Tahiti's Mysterious Motor
p. 44 · Read in the full issue
Lorries
From Our Own Correspondent AN unsolved mystery is represented by the errands and destinations of the multitude of empty lorries which pass and re-pass along every highway and byway of Papeete. Whence came they? How did they get here in such numbers?
In this little community, the sum represented by the motor vehicles assembled here is of an astonishing magnitude.
This has happened in a colony based on a copra economy, and during a period of intense world depression. Not one of these lorries has been bought on the deferred-payment plan.
The rationing of petrol has confined our swarm of passenger motor cars to the garages- of their owners. There appears to be, however, no limit to the supply of petrol available for lorries.
The whole problem is so far beyond this writer’s understanding that he sought the counsel of some of our learned experts in local economics. They have, in every case (after a startled look and careful computations on desk-pads), confessed that this is not a quest, but an expedi tion into Stygian darkness. The puzzle remains.