User:Johnragla/sandbox

Hamilton Water
1989 HAMILTON CITY COUNCIL

WAIORA TERRACE WATER TREATMENT STATION

WATER SOURCE
The source of Hamilton's water supply is the Waikato River. The minimum river flow through Hamilton (controlled by Electricorp) is around 11,000 Ml/day. The present peak daily demand of around 70 Ml/day represents less than 0.7% of this flow.

The quality of the Waikato River is variable due to changing turbidity and algal content. Chemically the water is soft and neutral.

i) Intake, and Low Lift Pump Station

Water flows into the river intake pipes through coarse grills that prevent the entry of logs and other large debris. Band screens with a 10mm mesh remove leaves and twigs prior to the water entering the base of the low lift pump station well. From here the water is pumped to constant head tanks leading to the sedimentation tanks.

ii) Sedimentation

Two chemicals are added to the raw water during this phase. Liquid Alum (aluminium sulphate) is injected at the low lift pump station. The doseage depends largely on the turbidity and the algal content of the river water but is usually 20 to 25 parts per million (ppm); A polyelectrolyte (Magnafloc LT 22S) is added in the constant head tanks prior to the sedimentation tanks at 0.04 to .15 ppm. Both these chemicals are coagulants. That is, they alter the electrostatic characteristics of particulates in the water causing them to be attracted together to form larger, and hence more readily removed particles.

The alum is added at the low lift pump station to ensure thorough chemical mixing prior to the water reaching the sed. tanks. Polyelectrolytes are not new but improvements in this synthetic chemical have greatly increased the flow capacity of sed. tanks.

Water flows under gravity through the remainder of the treatment process. The raw water with the coagulant chemicals added flows into the base of the sed. Tanks. From here it flows upwards through a “blanket” of supended particles. Here a process known as fluculation takes place. Particle mixing causes contact which encourages particles to physically or chemically combine to form particle sizes that readily settle out under gravity. The blanket formed in the sed. tanks is in effect a suspension of particles such that the upward velocity of water through the tank matches the downward settling velocity of the particles. The top surface of the blanket is usually clearly visible with clear water above flowing up and over into the tank trays.

The blanket rises to a point where it overflows Into corner pockets, settles, and is bled off as a sludge to waste. The thicker sludge blanket at the base of the sedimentation tank is also bled off periodically.

The top level of the blanket also depends on the upwards velocity of the water passing through the tank. The whole process of flow rate, bleed rates, and chemical dosing must be carefully and continuously monitored and controlled.

iii) Filtration

The settled water flows from the sed. tank trays to the filters known as “Rapid Gravity Sand Filters". The head of water in the filter tank over the sand filter forces the water through the sand. However the physical sieving action is not the primary filtering process taking place. Most of the suspended particles have been removed by the sedimentation process. Filtering is a “polishing off" of settled water. The sand granules become coated in coagulant carried over from the sedimentation tanks. The passages for water through the sand filter causes particles to “bump into" the coated sand grains. Physical and chemical trapping of suspended particles takes place similar to the sedimentation process.

In fact a filter with new 'clean' sand will not function fully until it is 'conditioned“ by a coagulant coating.

Eventually the filters become clogged and must be cleared. This is achieved by draining the water out the filter tank, forcing compressed air up through the sand bed to break it up, and then back washing with clean water. This process does not (nor is it intended to) completely remove the coating off all the sand granules.

iv) Final Chemical Treatment

The filtered water has three chemicals added to it before entering a baffled mixing chamber (to ensure thorough mixing of these chemicals) and finally flowing into the clear water storage reservoirs.

Chlorine is added at around 0.6 to 0.7 ppm to achieve a final kill of any remaining bacteria. The chlorine dose is aimed to achieve a detectable residual (under 0.1 ppm) at the extremities of the supply area. The residual is around 0.3 ppm as it leaves the station.

About 10 to 12 ppm of lime is added to neutralise the treated water which has been made slightly acidic by the alum coagulant.

The third chemical added here is fluoride for the reduction of tooth decay. The river water has 0.2 to 0.4 ppm fluoride which is increased to around 1ppm through the station.

QUALITY CONTROL
The water quality is monitored at all stages of the treatment process from the river water to random sampling of tap water around the city. Both bacteriological and chemical tests are carried out. Independant random tests are also carried out by the Health Department.

There are stringent rules governing the quality of public water supplies. Many of the tests carried out are recorded and sent on to the Health Department. A five yearly survey of all public water supplies In New Zealand is carried out by the Health Department. This is based on both the quality of the water and the quality control used to detect any anomalies that may arise due to changes in raw water quality, equipment failure and so on. Hamilton City has always received the top possible grading in both categories.

PUMPS

The Hamilton Water Treatment Station is really a combined treatment and pumping station. In many other situations there is either no pump station (the supply being completely under gravity), or there are separate pump and treatment stations.

All water used in Hamilton has been pumped at least twice. Once from the low lift pump station at river level to the sedimentation tanks, and again from the clear water storage tanks to the city reticulation through the high lift pump station. To supply specific areas or to meet peak demands from reservoirs water is pumped a third time through local boosters.

This may sound like an expensive process, and indeed the Water Treatment Station power bill is around $310,000 per year (1988/89). However other centres fed by gravity supplies such as Auckland, have huge costs for catchment areas to collect water, dams to form raw water reservoirs, and many kilometres of large pipes to bring the water from the catchment area, to the treatment station and on to the City.

Hamilton is fortunate to have a virtually unlimited supply of raw water running through its centre.

PUMPING
The stability of the sedimentation tank sludge blankets can easily be disturbed by flow rate changes. It is not possible to treat water “on demand”. Generally the low lift pumps, which govern the flow of water through the treatment process, are set to around the average expected daily demands.

The high lift pump station on the other hand must meet the city's varying demands and hence is continually changing. Differences between the low lift and high lift pump station flows are buffered by the on site clear water storage reservoirs.

The reservoirs around the city also serve as a buffer for varying demands. During low demand periods, the reservoirs are filled. Unfortunately most of the reservoirs are “drowned”. During peak demand periods, when water is required both from the Water Treatment Station and from reservoirs, pumps must be switched on at the reservoirs to pump water out.

Quarterly power charges at the Water Treatment Station are based almost equally on the amount of power used, and the maximum power demand in any 30 minute period. Judgement is continually made as to the most economic pump operation. Even when there is reserve pumping capacity at the treatment plant, it may be more economical to pump out of a reservoir than to switch on an extra CG pump at the station.

CAPACITY

The Water Treatment Station was designed for an initial capacity of 65 Ml/day. Chemical improvements, modifications to the sedimentation tank hydraulics, and changes to filter grading material have increased the capacity of the treatment side of the station.

Modifications within the city reticulation to provide a single head system, has increased the pumping capacity. (More importantly this increased the flexibility and reliability of the supply).

The plant can now cope with around 90 Ml/day. The addition of four more filters in the future will give the plant a capacity of around 100 Ml/day, 67% higher than the initial design capacity.

COSTS
The Water Treatment Statlon costs around $1,085,000 per year to run (1989 prices) which can be roughly broken down as follows:

Salaries and Wages	                                       $345,000 Building, Ground & Equipment Maintenance	$226,000 Power	                                                       $310,000 Chemicals	                                                       $204,000

DEMAND
At present, the average daily demand is around 39Ml/day (14,390 Ml/year) ranging from around 23 Ml/day in winter to 70 Ml/day in summer peaks.

FUTURE

The present Water Treatment Station site when fully utilised has a capacity in excess of 200 Ml/day. Assuming demand characteristics will not alter dramatically, this will serve a population well in excess of 200,000. Population growth rates indicate that Hamilton's population will be around 110,000 by the year 2000. The present site is capable of servicing Hamilton well into the 21st century if present trends continue.

In 1902 a poll of ratepayers approved borrowing £5,000 to set up a water supply. In 1903 80 properties in Victoria, Anglesea, Collingwood, Clarence and Selkirk streets were supplied with water, through 3.2km of pipes, and by 1908 nearly all of Hamilton West had piped water, extended to Frankton in 1912 and Claudelands in 1912. By 1919, when the population exceeded 8,000, a 75ft high water tower had been built to give extra pressure, mainly for the Fire Brigade whose station opened in 1917. A treatment works was built in 1923, using candy filters and supplying water at 75psi.

The Water Tower is the most conspicuous landmark in the district (being 75 ft. from its base and 150 ft. above the level of Victoria Street) situated on the heights of Lake Road and surrounded by a group of artistic-looking residences. Apart from being available in emergency for fire-fighting purposes, it is not used as a supply station; for since Frankton came into the Borough boundary both centres are supplied from the adjacent reservoirs, which together have a capacity of 444,000 gallons.

Beyond being “a thing of beauty, albeit it not a joy for ever,” it affords a splendid pinnacle from which (on Sundays, for the small charge of sixpence) a commanding panorama of the surrounding country may be obtained. Those who have seen it, say it is past description. On the one hand Lake Rotorua spreads its peaceful waters at your feet, with the hamlet-like settlement of the Waikato Hospital buildings in the distance; on the other, Frankton Junction with all its signs of building extension and commercial activity; whilst to the East a wonderful bird's-eye view of the main portion of Hamilton with its background of residential districts may be seen — to say nothing of the charming landscapes stretching away as far as sight can reach. In fact on a clear day even the snow-crowned peaks of Ruapehu are visible mingling With, the azure of the Southern skies.

The illustration shows the Water Tower from the end of Ward Street. On the left is the High School sports-ground; a little to the right is Seddon Park; whllst about half-a-mile further on is the famous Rugby Park, where representative matches are played.

Sewage
CH2M Beca was responsible for investigating, designing and building the 1976 Pukete Road waste water treatment plant (WWTP). This primary treatment plant had an innovative disinfection system, using sodium hypo-chlorite produced through the electrolysis of brine. Discharge was to the Waikato River through a multi-port outfall physically modelled by Beca and the Canterbury Engineering School.

CH2M Beca maintained the historical link with Hamilton when we were commissioned to carry out the concept and detailed design of a secondary treatment upgrade for the 130,000 PE plant in 1998. New discharge consents required seasonal nitrogen removal, better BOD and suspended solids removal and a higher level of disinfection with a change from chlorination to UV treatment.

To meet council budget constraints and to recognise the relatively short 9-year term of the new consent, the upgrade was a staged process. The design included new inlet fine screens, interstage pumping, secondary activated sludge treatment, circular clarifiers, UV disinfection, sludge thickening, thermo/mesophilic digestion and dewatering. CH2M Beca also developed a long-term masterplan for the site for locations of future expansion and upgraded process units. It allows for expanding the new denitrifying activated sludge process with an additional parallel train and ultimately providing additional tertiary treatment.

CH2M Beca’s design incorporated several groundbreaking features, providing improved efficiency and value to Hamilton City Council. This included acid/gas phased digestion - an Australasian innovation that provided greater process efficiency with reduced process retention times. A second innovation was installing blended digester biogas and natural gas 1.5MW cogeneration units, a first for New Zealand. With these units, the WWTP was able to meet process heating requirements, site power demand and export excess power to the grid.

Due to difficult ground conditions, large diameter flat bottomed circular clarifiers with suction scrapers are used.

