and ignorant individual. The only body which can stop it is the S.M,M.T. Members who prostitute the good name of the British motor manufacturer abroad can and should be expelled, until foreign and colonial buyers learn that membership of the S.M.M,T. is a hall-mark for straightforward and honourable dealing.