Motor Vehicles in Australasia.
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The value of motor traction as compared with horse-drawn vehicles is being increasingly realized in the rural districts of Victoria, Australia 2 with the result that motorvans and lorries are being more largely employed by country storekeepers, butter factories, fruit growers and others.
For the, fruit grower it is essential that the fruit for export should be handled as little as possible when being conveyed to the wharf, and, therefore, it is proposed in Northern Tasmania to form a syndicate to place a number of 5-ton motor lorries on the road for next season's fruit trade. It is considered that a great saving will be effected in transport, as the fruit can be placed in one handling on the railway, on an overseas boat at Launceston or the nearby wharfs at Beauty Point.
The operation of a fast electric train service from Melbourne to the outer suburbs is inducing syndicates to establish motor services between the nearest station and the more remote settlements which are not served by a railway. With this object in view, a motor trust is being formed in Melbourne to operate a fast service to the south-east of the city.
A peculiarity in Sydney is that taxicabs are the only form of petrol traction which has not been able to hold its own against the horse. On December 31st there were only 409 taxis plying for hire in the city, as against 415 at the end of the, preceding year. On the other hand, the motorbus has almost entirely supplanted the cumbrous horse vehicle. There are 180 motorbuses plying in Sydney.
A new vehicle for hire, which has made its appearance in Dunedin,. New Zealand, takes the form of a motorcycle with a high, square saloon body in place of the usual sidecar. The body seats two, and is equipped with luggage grid on the roof and box carrier at the rear.