Hamilton in 1919
Blest by a kindly climate and endowed with all manner of natural advantages, the progress and development of Hamilton during the decade that is now passing away puzzled and astonished the whole Dominion for a time. But when the eyes of all people were opened to the immense, scarcely imaginable possibilities of the vast and wonderful fertile Waikato district, for which Hamilton is the natural centre of distribution and exchange, the puzzle shifted from ""How did this progress begin?"—for that answer is obvious—to "Where will it end?" And the end is not yet in sight, for the town has spread till it embraces miles or the Waikato River's course, and takes in over three thousand acres along its banks. THE MEETING OF THE WAYS. When formed into a borough 42 years ago Hamilton held only a few hundreds of inhabitants, and until the the present century, it was slow to develop. By 1912 it had already taken in the old township of Kirikiriroa, on the east bank of the river, and that suburb now goes by the name of Hamilton East, but in this year the town drew more and more life-blood from the developing lands about it. and it spread further down the east bank of the river, drawing in the district known locally as ""Claudelands." because a great farm there was owned by a Mr. Claude. As the development of the district went on apace, Hamilton became a centre that grew greater and greater with an amazing speed- The old Waikato, whose ancient Maori name even indicated magnificence and lordliness among the rivers, flowed past its gates, and was joined at Ngaruawahia, only a few miles away, by the Waipa, the great tributary that runs up into the heart of the south-western districts. The Main Trunk railway had tapped the whole region, and so Hamilton became practically the junction of all the main river, road and rail ways through the Waikato district. Two years and a few months ago the town grew larger still. Its development to the west brought it right up to Frankton, where the railways meet, and the larger town soon enveloped and passed beyond the smaller, taking in the borough of Frankton, which is now part of Hamilton. HAMILTON TO-DAY. To-day this town, that will one day become a great city, covers more than 3500 acres, has a ratable value (unimproved) of over £1,232,000, and makes an ideal home for a population that already exceeds 8,000. The town is lit by both gas and electricity, each of which is a municipal enterprise. The electricity is generated at Frankton. where the power station has continually developed till now the plant is well loaded, and increased plant and equipment will soon be necessary. The gas plant was opened by a private company, but the council took it over some years ago. The water supply for the city is pumped from the river, and a tall tower has been built to give extra pressure, principally for fire-fighting purposes. The Fire Brigade here is right up to date, with a motor-engine housed in a concrete building. The hospital, too, is a credit to the town, situated on an ideal elevated site and with plenty of accommodation and equipment.

Expansion
In the twelve months ended last March, when building operations in Auckland were almost at stagnation point, permits were issued for 109 buildings, estimated to cost over £62,000. To-day there are dozens of houses in course of erection in different parts of the borough, and those who knew declare that the extent of these building operations is hindered, not by the will and the money, but by lack of timber and labour. They declare, too, that at the present moment still 200 more new houses are needed to meet the demand. During the past four years a great number of beautiful buildings have been put up along the principal streets of this town, and the visitor may inspect displays of merchandise in great, commodious and quite up-to-date business premises, besides seeing suites of business offices, banks, cathedrals, churches, theatres and halls that are constructed on modem plans, and are of beautiful architectural design. Not so long ago the real business centre of the place was down by the traffic brjdge across the river, where the post office, municipal chambers, and the old Town Hall are, but the tendency is now for this business heart to shift up Victoria Street towards the railway station, and up in this direction there are several beautiful modern business places now nearing completion. The greatest of these is the new home for the Farmers' Co-operative Auctioneering Company, whose new premises are costing £20,000, while the present headquarters in Ward Street, which had become too small for the growing business, are to be transformed into a suite of modern offices. This company has an eye to the future, and has but lately completed the purchase of three sections on the main street adjoining the new a premises at a price, including the buildings on them, of £90 a foot, and almost next door is the section that has been acquired as a site for the offices of the new dairy amalgamation, while directly across the road a building site has lately changed hands at £40 a foot. A garage, to cost £6,000, is to be built next door to this section, and at least three other big improvement schemes in the business quarter are on foot. In addition to this, the word has lately passed round that in the heart of the business quarter a block a with two-storey brick buildings has been sold at the astonishing figure of £246 a foot. Nor are educational developments lacking, for the council has given an acre section upon which a fine new technical school is now well under way. Besides this technical school there is already a fine high school and three primaries, one in Hamilton, one in Frankton, and one at Kirikiriroa, while plans have been made for two more on selected sites at Whitiora and across the river on the border of Claudelands.

Beautification Society
In 1912 £2,000 was given by the Borough Council to develop the natural attractions of the fast-growing town. The Ferry Bank with gardens, paths, and lawns was set out by the traffic bridge. Years ago, Mr. Phillip Snowden could scarcely find enough words of praise for the beauty of the river, and General Pau, of the French Mission, was inspired by the same feelings. Somewhere near the middle of the main street there is also Garden Place, a turfy reserve with shady bowers, and there are also the recreation grounds called Seddon Park, and Steele Park across the river. But by far the most popular of the resorts for both pleasure and relaxation is "The Lake", a sheet of water covering 140 acres, with a sand beach for bathing, a pretty reserve on its banks, and a drive of perhaps a third of a mile. There is at present some talk of the council buying up adjacent property, and completing this drive right round the water.

BRIDGES
There is only one bridge available for stock and general traffic and that is at the upper end of the town, nearly three-quarters of a mile from the station. The railway bridge has a footbridge for pedestrians attached, but this is obviously of no use for other forms of traffic, and one result is that if people from Rototuna, Horsham Downs, or down the river, wish to come into Hamilton they have to travel several miles up the stream before they can cross with their carts or cars. Another consequence is that stock coming to the sales have often to be driven in a great loop and through the heart of Hamilton. But another bridge just below the railway span, somewhere about Whitiora, has been something in the nature of a vague project for several years. . . The one traffic bridge has also to avail for stock going to the Farmers' Freezing Works at Horotiu, 6 miles down the river, but a bridge has already been surveyed down there, and the loan of something like £8,000 for its construction has actually been authorised.

Flax mills
John Moon ran a flax mill on the Mangakino Stream, just upstream from the concrete bridge on the main road after 1866. James La Trobe, born in 1863 farmed the land now owned by Silcocks, and ran a flax mill.

Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1049, 15 March 1879, Page 4

''FOR SALE or LEASE at Raglan, a 700-Acre Farm within half-a-mile of the harbor, consisting of 400 Acres Fern and the rest Bush good House of Ten Rooms, Yards, Outhouses, Orchard, Garden, &c. The Property is bounded on one side by the Raglan and Waipa Road, and is well suited for a House of Accommodation. A Flax Mill, in good working order, on the premises, with abundance of raw material. apply to the owner, Mr John McDonald, Glencoe.''

Wallis Brothers' 'Wakatere' towed barges of flax to Okete Falls mill

Education
The exact date on which a school first opened in the Te Uku district is unknown, as the Auckland Education Board's records prior to 1873 were accidentally burnt many years ago.

An 1874 Immigrant cottage was moved from Raglan wharf as a teacher's residence in 1877 for £34. In 1878 11 acres adjacent to the school was reservated for school purposes by the Waste Lands Board. In 1882 a petition requested the school be moved to a higher position at Te Uku, away from the hollow, surrounded by swamp, but nothing happened. In 1889 9 acres, being part of the land under consideration in 1878, was added to the school. From 24 August 1903 the name changed to Te Uku. In 1906 the main Raglan Hamilton road was diverted through the school grounds. In August 1908 a new school, with one room 20ft 6in. x 14ft 6in. and porch was completed for £220 on 2 acres donated by Mr A. G. Husband. The old property was sold for £44. Inadvertently, an acre of Church land was fenced in with the school and was used by the children until sold for a post office and store in 1923. A second 20ft x 21ft 6in. classroom, costing £480, was opened in July 1935. In 1941 a 5-room teacher's house was built for £1438 and £250 spent on septic tank drainage. The laying of a concrete playing area in 1948 provided wet weather playing facilities. This has since been sealed and is the present netball court. The football paddock was leased from Lustys in 1951 and eased playground overcrowding. In 1953 Auckland Education Board was split and S. Auckland Education Board took over. In 1954 it was graded a 3 teacher school, J. Vandy being appointed in 1955. In May 1954 a prefab was erected. A new lavatory block was erected in 1957. In 1958 14 feet was added to the senior room. In 1957 the school again dropped to a 2 teacher school. In 1965 the old prefab, which now sits in Sutton's paddock, went to Waitetuna School to make room for the Aramiro School building. This was shifted down and attached to the existing school to provide a second permanent classroom and staffroom. The original schoolroom was sold to Hartstones for £52. It can now be seen from the Main Road, standing on the skyline of their property. 1969 saw the closing of the Ohautira Maori School and its consolidation on Te Uku School. A new toilet block was attached to the school in 1973. In 1974 a new front path was laid, a new tool shed and pebble garden constructed. At the school house a new garage was built, also a wood and coal shed was erected.

About 1933 the teacher and the committee agreed that the children would benefit from swimming instruction. A suitable pool was located in a stream that flowed through George Silcock's property. A dam was constructed with timber bought by the school committee. Two 4 x 4's about 10-12 feet long were placed across the stream between the clay banks and 9x1 planks were set vertically. A draining shoot was left at the bottom and the whole face was lined with bags of soil. The pool thus formed would have been 22 yards long and 3 to 5 feet deep. The pool was drained 2 or 3 times a year to flush away the silt. At the end of each swimming season, all the timber was removed and stored under the school. In 1944 it was proposed at a householders' meeting, that a pool be built at the school. It was suggested again in 1952, and successive school committees investigated ways and means until in 1961 work began. The whole district worked hard on this project, raising funds and providing labour. On Nov. the 3rd, 1961, the children had their first swim and the pool was officially declared open by Mr Hally Burton Johnstone, M.P., on the 16th of Dec., 1961. The final cost of the pool was £1585.

Vandalism
Tam Galbraith, Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport, in a written answer, said repairing vandalism on British Railways trains and property in 1963 cost about £150,000, £50,000 of it in Scotland. Damage to rolling stock accounted for about £95,000, £30,000 of it in Scotland. British Railways estimate the total cost of vandalism—including the expense of preventive action, loss of business and other consequential effects—could well be of the order of £500,000 a year. The Railways launched a big anti-vandalism campaign in February 1964.

Upper Riccarton to Sockburn

new rolling stock
Table 35. Rolling stock acquisitions, 1954–62 * Includes 1,767 shunting locomotives, bIncludes 2 gas turbine locomotives. Source: B.T.C., R. & A. 1954-62.

Declining traffic
p.617 Table 2 declining share of total

Beeching and other closures
p.641 Table 1. Full and part closures, June 1963–December 1973

Train speeds
The table below shows the average speeds of the fastest trains (left) and average of all trains (right)

Charles E. Lee
Charles Edward Lee M.A., F.C.I.T. (1901–1983) was a railway historian. His assiduous, methodical working is evidenced in the records held. He was a significant contributor of papers at meetings of the Newcomen Society and for forty years was on the editorial staff of Transport (1910) Ltd. (Tothill Press) and from 1941 was Assistant to the Managing Director representing the firm on various Councils and Associations. Journals served included The Railway Engineer, Marine Engineer, The Railway Magazine and The Railway Gazette. Michael Robbins contributed a biographical sketch in the Oxford Companion which noted that he was always formal in manners and dress and was a churchwarden of St Pancras Church. Also his articles and books "set a new standard of careful analysis". Charles Lee died in December 1983. Elected to CIT membership in 1940, he served on Council and on the Publications Committee for many years. He was President from 1959 to 1961 and afterwards continued to serve on Council as a Past-President until 1976. He was a Railway Gazette journalist and moved from there to be joint editor of sister publication, The Railway Magazine, in 1939. He was later a director of the Tothill Press group of transport industry journals. To those who knew him his precise and accurate manner, always courteous, and his sartorial appearance with the black jacket and wing collar of the senior journalists of an older day, will remain a happy memory. He was always ready and willing to share his profound knowledge of transport history and matters of printing and copyright with others to their great benefit. The first of his many contributions to Transactions was made, before he was a member, in the Session of 1932–33 and his last was in the 1972–73 Session. These papers are: In addition to these papers, Charles Lee gave the Sixth Dickinson Memorial Lecture, Railway Engineering: its Impact on Civilisation, in 1964, which appeared in Vol 36. He was also a very prominent member of the Railway Club and the Railway and Canal Historical Society and was, at different times, President of each of these bodies. As well as these society activities, he was the author of the series of historical booklets on travel in London which were issued by London Transport, Apart from his transport interest, he was actively associated with St. Pancras Church, where he was churchwarden from 1948 to 1960 and wrote histories of both the building and the parish. He lost his wife, who was also a long standing member, in May 1982.
 * Centenary of the London Motor Omnibus .. -- -- -- Vol 13
 * Early Railways in Surrey .. -- -- -- -- -- -- Vol 21
 * The World’s Oldest Railway: Three Hundred Years of Coal Conveyance to the Tyne Staiths -- -- -- -- ... Vol 25
 * Tyneside Tramroads of Northumberland .. -- -- -- Vol 26
 * Adrian Stephens: Inventor of the Steam Whistle .. -- -- Vol 27
 * Note on Clerks of the Surrey Iron Railway and the Croydon, Merstham and Godstone Railway .. -- -- -- -- Vol 27
 * Rise and Decline of the Steam-Driven Omnibus -- -- -- Vol 27
 * Early Industry and Transport in East Yorkshire .. -- -- Vol 32
 * Some Railway Facts and Fallacies (Presidential address) -- Vol 33
 * The State Industry and Transport in North West Wales. -- Vol 34
 * The Haytor Granite Tramroad .. -- -- -- -- -- Vol 35
 * The Easingwold Railway .. -- -- -- -- -- -- Vol 40
 * The Tower Subway: the First Tube Tunnel in the World -- Vol 43
 * The Pneumatic Despatch Company’s Railways . . .. -- Vol 45

