This is a second-hand hardcover book.

Condition: The dust jacket has heavy fading, light discolouring, heavy creasing and wear to the edges, several small tears, and 1 long tear (3cm). There is light browning to the edges of the compressed pages. The rest of the book has no faults.

The dimensions: 160 x 250 mm. Pages: 136 Publisher: John McIndoe Ltd Publication date: 1979 first edition

Carapace: The Motor Car in New Zealand A Roadside View By M.H. Holcroft

Scarcely anybody now asks if motor cars are really necessary, but a few people still manage to live without owning or driving them. Monte Holcroft admits that this apartness can be a form of second-class citizenship. But he is not sure that a first-class life (or what is taken to be one in our mobile society) is worth having.

Holcroft now looks at New Zealand in what he sees as the climax of the motoring age. He studies its effects: the overbearing presence of vehicles, the economic consequences of universal car-ownership, the takeover of roads and land, the erosion of beaches and countryside, the loosening of family life and its social consequences, and changes in the New Zealand character.

He writes as an essayist. His wider theme is life in New Zealand in the 20th century, and he brings to it the qualities of thought and style which have given him a separate and special place in New Zealand writing.

The growth of motoring has been recorded by cameras, and full use was made of photographic archives to illustrate the text. Earlier photographs have the charm of vintage years, and the selection as a whole has a strong documentary interest.

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