This is a postcard showing a motor car on the left and a man on a bullock cart next to it on the right. The motor car as a means of transport was first introduced to Singapore in 1896 with the arrival of an automobile for Charles Burton Buckley. Buckley was the owner of the Singapore Free Press and authored a book on the history of Singapore, entitled ‘An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore’. The ownership and use of motor cars grew exponentially and gradually replaced the use of the horse and carriage by the 1930s. The bullock cart was typically used to ferry goods from the river banks and godowns into town. Though an inefficient and sometimes unreliable mode of transport, it nonetheless played a crucial role in the transportation system of early colonial Singapore before the advent of motorization.