Publications

 * The Bakerloo Line
 * The Northern Line
 * The District Line
 * The Central Line
 * The Metropolitan Line
 * The Piccadilly Line
 * Early Motor Bus
 * The East London Line and the Thames Tunnel
 * Narrow-Gauge Railways in North Wales
 * Metropolitan District Railway
 * The Welsh Highland Railway
 * The Penrhyn Railway
 * Swansea and Mumbles Railway
 * The Horse Bus as a Vehicle
 * Fifty Years of the Hampstead Tube
 * The Railway Magazine. Vol. 99. 1953
 * The pioneer underground railway
 * Workmen's fares : survey of the provision of cheap daily conveyance…
 * St. Pancras church and parish
 * The Blue Riband: The Romance of the Atlantic Ferry
 * Early Railways in Surrey, the Surrey Iron Railway and its continuation the…
 * The evolution of railways
 * Passenger Class Distinctions

John Aiton Kay
IT is with deep regret that we have to record the death, on Friday, July 8th, following an operation, of Mr. John Aiton Kay, the editor of our esteemed contemporary, The Railway Gazette. Mr. Kay, who was 67 years of age, received his education at Mill Hill School, and quite early in life showed an aptitude for technical journalism. In 1896 he joined the editorial staff of George Newnes, Ltd., and was given charge of the model engineering section of the boys' paper, The Captain. In 1902 he was appointed assistant editor of the weekly paper, Transport, and in 1904 that paper was reorganised under American auspices under the title of The Transport and Railroad Gazette. At that time the journal was owned by the Railway Age of America. Mr. Kay quickly realised, however, the advantages which would accrue to the railways of Great Britain, if the journal was British-owned. He went to the United States in 1910, and acquired for British interests the journal published in Britain, which in 1905, had been changed in name to The Railway Gazette. On his return, the company, Transport (1910), Ltd., was formed, and Mr. Kay was appointed its managing director and secretary. He became chairman and managing director in 1931, and continued to hold these positions until September, 1945, when the control of the company passed to Odhams Press, Ltd., and he became deputy-chairman and managing director. Under Mr. Kay's editorship, the Railway Gazette prospered, and The Railway Magazine was added to the many journals and directories now published by the Tothill Street Group, among which we may mention The Crown Colonist, with the founding of which Mr. Kay was closely associated. Throughout his long and successful career Mr. Kay maintained a keen interest in all railway matters, both at home and abroad. With his increased responsibilities he retained the editorship of The Railway Gazette. His genial personality and friendship won for him a very large circle of acquaintances and friends among officers on the railways, and principals in the railway industries. Just before his illness and operation he had returned from a visit to the Rhaetian Railway in Switzerland. His death is a severe loss to his firm and to the many friends who knew him.

Barraute-Beattyville-Chibougamau-St Felicien-Chambord railway
Canadian National Railway branches to open up copper, zinc, gold and cobalt deposits. Barraute-Beattyville existing 39 mi branch extended by Beattyville-Chibougamau 161 mi branch built Nov 1954-Nov 1957 3 passenger trains a week. Bell River (Quebec) bridge has 2 x 196 ft through girder spans on 30 ft piers crossing the 200 ft wide river just above Kiask Falls Rapids. Chibougamau River bridge has 3 x 100 ft spans and 2 bridges over Opamica Lake of 90 ft + 2 x 45 ft spans and a 200 ft + 2 x 45 ft spans. (Beattyville-Chibougamau)-St Felicien 133 mi was started in Sep 1955 and planned for opening in 1958. Ruling gradient 1 in 80. Cran River Ravine bridge has 2 x 196 ft spans on a 96 ft pier. Salmon River bridge has 2 x 100 ft spans. 12 other bridges have spans of 196 ft, 2 x 75 ft, 2 x 100 ft and others with 90 ft spans.

Wylam Waggonway
The Wylam Waggonway was built around 1748 to a five foot gauge, and was used to transport coal from Wylam to Lemington for shipment down the River Tyne. Originally the coal wagons were pulled by horses along the wooden rails. In 1808 the wooden rails were replaced with iron rails. During the period of the the Napoleonic Wars (1799 - 1815), when demand for coal was high,  Mr Christopher Blackett, the owner of Wylam Colliery, wanted to improving the transport of coal. In 1812 he asked his Colliery Manager, William Hedley, to build a locomotive. Hedley produced a prototype which went into operation in 1813. By 1815 Hedley's steam engines were established on the Waggonway pulling eight wagons as against the single wagon originally pulled by a horse. Durham University: Pictures in Print John Gibson 1788 map showing waggonways in Wylam area The wooden wagonway was relaid with cast-iron plates in 1808

ASLEF
Train drivers are now amongst the highest-paid associate professional (as defined by UK government) workers in the UK, with the average salary in 2009 being about £40,000 (passenger) and £33,000 (freight) for a basic 35-hour week &amp;ndash; usually worked on a four-day rostering system averaging 8 hours and 45 minutes each day. By 2015 qualified drivers could earn from £35,000 to over £60,000 a year, when the average transport sector income was £27,017. By comparison a top rate driver's pay in 1958 was £11 9s a week (£12,400 pa at 2014 prices), but there was an extra hour's pay for each 15 miles above 140 miles a day and extra pay for overtime, overnight stays, night pay and Sunday pay. The 1958 workforce was, but by 2011operating staff were down to 5,500 475,000 were employed in 1962 p. 252 p. 531 Table 64 1962 trainmen 16.20 p. 463 under 229,000 staff by 1974 In 1962 conciliation grades average earnings were £14.85 a week (average adult male earnings were 15.20), £14,750 at 2014 prices. £11.70-13 1960 basic driver rates  p. 276 Table 35 Modernisation Plan rolling stock 1954-62

Maindy
Woodville Road Halt & Maindy Halt closed 15 Sep 1958 between Cardiff Queen St. and Llandaff (for Whitchurch) were Woodville Road Halt & Maindy Halt. 'Up' auto trains stopped at Woodville Road on the 'up' journey only and then reversed at Maindy Halt returning to Queen St and Bute Road

Raglan County Council History
In January, 1877, the chairman, Councillor William Wallis, suggested that one of the unoccupied immigrant cottages in the township be placed at the disposal of the council for use as an office. Whether or not the suggestion was taken up, by 1879, the premises in use as council chambers had to be enlarged to house the expanding business of local government and, by 1888 meetings were being held alternately between the township and Whatawhata. As the council chambers were not continually in use the council decided to let them for public purposes. At 5s. a week (increased to 10s. after July) the Raglan School Committee became its first recorded lessee in 1882. In April 1881 Mr G. Horsey was appointed and the 40 pupils were taught in the Council room of the Raglan Highways Board. In 1883 a one room and porch building, costing £224 was erected by Jim Pearce in Stewart Street. By the end of Nov., 1890, the county clerk conducted his business at home, while councillors discussed affairs in diverse places around the township. Meetings were teetotal — in 1899 the chairman, Councillor R. C. Mathias, was empowered to hire a place "OUTSIDE OF A PUBLIC HOUSE" for future meetings. It was decided, a year later, to move the office to the more central settlement of Ngaruawahia. The office at Raglan, valued at £20, was to be handed over to the harbour board once suitable accommodation had been found. On 28 November, 1900, application was made to buy land belonging to Mr P. Aubrey, north of the Waipa Bridge approach, and its purchase was approved eight months later. A thirty-two by twenty-foot building with a six by eight lean-to was erected on the property next to the Ngaruawahia Methodist Church. The clerk undertook to insure the new office furniture for £150, and was responsible for refurbishing the new rooms. Besides buying tables, chairs, a tablecloth, a lamp, coat hooks, fenders and two grates for the interior, he arranged for the section to be fenced. Councillors did not lose all touch with Raglan township; for many years after the move to Ngaruawahia, at least 1 meeting out of 12 was held in their former headquarters. Motives for this were probably not entirely official, as the councillors always found the time to indulge in a little fishing or sightseeing excursion during their stay. In 1901, a coach load of council members arrived in the township early, to complete business before embarking on a hapuku excursion to Gannet Island. Routine council business was conducted in the tiny building for 7 years, after which time, the anomaly of administering county affairs from outside its boundary grating a little on loyal minds, the council sold the office for £227 10s. cash. With the proceeds they proposed to erect larger offices on the Raglan side of the Waipa Bridge, and a Raglan contractor, Mr W. J. Smith, was accepted for the job, estimated to cost £600. Enough money was left to buy a new typewriter for £30. The old one was traded in for £14. Additions to the offices were authorised nearly 30 years later. At the time, the chairman, Councillor H. W. Wilson, said they were very necessary as. the existing buildings were quite inadequate. After the Second World War, the "poor administration building with its obsolete set up" initiated much discussion. A local builder submitted plans and estimates for general improvements but, in 1955, most councillors felt that "existing conditions warrant a [new] office in keeping with our activities and high total expenditure." On 27 May, 1961, a new 7500-square-foot council building, costing £40,000, in the main street of Ngaruawahia, was officially opened by the Minister of Works, Mr Stanley Goosman. Made of Huntly brick, the building houses sixteen rooms exclusive of kitchen, toilet facilities and a storeroom, and features an unusual entrance — a series of engraved Belgian red glass panels depicting fanning, industrial and educational activities in the county. Full mechanisation followed. A cash register, greatly alleviating the workload in 1967, was supplemented in the following year by the delivery of an NCR computronic accounting machine for which a special room was prepared. By 1969, "office mechanisation is complete," wrote the chairman. A fire severely damaged the old county office on 18 November, 1971. The building was in use as a carpet and weaving factory.

Evenwood
was on the South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway closed 14 October 1957 Northern Counties Union railway, 5 miles SW of Bishop-Auckland Powers for the Haggerleases branch were obtained by the Act of 17th May 1824, replacing those granted in the original Act of 1821 for a different line (starting near Norlees House in West Auckland and terminating at Evenwood Lane). The new line was to commence at the northwest end of St. Helens Auckland (renamed in 1878 to West Auckland) at the foot of the south side of the Etherley incline, from where the branch line started up the Gaunless valley. Work commenced on the branch line shortly after the Bill passed through Parliament in 1824, although it was not until 1 October 1830 that the line was opened throughout from St Helen Auckland to its terminus at Hagger Leases Lane, near Butterknowle - about five miles away to the west. The railway followed the course of the River Gaunless and some 400 yards short of the terminus the line crossed the river on a stone bridge built on the skew. This aroused a great deal of interest when it was built: it was predicted that it would not stand long enough to carry traffic. (It did in fact remain in use until 30 September 1963, when the section west of Evenwood Colliery was closed. It still stands, though looking rather sorry for itself! Trains were worked by horses until 1856, although in 1848 the engineer was asked to report on the cost of putting a small locomotive to work. His report stated that this would be too expensive, and the idea was shelved, to be successfully resurrected in 1856, by which time the Haggerleases branch was the last part of the S&DR to be still using horse power. A passenger service commenced running as far as Lands (just to the east of Cockfield Fell) in 1858 and for a short period in 1859 was extended to Haggerleases. From 1 August 1863, therefore, the passenger service from Bishop Auckland to Lands via Shildon was replaced by the direct Bishop Auckland - Barnard Castle service. The stations on the line now served the area previously covered by the Haggerleases branch and the NER provided seven trains each weekday; a feature of the line was the summer Saturday service from Newcastle to Blackpool. Trains called at West Auckland (the station was an oddity as the two platform faces both faced the same way with a wooden footbridge connecting the two), Evenwood and Cockfield (renamed Cockfield Fell on 1 July 1923 by the LNER so as to differentiate between this and the Suffolk station of the same name); the triangular station at Bishop Auckland was constructed in 1864. However, a Saturdays only market train continued between Bishop Auckland and Lands on the Haggerleases branch until 1872. On the opening of the adjacent line to Barnard Castle and beyond, the inhabitants of the valley were served by the new stations at Evenwood and Cockfield (to the west of the Fell) on this new line, and the service on the Haggerleases branch was reduced to market trains on Thursdays and Saturdays until it was withdrawn in 1872. And so the railways hereabouts continued for almost a century. Eventually though, along with any number of other small country stations, Evenwood was closed on 14 October 1957 and Cockfield Fell followed on 15 September 1958. Through passenger services between Bishop Auckland and Barnard Castle were withdrawn by BR from 12 June 1962 and goods, six days later. West Auckland station has now been erased but Evenwood station remains as a private house. Cockfield Fell is still complete although empty and in a bad state of repair. The closure of the Darlington - Barnard Castle - Middleton in Teesdale line to passengers on 30 Novemberr 1964 and to goods from 5 April 1965, destroyed the last remnants of a once busy network west of Darlington. In time, the coal on Cockfield Fell, the original purpose of the Haggerleases branch became exhausted. Low Butterknowle pit closed in 1956, Gordon House Colliery closed in 1961 and Cockfield Drift closed in 1962. With no more passengers and the coal worked out, the remains of the Haggerleases branch (although, from 1899, it had been known as the Butterknowle branch) was closed by BR on 30 September 1963. Bishop Auckland railway station - Barnard Castle railway station
 * 1948 map
 * 1900s photo
 * 1960s photo

