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Show SOUTH AFRICA SEEKING CARS 1 . Ample Market for Automobiles Automo-biles Sh6wn By Federal Report WASHINGTON', July 1 American 'automobile manufacturers would do well to cultivate the South Africa mar-jket, mar-jket, according to information con-jveyed con-jveyed to Secretary of Commerce Her-j Her-j bert Hoover bv Perry J Stevenson, trade commissioner at Johannesburg. 1 That there are more car owners in j proportion to population In South Af-I Af-I rlca than In .my of the countries .f j Europe Is ne of the surprising statements state-ments In the trade commissioner's report. re-port. "During i:i20. enprclally when Imports Im-ports were running Into large figure. fears were often expressed thnt the I market was dangerously near tho sut- uratlon p'oInt,and that future sales 1 would consist only of replacements," I saye tne report. "Investigation how. eer. reveals n wide margin hetween the present number of cars and inn potential market for automotive I products. I "Statistics show that during the 5 years. 1917-1921. the t'nlon of South I Africa (comprising th Transvaal. Or.'ingc free state. Cope olonv and NtiMli Imported 24.266 motor cars. Making allowances for cars re-ox-ported and those held In bond. It appears ap-pears that the motor trade in the past five years has sdd on tho average 4,536 passenger curs, 375 chassis and 135 trucks a Brand total of 6.046 motor cars per yenr. Uelylng on these 1 HffUrta and on the 1920 census, when there were 25.0S4 cars In tho union, it Is estimated that there nre now approximately ap-proximately BS.OOO motor cars in operation. oper-ation. "Un the basis of white population," the report continues, 'this makes South Africa the largest car market per capita in the world, outside of tho t'nlted States, Canada and New Zealand. Zea-land. One in evary fifty white people owns a car In South Africa, as compared com-pared with on In ninety-six In Great Britain, one In 152 In France, one In 230 in Belgium, one In 1.060 In the , Dutch Knst Indies, or. in slxty-olght in Australia .m.i i.ne m rorty-two In New Zealand. 'Local fiirmers are becoming more land more progressive and. "re adopting adopt-ing labor-savin? devices of all kinds , As the cost of labor rises and the suppiy becomes less abundant, tho 1 tendency toward use of cars and trucks will steadily Increase. "In addition to the potential buyers on farms there are In the cities somo .42.500 possible purchasers of motor cars, with salaries ranging from 4u0 pounds to 1000 pounds per year. Furthermore, Fur-thermore, a large percentage of the 1 7.000 motorcycle owners In htc union may graduully enter Into the car owning class. Outside of this. It Is estimated that the Increase In population, pop-ulation, amounting to 11.6 per cent in thme 1911-1921 period, will add In the next year another 35000 motorists to the present number. This appears the more probable as the hlfrh commissioner com-missioner for South ATrlca In lxmdun reports that most of the present Immigrants Im-migrants are well supplied with capital. cap-ital. The Aplastic population of 164,-000 164,-000 also Includes a number of motorists, motor-ists, hut any estimate based on their potential buying power Is, for the present, ni'ir.. .1. Li, than commercial. commer-cial. "Price is one of the Important factors fac-tors favorable to the marketing of American cars nnd that advantage should not be dissipated." |