Railway electrification plans 1948
THE RAGLAN COUNTY CHRONICLE, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18th 1948 ELECTRIFICATION PLANS NEW ZEALAND RAILWAYS SIXTY YEARS' WORK INVOLVED A 60-year plan for the complete electrification of main railways in New Zealand, at a cost estimated at not less than £109,500,000, is about to be launched, according to reports circulating in London technical circles. Asked in London to comment upon the reports, Mr Fraser neither confirmed nor denied them. He thought that 60 years was rather too extreme an estimate of the period that would be required to electrify all the main lines. However, such a scheme was of the greatest importance to New Zealand's future, he said, and there could be no doubt that if left too long it would become a matter of considerable urgency. The Minister of Works had given much thought to the project, and no doubt had his plans “well advanced." An official of British Insulated Callender's Cables, Ltd., said that no statement could be issued at present. The matter was being discussed "at directorial level” and in the meantime no comment whatsoever could be made. Two Dominion officials, Mr F. W. Aickin (general manager of the New Zealand Railways), and Mr C. A. Mackersey (electrical engineer in the department), are expected to arrive in England within the next two months to discuss the scheme with British experts and try to secure skilled technicians to emigrate to the Dominion to put the plan under way. The projected scheme will use the type of overhead electrification equipment at present being installed on certain London suburban lines, and initially will probably operate on a power supply of 1500 volts. British technicians point out that electric trains of the type New Zealand is considering employing, can be operated on voltages double this figure, giving very high traction power. This is an advantage where much of the traffic will consist of heavy goods trains. The cost of each 24-mile section of electrified line of this type being installed in Britain to-day is about £750.000. Lacking knowledge of labour costs and the costs of certain raw materials which might be obtained in New Zealand, British engineers estimate that the same figure would roughly apply to the New Zealand scheme. South Island Estimate There are 3504 miles of main railway in the Dominion which, presumably, would be electrified under the plan. On the British cost schedule the total cost of New Zealand's 60-year-plan can be estimated as not less than £109,500,000. Of this. £53,500.000 would be required for North Island tracks and £56,000,000 for the South Island. "Third line" electrification is considered unsuitable for New Zealand, as it usually operates only on 600 volts, and is more suitable for lines where the great majority of traffic is purely passenger trains. In addition, it would be almost impossible in a sparsely-populated country like New Zealand, adequately to fence off the tracks along their entire length, and protect the public and straying cattle from accidental death by electric shock.

Auckland-Hamilton-Thames railway
Waikato Times front page advert 24/2/1883, etc – timetable from 6/7/1882 From about 1908 Thames-Auckland express covered 190km in 63/4 hrs, withdrawn 1917-9. 1928 diverted to Tauranga 18/6/28, Taneatua Express 2/9/28 - Auckland 8.35, Paeroa 13,59-14.18, Waihi 15.10-8, Tauranga 17.18-33, Taneatua 20.25. Also connections on Wellington express dep Auckland 7.40 arr Thames 14.15 dep 15.15 arr Auckland 21.35 - worked by 48 seat 20 tons 56’6” 75hp 45mph Sentinel railcar from 1925 to 9/2/29. 1947 passenger coaches taken off mixed trains though formal passenger closure 28/3/51. Then daily goods to 1959. 1946 9.03 left Thames at 10.10 and took 40 min for 17.7 miles to Paeroa with 3 stops. Left 14.49 18min late for Taneatua. Thames gradients.jpg Auckland - Hamilton railway travelling post office 19/5/01-4/9/71. -Thames 22/6/03-18/6/28 - Paeroa -1/10/31. Alfred Price born 1844 and brother George 1845 served apprenticeships at Dudbridge Engineering Works, Rodburgh and came to NZ in 1867. Started foundry at foot of Princess St, Auckland and soon built new factory in Lower Queen St April 1870 demolished November 1957. Built frames and undergear of coaches and trucks. Opened branch at Grahams at Thames 1870 for gold mine, timber mill, flax mill machinery & ships, Wairongamai tramway locomotive 1883, 1/9/94 NZR389 Class Wf £2,800 engine delivered and 9 more to 6/05. 1907-9 built 20 express Ad locos for new Auckland-Wellington line and 30 more from 1910 - total 185. Max speed on Thames branch 45mph passenger 30mph mixed and goods. CTC Hamilton-Morrinsville, electric tablet - Paeroa. Electric tablet removed 1930 Paeroa-Thames 7 tablets in 31km. 1990 sale of Paeroa station to Waikino with end of staffing and track warrant control also 19.05 Morrinsville ex Rotorua * all stops when required to Hamilton 19.50, Frankton 19.54 Auckland 10.56 from 6/5/73 shunting service as required between 6am and 5pm Mon-Fri from Paeroa Sth to Te Aroha-Thames Valley Dairy Co sdg 1m46ch, Paeroa 2m15ch, Hikutaia 7m21ch, Kopu 16m47ch, Campbell Industries Ltd sdg 19m32ch, Thames 19m72ch, Thames N 20m65ch

Venezuela Central Railway
A March 1932 photo showed a 200hp Beardmore diesel electric railcar crossing a viaduct on the line. At the Glasgow Works at Parkhead, the press met G.R. Willans; A.G. Macfarlane, director; R.H. Archer Coulson, manager of the Parkhead Works; John Wharton, diesel engineer and T.S. Henderson, sales manager to see a diesel engine, originally built for submarines, but adapted to work on railways with electric transmission in railcars and illustrated with a railcar on a steep gradient on Venezuela Central Ry.

Hamilton archaeology
Kirikiriroa major pa of Ngati Wairere heavily populated when European missionaries and traders arrived in 1830s now between London & Bryce St. Gully to south was part of riverside fortifications, but filled in 1870s now with eastern Bryce St and Governors Tavern. Below Tavern is cove with landing place. Early missionary reports said 200 lived at Kirikiriroa. Tracks linked it to other pa, eg Victoria St-Waitawhiriwhiri Pa above Fairfield Bridge. To south (immediately n of Claudelands Bridge) Te Puru O Hinemoa (Breath of Hinemoa hot springs) gushed out of riverbank - now used for office heating. Te Toka o Ahurei urupa (Stone of Ahurei burial ground) near Alma St. South of this Garden Place hill removed. Commercial Hotel Collingwood/Victoria St partly built over Hua O Te Atua urupa. Another Ngati Wairere pa, Te Tahuki, was just S of Bridge St  and its waka landing site at Rowing Club. Its Te Korokoro spring was on brewery site.

Ships
The sailing boats or cutters which entered the Raglan Harbour were very small (some being under twenty tons) and were entirely at the mercy of the weather and could not run to a regular timetable. Occasionally the inhabitants went rather short of such articles as flour and tea and sugar, when the boat was long delayed in calling. With the advent of the coastal steamer things improved and a regular service has been run by the Northern S. S. Coy. for many years. These early boats, both sailing and steam, carried many passengers to and fro from Onehunga as well as practically all the goods which came in or out of the district.

Mail coaches
In the early days mails were carried by Maoris on foot and later on horseback. The pack-horse method caused the addresses to be rubbed off newspapers and packages when the mail was bulky. In 1861 the mail service was from Otawhao, now called Te Awamutu. There was also a fortnightly mail service by steamer to and from Onehunga. In 1864 the overland service was twice weekly from Drury. In 1875 it was on horseback from Newcastle (Ngaruawahia). Charles Hamilton was the contractor. In 1876 A.J. Barlow took over. Since 1884 it has been from Hamilton. The frequency was increased to thrice weekly in 1900. Many thanks to the Public Relations Division of the Post Office Headquarters for their help and for information supplied. However in reply to my inquiry they stated, "Because so many early records have been lost or destroyed in major fires in 1867 and 1962, it has been impossible to confirm some of your information." On the 24th Nov. 1875 a mail service from Raglan to Aotea began. J. Ellis was paid £20 a year for delivery of this mail, but received no salary for being Postmaster at Aotea. During 1879, James Bregmen did this run and in 1880 W. McQueen was the contractor. I presume the Te Mata mail would be delivered en route. The Aotea Post Office was then in Ellis' store at Motakotako. When this Post Office was moved 5 miles to Ruapuke it retained the name Aotea. To coincide with the opening of the Post Office in 1914, Allan Gilmour compiled a history of the Post Office and mail services. Allan obtained much of this information from 3 well known pioneers, W.P. Cogswell, J.H. Phillips and James La Trobe. According to this report, the first mails were carried from the Ahuahu Mission Station, south of Kawhia harbour, via Raglan and Port Waikato, to Auckland. Maori contractors did this return trip for £2 10s. This contract ended during the Maori War, when Europeans had to leave the Kawhia area. A service was then started between Raglan and Port Waikato. Andrew T. Barton from Karakariki carried the mail on horseback from Drury, via Ngaruawahia in the late 1860's. Barton was an educated Maori and was at one time Clerk of the Court and interpreter at Hamilton. It was a great step forward in the land route when a punt replaced the canoe service over the Waipa River and still greater when a bridge at Whatawhata was erected. In course of time a road fit for vehicular traffic was made—very dusty in summer and extremely muddy in winter. The riding time for the trip between Raglan and Hamilton was anything from four to seven hours when the same horse was used and the driving or mail service time practically the whole day according to the state of the road. Of course a change of horses was necessary and this was made at the half-way house at Waitetuna. This was kept by the family of Mr. C. Sutton, whose sons Charles, Arthur and Laurie were all associated with the early mail and coaching services from Raglan to Hamilton. A clay road between Raglan and Hamilton was completed in the early 1880's. A bridge across the Waipa was opened for traffic on the 20th April 1881. In 1883, C.R. Johnston of Hamilton started the first coach service to Raglan. This was a weekly service, carrying mails and passengers. The bad roads during the winter were more than Johnston had reckoned with, and I do not think he was in business for long. From the Waikato Times, Feb. 18th, 1883; "Mr B. Edwards has been the first to run a coach between Hamilton and Raglan. He started on Wednesday at 10.30 with a fair complement of passengers, and arrived at his destination before 5 p.m., returning next day. He reports the road very good. We hope soon to see the mail subsidy on this line granted only on condition that a coach should run during the summer months." I think that B. Edwards must have been the driver for C.R. Johnston's coach. From the early 1890's Charles Sutton and his sons — Laurie, Charles and Arthur were proprietors of coaches between Raglan and Hamilton. Laurie Sutton became a legend in his own lifetime, and many tales are told of hair-raising excursions over the hill to Hamilton. When fresh horses were required, Laurie would stop the coach, disappear into the tea tree and return with one or 2 fresh horses — hopefully some that had previously been broken in to work. If they had not, a few miles of pulling the coach up the muddy Old Mountain Road would soon tame them. Waikato Times, Volume XLV, Issue 3638, 26 October 1895, Page 6 Messrs Sutton Bros., announce that they will commence to run their coaches for the summer season between Raglan and Hamilton on the 1st November. The coaches will leave Raglan at 9 a.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays, and Hamilton at 8 a.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays. About 1897 Dalgleish and McDonald successfully tendered for a daily coach service between Raglan and Hamilton. Their drivers were Tibby Moore and Lorney Harwood. I think Suttons must have again won the contract a few years later, as they were running to Hamilton on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and returning with the mail on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. During a period in the first decade of this century an extra mail service was provided by a launch which ran from Raglan to Waingaro Landing, where it met a coach from Ngaruawahia carrying mail and passengers. For a period most of the passengers to and from Raglan were via this route. Eired Carr first told me about this harbour service and several others have since confirmed it, though the Post Office has no records of it. The following is copied from a 1910 Raglan Chronicle: "J.K. Jefferies and Co. have taken over the Raglan — Hamilton coach service and mail carrying contract, which has been conducted for the last 7 years by C.L. Sutton. Mr Sutton is intending to farm a 500 acre section of the Te Akau block." (The Te Akau station was being sub-divided about this time). The steep, narrow and muddy roads necessitated great skill on the driver's part and a good stamp of coach horse. All the men passengers in winter and sometimes the women as well had to walk up the "mountain" to ease the load for the horses. There was one particularly steep hill on the old mountain road known as "Gentle Annie." On arrival at Hamilton passengers were either so dusty or muddy that bath and a change of clothes was necessary before appearing on the street. Other mail contractors who followed the Sutton Brothers were Messrs. Dalgleish, Jeffrey, Aitken and Turpin and N. D. Robertson.

Service cars
Mr. R. Aitken ran the first motor mail service, the vehicle used being a sort of motor-driven buggy rather noisy and slow but always getting there just the same. A trip in the "Chaffcutter" as it was nicknamed was quite a thrill in those days. With the grading and metalling and tar-sealing of the road a fast and luxurious daily mail and passenger service has come into operation and we now get our letters and papers almost as soon as our city cousins, the time for the journey between Raglan and Hamilton now being not much over an hour. CHAPTER 39 Mail Services Bob Aitken followed Jefferies as proprietor of this coach and mail service. About 1915 Bob bought an International Harvester 9 seater coach, which became known as 'Puffing Billy'. 2 long horizontal cylinders below the floor of the coach provided the horse-power. The wagon-like wheels, with a thin strip of rubber for tyres were chain driven from the gearbox. In front of this vehicle were hooks for swingle-trees, where real horse-power could be attached, as was often necessary. This coach did very little mileage, and stood in Aitken's shed for 30 years until it was restored to its former glory by a Hamilton firm, and later joined Giltrap's circus at Rotorua. Bob Aitken, after finding that 'Puffing Billy' was too slow and inefficient, bought a 7 seater car which he ran until 1919, when he had an accident on the deviation. He met a car on the corner by the 14 mile post. He swerved out to avoid it, hit the post and slowly rolled over the edge. It was a long way to the bottom and the car rolled many times, throwing passengers out as it went. Nobody was badly hurt, though some had to spend a while in hospital. After his recovery Bob became a County foreman in this area. Waikato Times - Monday February 10 1919 ACCIDENT ON DEVIATION MOTOR CAR FALLS OVER BANK SEVERAL PEOPLE INJURED A serious accident happened on the Deviation between Hamilton and Raglan this morning, whereby several people were injured. It appears Mr R H Aitken of Waitetuna, who holds the mail contract between Hamilton and Raglan, was bringing a party of eight in his car from Raglan to Hamilton. Upon coming round a sharp bend in the road the car almost collided with another car coming in the opposite direction, and in endeavouring to avoid this, Mr Aitken's car pulled too far to the side and went over the brink, dropping between 50 and 60 feet. The passengers had a miraculous escape from death, though several of them were injured and Aitken and two ladies were brought to the Waikato Hospital by Mr Owen Monckton and were attended to by Br Blundell. The driver was badly bruised and cut on the right arm and is suffering from shock. Mrs West, of Onehunga, fractured her collar bone and is also suffering from abrasions. Mrs Wayte of Remuera is suffering from bruised ribs. Miss Peart of Okete, near Raglan, whose back was injured, was able to return to her home. Miss Pearson and Mr Ernest Pearson were among the passengers. Luckily they were unhurt. The other passengers, who included Mr J W Walsh of Hamilton, were not seriously hurt, but are, of course, suffering considerably from shock. Mr J W Walsh, who was riding in the back seat, said that the car was coming up the deviation on the right-hand side when suddenly a car driven by Mr O S Ellis, who was on his right side, came round a corner. To save a head on collision Aitken swerved his car, but the pace was such that it carried over the bank, and it went down to the bottom of the hill. Mr Walsh remembers the car turning over twice and next found himself lying down with Aitken further down the hill, and the other passengers lying between there and the top of the bank. He thought Aitken was dead and went to his assistance, but on propping him up again lost consciousness, till he found himself on the top of the bank. Mr Walsh considers it a miracle that nobody was killed, as the accident occurred at the worst part of the hill, right at the 14-mile post, which was knocked over by the car. Beyond some bruises and considerable damage to his clothes, Mr Walsh suffered no injuries. Upon inquiry at the hospital this afternoon, we learn that the patients are progressing satisfactorily. CHAPTER 40 Robertsons' Motor Service Noel Douglas Robertson was born in Wanganui and spent the first 30 or more years of his life in this area. He served with the forces in the Boer War. In 1915, with his wife, Eleanor and their 2 children, Olive and Doug, he came to Raglan and settled on the Peninsula in the harbour. In 1916 N.D.R. bought Rutherford's home in Raglan, and the story of Robertsons' Motor Transport begins. The following is from a letter sent to the Transport Department by Mr Robertson in 1946, giving the history of local motor services and mail contracts for the last 30 years. "I started with the Raglan Service in 1917. There was then a coach service on the road and the road was un-metalled. The mail contractor at the time was Bob Aitken, and I worked in with him, helping him with any overloading. He obtained a car and we worked well together. After he and his car-load of passengers went over the bank by the 14 mile post, he offered me his plant, but as coaches and horses were going out of date, I did not buy. Dick Turpin took over Bob Aitken's mail run and we ran in opposition for several years. It was clean opposition. We did not touch each other's passengers and I helped him when his cars were in difficulties. He was a careless man and often left his jack or spare tubes behind. I often found him without a jack and lent him mine, and sometimes pulled him out of the mud when he was stuck. It has always been my policy to help the opposition. One usually gets his passengers in the long run. Turpin asked me to take over the Hamilton-Raglan mail run, as he was heavily in debt. I did this. The Hamilton-Raglan run was then worth £450 a year, plus £50 a year for the Te Mata-Kauroa mail. Turpin used to run via Te Mata on his return run from Hamilton. When I took it over I employed a boy to carry the Te Mata-Kauroa mail to the junction. (Archie Robertson told me that Turpin's assets, which his father bought, were mainly 2 old cars — Hudsons, I think. Mr Robertson dismantled them and rebuilt one good one). We reduced our next tender for the mail contract to £350. As we were the successful tenderer and had the security of the mail and passenger service, we bought 2 16 seater White's. Previously we had been running Hudson cars. These had served us well over the years and had carried mail and passengers over very rough and muddy roads. H. Rogers successfully tendered for the mail in 1929, and he cut the price to £180 per annum. We both ran in opposition for a period but he soon went bankrupt. Another man took over the contract but soon saw there was nothing in it. The driver of the mail car (Fordy Wade) then took over the contract, but a year or so later he was unable to carry on, so I again took over the mail run. I had suffered considerable loss but had managed to keep the service going with one car. After regaining the mail run I was able to buy a new 16-seater and finished this contract in 1935. The mails were again tendered for. The morning or the afternoon mail. (In 1935 Raglan business folk petitioned the Post Office for a morning mail from Hamilton). My tender was £450 for the morning mail and £190 for the afternoon. Bill Bates tendered £180, and was awarded the contract. As he was unable to obtain a passenger licence, he ran this service for 4 months only. We were asked to again take over this run with a small increase in subsidy. As the service was still unprofitable, we appealed to the Authority, and examination of our books showed that the mail service was losing money, and crippling our main passenger service. A further subsidy of £100 was granted, but as costs increased, the Waitomo service had to help pay for the Raglan run. It was uneconomic in those days to run both morning and afternoon services between Raglan and Hamilton. In Dec. 1941, to save fuel and manpower, the Licensing Authority directed that the once daily service be re-introduced — mail arriving in the afternoon. This was the service mainly used by the travelling public. When I originally started, I set out to give Raglan an efficient, reliable service, and they have had it. Under the old Liberal Government, any successful tenderer who was not a contractor, was compelled to buy out the whole of the plant of the contractor. When the Massey Government deleted that clause, mail contracts became open slather and anyone could run opposition to an established business. This caused difficulties, both to those who cut the prices and to those who had been giving an efficient service. We thank the present Government for the fact that they are not calling tenders for the mail services, but it is being done by negotiation." Following are extra details of the Robertson era. I am not sure when N.D.R. took over the mail run from Turpin, but think it would be in 1922. I see that R.T. (Dick) Turpin is still advertising in a 1922 Chronicle as mail and passenger service proprietor. His car leaves Raglan at 7.30 a.m. daily. On the return trip, car leaves Farrell's Garage at 1 p.m. and Frankton at 1.30. Two well known drivers who served Robertsons for many years were Tom White and Maurie (Mac) McKenna. The White family have been part of the town and district for over 60 years. Tom White piloted the Hamilton- Raglan bus during most of the 1920's. Mac McKenna followed him and drove in the 1930's. Mac married a local lass, Mona Cameron. Keith Gray was another popular driver who served in the late 1930's. A lady who served Robertsons in their Raglan office for about 20 years was Miss Milly Smythe — later Mrs Bob Gibbons. She was a sister of Mrs N.D.R., and did a good job as typist, accountant and receptionist, organising and helping to run this business from 1917 until 1936. N.D.R. drove until poor eyesight caused him to give this up. His 2 eldest sons — Doug and Archie spent all their working lives driving for the firm. The 2 youngest sons — Denny and Mick also drove for short periods. Merle (Mrs Archie Robertson) was a popular driver on the rural delivery and Te Hutewai runs in the 1950's and 60's. In Oct. 1924, Robertsons pioneered the Hamilton to Taupo run, via Cambridge, Hora Hora, Atiamuri and Wairakei. On Nov. 11th, 1927 they also commenced a daily service to cater for tourists, between Waitomo and Rotorua, via Kihi Kihi, Pukeatuea, Arapuni and Mamaku. This service was bought by the N.Z. Road Services in 1940. On the 1st Oct. 1950, Robertsons commenced a morning mail service to Raglan, combined with a rural delivery. Leaving Hamilton at 9 a.m. the coach delivered mail and private bags as far as Waitetuna. Then on to Raglan, leaving mail at Te Uku en route. Rural mail was sorted in Raglan and this service travelled to Te Mata via Maungatawhiri, and then through Kauroa, on to Aramiro and back to Raglan via Okete. The outward mail left for Hamilton at 3 p.m. This service, with some extensions and time alterations is still running 1983. Robertsons started a workers' coach service to Hamilton to cater for those who travel to Hamilton to work each day. In 1966, after nearly 50 years of service to the citizens of Raglan town and district, Robertsons' Motor Services was sold to M. Pavlovich and Son. This firm continues the daily 3 coach service, started by Robertsons. 2 well known local drivers who pilot these coaches each day are George Graham and Bobbie Jackson. (see bus 1959 IMG_1040 timetable advert) Pavlovich and Son also bought Brosnan Motors' Raglan — Auckland coach service in 1971. This service, started in 1938 by Harry Holtby, ran from Kawhia to Auckland under the name of Western Highways Motors. Subsequent proprietors were Norman Collett, Ollie Sorenson and Jim Brosnan. The Raglan — Kawhia run was sold to Norman Rankin in 1950, but it was discontinued in 1952. Brosnan Motors continued the Auckland run until it was sold in 1971. Pavlovich and Son discontinued this service in 1976. Brosnan Motors had several local school bus routes which they had been running for many years. These were sold to Stewart Lister in the early 1970's, and today Jim Brosnan is the local taxi proprietor. Chronicle 5/12/2013 article on Myrle Robertson aged 99. New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18833, 7 October 1924, Page 8 RAGLAN MOTOR BY-LAWS EXCESSIVE FEES QUASHED. JUDGE AMENDS PROVISIONS. COST AGAINST THE COUNTY. [by telegraph.-—own correspondent.] HAMILTON. Monday. Reserved judgment has been delivered by Mr. Justice Stringer in the application brought by Noel Douglas Robertson, motor-bus proprietor, of Hamilton, for an order quashing certain portions of bylaw No. 2 of the Raglan County Council, made in March of this year, providing for the licensing of motor vehicles and the payment of specified fees. The motion, His Honor stated, challenged the validity of the following portions of clause 19 of the by-law: "For every motor-car or motor-bus licensed to carry passengers not exceeding five. £5; for the like licensed to carry passengers not exceeding 10, £20; for the like licensed to carry more than 10 passengers, £45." The applicant Robertson had for some years been engaged in plying vehicles for hire over the main Raglan roads from Hamilton to Raglan, involving the traversing of about one mile of road in the Borough of Hamilton, about six miles in the County of Waipa, about 23 miles in the County of Raglan, and about one mile in the town district of Raglan. The by-law in force in the County of Raglan up to September 1—on which date the new by-law came into force—and for some years previously, had prescribed a license fee of £2 10s for every vehicle licensed to carry passengers not exceeding 10: £5 for every vehicle licensed to carry more than 10; and £5 for every motor-car or bus. Robertson had paid these license fees, and claimed that the additional fees imposed by the new bylaw were unreasonable, unequal in their operation, and were a tax upon the use of the roads. Fees to Derive Revenue. It was obvious, and indeed was admitted by Mr. Vallance on behalf of the county, continued His Honor, that these increased fees were imposed for the purpose of deriving revenue from the use of the roads, which in effect was levying a tax for the use of the roads. It was well settled that there must be clear statutory authority for the imposition of such a tax. In His Honor's opinion, section 109 of the Counties Act, 1920, contained no such authority. It certainly did not do so in express terms, and he thought that the proper inference to be drawn from the section and the schedule to which it referred was that the license fees were intended to be no greater than would reasonably compensate the county for the cost of inspecting vehicles, licensing them and supervising their employment in the carriage of passengers and goods. If it was desired to impose fees in the nature of a tax, it was necessary, he thought, to proceed under section 110 of the Act, but in order that by-laws might be made under this section by a county council the authority of the Governor-General by Order-in-Council was required, and admittedly such authority had not been granted in the present case. Fees Fixed in Sum of £5. "I think," concluded His Honor, "that the fees imposed are unreasonably high for the only proper purpose for which they could be imposed, and in pursuance of the power in that behalf contained in the By-laws Act, 1910, I amend clause 19 of the by-law in question by striking out the figures £5, £20, and £45 appearing opposite the last three items thereof, and substituting therefore in respect of each of such items the figures £5. I fix the amended fee at £5 as that was the amount payable under the former by-law, and as I had no evidence before me as to whether or not such fee was in the circumstances fair and reasonable. The applicant is entitled to costs against the County Council, which I fix at £7 7s, and disbursements." Mr. J. F. Strang appeared for the applicant and Mr. Vallance (Auckland) for the respondent county. New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18849, 25 October 1924, Page 8 & 4, 15, 22, 31 October, 3, 6, 7 Nov HAMILTON. A A.R.D. Motor Service, Bryce St.— Robertson, Proprietor.—Taupo service tri-weekly; Raglan service daily. Phone 3255 ARAPUNI, Waitomo Caves, Raglan by the Sea; comfortable service.—Moa Bus Service, Hamilton; phone 1437. New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18864, 12 November 1924, Page 3 & 8 Nov, 8 December 1924, 12 January 1925 ARAPUNI, Waitomo Caves, Raglan by the Sea; comfortable service.—Moa Bus Service, Hamilton; phone 1437. BRYCE Street-Taupo Service tri-weekly; Raglan Service daily. Phone 1255.— Robertson's Motor Service. Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 87, 14 April 1925, Page 5 MOTOR COLLISION. TWO CARS DAMAGED. PASSENGERS ESCAPE UNHURT. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) HAMILTON, this day. A motor collision occurred on tha Raglan deviation during the week-end, a car driven by Alec Hutchinson, of Hamilton, colliding head on with W. G. Robertson's mail coach. The accident happened at a bad corner near the summit. The occupants of both vehicles escaped scathless. Minor damage was sustained by both cars. New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19033, 2 June 1925, Page 10 A DANGEROUS BEND. MOTORS IN COLLISION. THE DRIVERS EXONERATED. [by telegraph.—own correspondent.] HAMILTON. Monday. A motor collision on the Raglan-Hamilton Road on Good Friday had its sequel in the Hamilton Magistrate's Court today, when Noel Douglas Robertson, service garage proprietor, of Hamilton (Mr. Strang), who was the driver of one of the cars concerned, entered a plea of not guilty to a charge of negligent driving. The evidence showed that defendant was coming to Hamilton from the direction of Raglan while a licensed taxi-driver named Hutchison was travelling in the opposite direction. The collision occurred at a bad corner near the summit of the deviation.. Evidence was given by Hutchison to the effect that both cars were travelling at slow speeds. He considered that defendant had done all possible to avoid the accident, which in witness' opinion was due to the narrowness of the road at that point. The bend was so sharp that it prevented the sound of a horn travelling. He did not think a horn could be heard 10ft. on the other side of the bend. Corroborative evidence was given by three passengers in Hutchison's car. Constable Sutton said he interviewed defendant, who said he was travelling on his correct side prior to the impact. He noticed a car approaching, also on its correct side, but- it seemed to swerve slightly in order to get, round the bend. When Mr. Strang commenced to address the Bench the magistrate remarked that the evidence showed that the collision was purely accidental, and dismissed the information. New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19474, 2 November 1926, Page 4 & 5, 12 October HAMILTON TAUPO WAIRAKEI—Leaves Hamilton. Mon. Wed. Sat., 10.30 a.m. Leaves Taupo. Tues. Thurs. 7 a.m. Raglan Daily Service Leave Hamilton. 1.45 p.m Leave Raglan. 7.30 p.m. Te Pahu-Pirongia Leave Hamilton 2.15. Pirongia 8 a.m daily Auckland-New Plymouth-Hamilton Sunday service. Inquiries, Booking. ROBERTSON MOTORS. Hamilton 42. Bryce St. New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19486, 16 November 1926, Page 3, 11 Jan, 3 Feb, 14, 19 Apr, 10, 19, 31 May 1927 HAMILTON, WAIRAKEI,TAUPO. ROBERTSON MOTORS. Leave Hamilton Daily (excepting Fridays). 10.30 a.m. Leave Taupo Daily, (excepting Fridays), 7 a.m.; Sunday, at 9 a.m. Raglan Daily Service: Leave Hamilton at 1.45 p.m. Leave Raglan, 7.30 a.m. Hamilton-Pirongia Service. Daily, leave Hamilton at 2.15 p.m. Leave Pirongia at 8.15 a.m.—lnquiries. Bookings, 42, Bryce Street, Hamilton, Phone 1255. New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20033, 24 August 1928, Page 4 Hamilton Wairakei Taupo. Depart Hamilton 10.30 a.m.. Mon., Wed., Sat.; Taupo, 7 a.m., Tues., Thurs.; Sunday, 9 a.m. Hamilton Raglan Daily Service, 1.45 p.m. Booking Offices: N.Z Govt. Tourist Dept., Thos. Cook & Sons. ROBERTSON MOTORS, Hamilton. Phone 1255. New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20222, 5 April 1929, Page 4, 15 Mar Hamilton Wairakei Taupo. Waitomo Caves Arapuni Wairakei Taupo Service. Rotorua Arapuni Waitomo Caves Hamilton Raglan Daily Service. ROBERTSON MOTORS. 42, Bryce Street, Hamilton. Phone 1255. New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20991, 30 September 1931, Page 8 DWELLING BURNED. OUTBREAK AT RAGLAN. OCCUPANTS' HURRIED ESCAPE. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT] HAMILTON, Tuesday. A nine-roomed house at Raglan on the Hamilton-Raglan Road was totally destroyed by fire early this morning. The occupants, Mr. N. D. Robertson and his family, were awakened by smoke and the noise of falling timbers about 2 a.m., and had to make a hurried escape in their night attire. In the absence of a water supply nothing could be done to save the building, which, with most of its contents, was burned to the ground. The fire is believed to have started in the kitchen. No details of insurances are available. New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21495, 19 May 1933, Page 11 N D Robertson Raglan-Hamilton licence renewed. New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22324, 23 January 1936, Page 15 SERVICE TO RAGLAN PASSENGER LICENCE REFUSED [from our own correspondent] HAMILTON, Wednesday A ruling that a mail service contractor was not necessarily entitled to a passenger licence was given by the Transport Licensing Authority in Hamilton yesterday, when W. H. Bates applied for authority to carry passengers between Hamilton and Raglan. The applicant recently secured the mail contract between the points named, and has a licence to carry mails and goods. He leaves Hamilton at 8 a.m. daily. The former mail contractor, N. D. Robertson, opposed the application. The mail formerly left Hamilton at 2 p.m. daily. Since then Robertson has conducted a twice-daily passenger service, leaving Hamilton at 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. daily. It was contended by the opponents to Bates' application that the district was now well served, and that an additional passenger service was unnecessary, although the application received support from Mr. W. P. Aldridge, chief postmaster at Hamilton. The application was refused. New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23990, 13 June 1941, Page 8 RAGLAN ROAD SERVICE (O.C.) HAMILTON, Thursday An application by Mr. N. D. Robertson to reduce the twice-daily Hamilton-Raglan road service to once a day by eliminating the 8 a.m. car was made to the No. 1 Licensing Authority, Mr. E. J. Phelan, to-day. Mr. Robertson submitted figures indicating that the 8 a.m. service showed an annual loss of £300. The application was strongly opposed by a large number of settlers, who said the elimination of the service would cause great inconvenience, as it was used for the delivery of mail and goods and for the transport of school-children. Decision was reserved. http://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/content-aggregator/getIEs?system=ilsdb&id=1081104 AARD map including gradient profile HISTORY OF ROBERTSON MOTORS FROM 1914 _____AS WRITTEN BY N D ROBERTSON_____ I will try to describe the history of Robertson Motors from 1914 to the present time. How the germ of an idea grew from a chance beginning with incidents and experiences through the old days of mud roads to the bitumen roads. How operation was better at times, how eventually we were brought to our knees but would not give in, getting going again without a break in our service, then the coming of the Transport Act which stabilised Passenger Transport. Chapter 1. THE FIRST HIRE JOB The first car was a 1913 Buick, and a good car too in those days. I happened to be in Draffin garage in Wanganui one day when the local race meeting was being held. Some gentlemen wished to leave after the 6th race to catch the north bound express to Marton, they could not get a taxi to make the connection for them. They looked at my car and said, "what about you doing it for us, if you are not going to the races". They offered a fiver for the 20 mile run with an hour to do it in. We took that job on. Getting away short on time, the road was rough and pot holey and hard going. Everything went well until we got to the town of Marton with the station ¾ of a mile further on and five minutes to spare, when bang goes a back tyre and Mr Brown one of the passengers said, "that’s torn it, we won't get the express". "Grab your bag", I told them "what, you don’t think we're going to run it do you", they asked. "No, but see that Buick standing on the other side of the street, hop into her, I will take the risk, you've got to catch that train", and we got her just as she started to move. They chucked me two quid and ran. "Use that to pay the fine if you get caught for taking the car" they said. I had to do some explaining when I got back to my own car but the chap was pretty decent so I slipped him one of the two quid and we then had a spot just to show that there was no ill feelings. Thats how my first paid job ended, but that trip gave me the idea of going into Motor Service. Chapter 2. Three years later in 1917 saw the need for a better and quicker Transport Service between Hamilton and Raglan. I opened the route by Motor using the old 1915 and one six cylinder Buick. It was hard going in those days, the car never left without two sets of chains and about two pound of split link to repair broken chain. It only needed a shower of rain to turn the clay track into mud. We had operation in the mail service which had been taken over from the old coach service. Well we fought that service in a spirit of friendship but with hard competition and we never forgot to help them out with the loan of pump, jack or spare tube. Sometimes Old Dick Turpin the boss of their operation, would be waiting for us, he had got a puncture and had left his Jack at home. We would let him have ours taking the risk of having to wait for him. Our next addition to the fleet was a light Hudson, then followed two Super Hudsons. This plant was so superior to the mail service plant, that. Old Dick Turpin asked us to buy him out which we did, taking over two old Cadillacs, 1912 vintage. We made one good car out of the two. The two services put into one compelled us to place bigger vehicles. We placed an order for two sixteen seater Whites and a great job they were too. About this time. the old Mail Service Booking office which was a garage, started operation. We thought there was a gold mine in that road. We bought an extra car as soon as our operation started and were able to force him along the route before any passengers were out. Anyway the first week they only got one fare and at the end of six weeks they retired having lost about £150. Then for seven years we held the road undisputed. Out on the coast in the early days of Motor Service the Maori had not been used to riding in cars until we started to give service. On one occasion when a big Tangi was being held about two miles from the township we started to run the Maori home to the pa, but when we got them there they would not get out but paid fares to be taken back just for the ride. Then when we got back to the Transport Depot they again paid the fare to be taken back again. The week of that Tangi we did some business. A young Maori who had just got back from the war full of militarism, ran that Tangi as a Military camp. Nobody could go out without a pass. He had a guard on the gate and a guard room for those who came in drunk. I asked him how he kept them in the guard room. "By golly, I got the good idea", he said "I take all the clothes off them and I have six Maori dogs tied up in there and the fleas keep them quiet all the time, scratching themselves. That the good punishment, better than pack drill." We had a very wild young driver called Keith, he was sent out to get some Maoris. He picked up his passengers and over-estimated his speed on a bad corner with loose metal. Over the bank they went. The Maoris went out in the first turnover, but the driver went with the car for about five more turnovers but came out unhurt. The driver looked up the slope where the Maoris had emptied out. One of them was standing looking at the ground. Keith called out to know if they were all right and the answer came back, "Yes we alright, but by golly when you stand me on my head I loose half a crown out of my pocket and now I can't get a drink when I get to pub." Chapter 3. The deviation over the Hakarimata range used to be a bad piece of road before it was metalled. Corners were sharp and the surface in the summer, if you got rain on it was like an oiled floor and great care had to be taken that you did not go for a skid over the bank. Going through with the service to Raglan one Saturday afternoon, rain coming down in sheets, we just missed one slip that came down behind us. Next morning the whole deviation was blocked up with seventeen slips and washouts. We were unlucky because we had all our plant on the Raglan end. Well we had to get a car over to the Hamilton end, the only other road was the old mountain track. I decided to give it a go with the Model 0 Hudson. It was some heavy going to Donaldsons bridge which we got over not knowing that ail one side of the bridge was washed out and the stringers were resting on the air, anyway it held us until we got over. On the far side of the mountain the road was washed out except for one side where there was soft ground covered with water grass about ten yards across the hard going. Well we had to give it a go to get through. So backing the old Hudson up the incline we had just come down, I let her have full power and hit the soft patch at thirty-five. She tore through to almost a stop as she dragged herself out on the hard ground. Well that car was a sight, festooned with water grass hanging from every wheel cap, shackle bolt, or any place it caught. We did not take it off until we got to Hamilton, it was good advertising. The main road was impassable for over three weeks and we worked cars from both ends. Passengers had to walk about two miles through mud and slips. I remember one lady who had been away in Auckland and came back with new shoes and silk stockings. When the car came to a stop at the slips and everybody was told to walk, this lady looked at her new shoes, "well" she said "I'm not going to ruin these shoes. She sat down on the running board, off came the shoes and stockings, next came her skirt and she pinned her petticoat well up over her knees, then she said "I'm going through bare footed", and she did. I would like to see some of our present day passengers with the same spirit. Another time a slip came down on a Saturday afternoon. On Sunday we made a picnic to clear that slip. We supplied the cars, the hotel proprietor ten gallons of beer, others supplied lunch and away we went. That slip was shifted by nightfall and the service was running on Monday morning. One morning the service cars headed out over the hill and ran into a slip blocking the road. We sent one car back to the road-mans hut for shovels and tools and passengers and drivers got to work. It was hard work and we were getting dry, when a car came in on the other side, a chap going fishing over on the Coast. He was a good sport, he had a five gallon keg of stout in his car, so we appointed him barman and it was wonderful how much better we worked and we had a track through in three hours. Today they sit down and wait for the PWD to do it for them. Another bad place we had was the Kauroa gap between the metal. The road was metal to Kauroa bridge from Raglan leaving a gap of eighty chain to where the metal began again. We had to put passengers out and they had to walk across the paddocks, keeping two passengers for ballast, someone who could stand a rough and tumble inside the car. Then we would get into low gear and keep moving, nothing mattered but to get through. Springs were often broken but that did not worry us. We carried spares and if we did not have one, a piece of wood and a bit of wire from a fence got us home. After the metal was linked things went very much easier. In those days we often put twelve to fifteen passengers on a seven seater Hudson. If the weather was fine the hood would be put down and three of the younger passengers would sit on the hood with their boots off. Then three passengers in the back seat pinning their feet and legs. Four across the dicky chairs and sometimes three in the front with the driver. If more had to be put in one would sit on the bonnet outside the windscreen and others sitting on the side. What with luggage bags, parcels and mailbags, you would think it was a Christmas tree coming along the road. One thing about the people of those days they never growled as long as you got them through and in all the years we have never turned a passenger down or failed to get them through. We held the mail for seven years and alwavs got through only being late twice, once through a sudden flood which the car could not get through but the mails were only delayed an hour. The other time through a broken axle and then with only the loss of an hour. In 1920 we opened a garage depot in Hamilton as the business was growing and we needed a car at that end for overload and it was rapidly increased to two cars. This garage and office was the first Tourist Booking office in Hamilton, joining in the formation of the Aard Motors Services. This proved to be a big mistake and it was not long before we got out of that organisation. Then came the first Railway strike. We got moving on the Hamilton-Auckland road, leaving Hamilton with eight passengers on a seven seater Hudson at two pound ten per passenger. We had a good run up to the City. I had hardly stopped the car by the Old Thames Hotel at Queen Street and Custom Street corner before we were rushed for seats back to Hamilton. We left again next morning carrying five cases benzine, nine passengers and all their luggage. With side bags full and piled up on mudguards, I think as we passed down Queen Street everybody stopped to look at us. I think it was the first service car Queen Street had seen fully loaded, as we were used to loading from rail to the coast. The strike did not last long so we did not get many trips, perhaps just as well as most of the road then was clay and would have very soon cut up to impassable. The next Railway strike came in Easter 1924 but we were ready for that one, between the first strike and the second we had organised connection. The Railway took the people away on their Easter holiday and then went on strike. It was a foolish thing for them to do, to hit the public on holiday. Well our garage in Hamilton became the centre of transport in Hamilton. Mason Motors of Te Kuiti put on services, Hamilton to New Plymouth. C. Johnstone cars worked in conjunction with our connection to Hamilton and Auckland and Hawkes Bay Motors, Rotorua worked in conjunction with our cars. Rotorua - Hamilton. During those ten hectic days very little sleep was got by drivers and staff. Albert Mason the head of Mason Motors drove a twenty seater White, leaving Hamilton at 5 am to Awakino and back, often not getting back to Hamilton until ten or eleven at night. He did this every day for ten days, it was some endurance test. Then he would sit down at the telephone and find out where his other cars on the Taumaranui run were, then a couple of hours sleep and about two a.m. in would come the Auckland Star paper and we would have to start sorting them for the different routes because we had no time as the cars left early. We handled the mails and newspapers. I would like to mention here what a wonderful help the Postal Department was to us in getting our toll calls through without delay. This helped us very much. Through that ten days of hard driving over mud roads not one of the service cars failed to get through to its destination, only once did a car hang up; that was a taxi we had to take on when we had no more plant left. I remember a driver who we took on as a spare driver for the strike, putting all the suitcases upside down as there was too much luggage for the luggage bags. That luggage was outside with the rain and you ought to have heard the remarks the driver got. Things have changed since those days with the nice dust proof luggage compartments. That strike was the birth of all the competition the railways got in later years. First came the Sunday Services when the trains were not running and this gradually got to be a daily service. Our next enterprise was a service to Taupo connect through to Napier. This service was not long before it started to carry its own weight although the roads were bad. It was not long after we started that we got an order from the Tourist Department to transport 42 overseas visitors and I tell you that job made us feel good. It showed that our pioneering was not in vain. We worked up a fair freight service when passengers were few and very rarely did the car go out with out a pay load. When we first started we carried our friends and newspaper reporters to give the appearance that the service was taking on and it worked well. When we started the Taupo service, mobs of wild horses used to roam the Tokoroa plains. Once a blind stallion got separated from the mob that crossed the road in front of the car, next thing we knew was that he was on top of the bonnet of the car, the passengers got a scare but not much damage was done to either horse or car. Another time going through we picked up a Maori lady. I happened to look around and saw her trying to strike matches on the upholstery of the car, "here, cut that out," I told her the next thing she did was to slip out her false teeth, wipe them on her dress and strike the match on them and slipped them back into her mouth. When the NZ Perpetual Forest started planting, the lorrys cut the road to pieces and the road became very hard to work. One Aussie who was the only passenger in the back seat remarked, "I have ridden some buck jumpers in Aussie but by gum that car took some riding". One had to keep going for once you stopped you could not get going again without jacking up and packing with scrub. In winter you could not get through if you did not know the chart of the road, as there was a great many places where you suddenly had to take a sharp turn off the track into what appeared to be dense scrub then out again onto the road further on. Well those were the days when a driver had to use his nut, if he did not then pretty quickly he lost his job. The roads were very dusty in summer and in the open tourers that were used the passengers would be covered with white pumice dust, but how cheerful they used to keep, in dust or mud, and today don’t they growl if the roads are dusty or bad, even though they are travelling in glass cases with all the latest that brains can make for their comfort in travel. We used to stop at the Spar Hotel in Taupo, one morning I was down in the big hot mineral bath and the proprietor of the Hotel was having his morning bath and shave sitting in the hot water up to his arm pits, with the looking glass propped up in front of him having a shave. An American came in and took him for a nut, then he says, “well, well, I guess that the first time I ever saw man sitting in his own shaving pot".              The country has changed on that road. What was fern and scrub has been planted out with trees by the NZ Perpetual Forest Co., but I still think that the old fern and scrub with their changing colours from the different light was more scenic. The road is fast becoming a tar sealed road, where we used to plug along at 15 and twenty miles an hour 40 to 50 is being done Well we kept the Taupo Service going until 1928 when we withdrew our service owing to competition of the Hawkes Bay and Aard Services. Both came on the road against us breaking our connection from Napier and Rotorua. It was hard to give in but it was costing too much to fight a two to one fight, anyway we had the satisfaction of knowing that they both lost money on it, and with improvement of roads and faster service the pioneer in Motor Services very rarely got much benefit out of it. In 1926 the NZ Herald made a faster get away for the paper, getting them to Frankton to catch all the slow trains. Leaving about 7am these trains used to carry the Star evening paper, so the Star put on a Motor Service through to Rotorua by night and we did the job. That was in June and the roads were bad. The first trip we did was Frankton Junction, Rotorua, Te Puke Tauranga and back over the Kaimai hills getting the paper off the night express at 10.30 pm. We started out the first night in a very hard frost and all the bad muddy roads were frozen hard and we had no trouble until we started back. From Tauranga over the Kaimai Hills, it took us about five hours to get up to the top, getting stuck in the mud several times. After that we only went as far as Rofcorua but when the weather broke the road became nothing but a sea of mud and to punch a car through sixty miles of mud through the night was some job. We never started out on this job without timber jacks, backing timber, spade and slasher and two sets of chains. We could not work the present road over the Mamaku Hill we had to come via the Atiamuri route, some nights not only having to fight mud but heavy fog and this made driving through mud holes and ruts very hard. Some nights in driving rain and wind the old open tourers were not warm. This job lasted fifteen nights and then the Star cut it out and we drew a good cheque for our fifteen nights mud ramble. The road was so bad in that job that we could not keep the exhaust pipe and muffler in the car and ran with the exhaust coming out of the manifold and the noise was like an aeroplane. About this time the Auckland Star ran their own car on the Frankton - Te Aroha route. We used to help them out when their own plant was out of order. Motomoho mud was the bug bear of this road about a mile of it. Sometimes we had to be towed through with horses but not often. In 1926 we took over the Hamiiton-Pirongia mail service from Bob Gibbon, trading for the mail contract and passenger service an old Model 0 Hudson. This car was bought for £700 new in 1919 traded in, in 1925 for value £250 bought back for £100 and then traded in for the Mail service. The Pirongia road has flooding .......... at Bruces Flat and we had to keep a boat to make the connection between cars. These floods used to stop us about a week at a time. In 1928 the Postal Dept. accepted a cheap tender from a one car man. The road not being worth running without mail, paper, etc we turned it over to him and withdrew our car. We lost the Raglan mail at the same time to a one car man, this put us to a 4 year fight. Anyway we just kept plugging along and saw 3 men do in their cash and the last had to ask us to take over tne mail again. About three years later we again lost the mails to another cheap jack tender and we had again to come to the reason of the Postal Depot. The Postal Dept. in the past has been the curse of backland transport because they would accept any cheap tender, sometimes the man did not own a car until he got the contract and he did not know running costs and started to cut fares and he would finish up bankrupt and the same time making it very hard for the permanent service to maintain its up to date affluence. The Transport Act put a stop to this wasteful way of getting the mail carried below cost. Since we started the Raglan-Hamilton Service, three times we have had to take the mail contract over. In 1926 we started the Rotorua-Waitomo Service connecting the two tourist attractions by a quicker route via Arapuni and Putaruru. In starting a service we always checked the route timetable. Well we started in September 1926 and lost £500 in the first year, but one expects to lose the first year as it takes a year or two to get Tourist Booking Offices into line. Since then we have had the top of the tourist traffic and the route is one of the best liked routes in New Zealand. I often say that Eskimos are the only people that we have not handled. We have always given the tourist a good talk on NZ Flora, Geology, Farming, breaking in new the fern and scrub country to the present grass paddocks, Maori History and the pioneering days. And I can say the Overseas tourist enjoyed it. So many service drivers will no do this and their bosses do not realise that Overseas tourists are strangers in a strange land and our forward progress and Maori history is very interesting. If a driver cannot drive and talk as he drives through the country he has got no place on a tourist route. Tourists have often told me that the service they were on the day before, the driver never opened his mouth and if they asked anything they got snapped at. I am corning to the end of a long drive, some 25 years and a great part of that time driving overseas tourists. I have found them wanting to know all about our little Islands and have enjoyed every moment of their company and very seldom found a nark among them. MOTOR SERVICE AND MAIL CONTRACTS I started with the Raglan Service in 1917. There was then a coach service on the road, and the road was unmetalled. The Mail Contractor at that time was Mr R. Aitken, and I worked in with him helping him with any overloading. He obtained a car and we worked well together. He went over the bank with the car and offered his plant, which consisted of horses and coach to me but as coaches and horses were going out of date, I did not buy. Mr Turpin took him over, and we ran in opposition for several years. What ........ll' clean opposition'. We never touched one anothers passengers, and I helped him whenever his cars were in difficulties. He was a careless man and often used to leave his jacks, or spare tubes behind. Many a time I found him stranded without a jack, and lent him mine. Sometimes pulling him out of the mud if he was stuck, as I had far better plant and better equipment, and it has been my policy to always help your opponent. In doing so you usually get his passengers, in the long run. Turpin asked me to take him over, as he was heavily in debt. This I did, and the Hamilton Mail Contract. This contract, by way, was worth £450 a year, plus £50 for the Te Mata mail which he had taken on with the car with clay roads. I finished the last of his contract on Te Mata-Kauroa mail by employing a boy and a horse to carry the mail down to the junction. Our next tender for the mail was a reduction to the Post Office to £350 which we were successful tenderers. We placed two sixteen seater White's on the road as we had security of the mail for a further three years. Previously we had been running Hudson cars. At the end of that term a man came in and under-cut our price down to £180, coming on the road against us. This cost us considerable loss, and in a very short period he went bankrupt. He handed a hire purchase car and the mail contract over to another man. He carried on for a short time, and saw that there was nothing in it. He, in turn, handed the hire purchase car over to the driver, and at the end of four years the car was seized from the driver by the hire purchasers. This four years competition brought me down to a private assignment, but I managed to keep the service going with one car. After a short time I was able to buy a new sixteen seater for the road, and finished the contract in 1935, (the last of the Conservative Government.) The mails were then again tendered for. The morning mail and the afternoon mail. My tender was £450 for the morning and £190 for the afternoon mail. A man called Bates tendered £180 for the morning mail and the mail was run with an old baker's van, we having obtained passenger license on the morning timetable in anticipation that we would get the mail. Naturally, we thought the mail would come to us as nobody would be foolish enough to attempt running it. This proved disastrous to us as we in 4 months time had to come to the reason of the Post Office, with a very small increase in our subsidy. Finding the service unprofitable, we appealed to the authority, and examination of the books showed we were losing over £200 a year and crippling our main service. A further subsidy of £100 was granted, then costs increased, putting the timetable in a more unfinancial position. This was putting an undue strain on the other service, and I had to assist the Raglan service from the Waitomo service, in supplying it with depreciated cars, until it was taken off when Japan came into the war. This opposition to the main service, running unfinancial left us in very bad shape to cope with the increased traffic and cater for the people efficiently. I remortgaged my life insurance to get a bigger and better bus to do the job, holding the other plant in reserve. Since we have had the one service on the road we have got into a position where we can place another bus on the road of the same seating capacity. Through the years the service has been like a barometer. Whenever opposition came on the road there was a struggle for plant, as the revenue is not sufficient to maintain two daily timetables, and it will be some considerable time before this is warranted. Raglan has no industry in the township, and one has to rely on the seaside holiday makers. This is for but a few months of the year. You will see that the struggle to maintain efficient service over these years has been a big strain. When I originally started I set out to give Raglan an efficient, reliable service and they have had it. In Turpin’s time, on several occasions I have gone out at 9 o*clock at night to look for the mails and found him broken down away out and telephones were very scarce and not many travelling on the roads to get new in. The mail contracts in the past have been the bug-bear of an efficient transport, owing to the tender system, which the Post Office has applied since the Massey Government came into power. Under the old Liberal Government any successful tenderer who was not a contractor was compelled to buy out the whole of the plant of the contractor. This stopped the competition by irresponsibies. When the Massey Governement deleted that clause mail contracts became open slather and any man with a second-hand hire purchase car, with two men to go bondsmen, could come in and run oppostion to an established business. This caused many bankruptcies, not only in those who had cut the prices but the operators sometimes who had been giving efficient service, as he had not only lost his mail subsidy and in all probability freight on papers, but often skinned the cream off the top of the passenger revenue. There is one thing we are thanking to the presnt government for, and that is that they have not called tenders for the nail, it being done by negotiation between the operator and the Post Office. I think this about covers the history of the Raglan Road. We are at present awaiting the arrival of a new bus chassis of 215 inch wheel base, which will give ample space in the body for a comfortable seat. The price of such a vehicle today is between £3,000 and 3,500 against pre-war prices of £1,300. So it is clear that competition should not be allowed in the interests of the travelling public. NOTE: This is story was found amongst papers belonging to Grandad, ND Robertson and was in his own handwriting CHAPTER 68 Garages in Raglan Donald Cameron and Walter Moon's old store above the Harbour View Hotel was acquired by N.D. Robertson about 1918 to garage his cars. Whit Wright was employed here as a mechanic, until he opened his own business in Green Street. G.S. Fuller resigned from the Post Office in 1920 to commence business in Robertson's Garage. Keith Methven took this over in the late 1920's, and Tom Park was the proprietor here for the first 6 years of the 30s. Jack Amoore started here in 1937 and his brother Ernie joined him in 1939. They closed the business while serving overseas during the war, and re-opened it 3 years later. In 1955 they built their own garage further up Bow Street. In 1975 Amoore Brothers sold this business to David and Edna Brown. The old Robertson Garage was bought by Petchells who demolished it to build their new supermarket here. Robertsons built their new garage and depot adjoining the Post Office. N. D. Robertson bought a Hudson car from W. J. Smith. This car, "Rag 11" battled through the mud with some terrific loads. Robertson Motor Services Ltd (est. 1914) first car was a 1913 Buick Three years later in 1917 saw the need for a better and quicker Transport Service between Hamilton and Raglan. I opened the route by Motor using the old 1915 and one six cylinder Buick. It was hard going in those days, the car never left without two sets of chains and about two pound of split link to repair broken chain. It only needed a shower of rain to turn the clay track into mud. CHAPTER 41 RAILWAY TO RAGLAN Brosnan Motors Raglan-Auckland daily service depart Raglan Monday to Friday 7.15am, depart Auckland 2.30pm Robertson Motor Services – Raglan-Hamilton daily services – depart Raglan 6.45am, 8.15am, 3pm Monday to Friday, 10.45am and 3pm Saturdays, 4.45pm Sundays

Archaeology
Prior to a proposed housing redevelopment of the Church College site, an archaeological survey was done in 2013. It only found a Maori burial site where bones had been reinterred during construction of the temple, though mention was made of a papakainga once said to have existed nearby.

Horotiu (formerly Pukete)
In 6 months in 1901 outwards goods traffic was 6 trucks of chaff, 11 tons grain, 4½ tons merchandise and inwards 16 cattle, 20 tons timber, 25 tons grain, 6 tons merchandise a total revenue of £49.

Floods
Mercer is on the banks of the Waikato River. An August 1893 report describes rowing over the line north of Mercer just after a train passed. Flooding covered the railway line on 2 and 3 July 1925, with a benzine shed afloat. For photographs see A locomotive splashes its way along the flooded line at the Mercer railway station, 2 July 1925 Flooding covered 5 tracks in the goods yard for a week in mid August 1926. There was minor flooding in July 1953. Mr. James Stewart, district engineer, invites tenders until noon on the 13th August, for the erection of a pumping engine-shed at Mercer station ...", Daily Southern Cross, 30/7/1875, p. 2). http://www.railheritage.org.nz/assets/NZR_MILEAGE_TABLE_1957.pdf From To Mi Ch Date Auckland Penrose 5 27 24/12/1873 Penrose Mercer 37 45 20/5/1875 Mercer Newcastle 31 02 13/8/1877 Newcastle Hamilton 10 33 19/12/1877 Hamilton Ohaupo 9 27 4/6/1878 Ohaupo Te Awamutu 6 24 1/7/1880 Te Awamutu Otorohanga 14 20 9/3/1887 Otorohanga Te Kuiti 11 41 2/12/1887 Te Kuiti Mokau 8 53 8/5/1889 Mokau Porootarao 11 20 1/4/1901 Porootarao Taumarunui 28 24 1/12/1903 Taumarunui Erua 36 0 9/11/1908 Erua Waiouru 30 47 15/2/1909 Waiouru Mataroa 18 11 1/7/1908 Mataroa Taihape 5 79 1/6/1907 Taihape Mangaweka 12 76 1/11/1904 Mangaweka Mangaonoho 9 20 3/11/1902 Mangaonoho Rangatira 3 72 14/4/1893 Rangatira Marton 18 53 1/4/1888 (North Island Main Trunk Railway) (3) Mokau later became Puketutu. (4) Rangatira later became Kaikarangi. Auckland Station. .. ..... 	... Add Rechainage ......... ... Add Auckland Old Station. . . .(Deduct Rechainage (Deduct 1920 16 Nov 1930 1 Apr 1956 1930

steam bus
Sir Goldsworthy Gurney experimented with steam road traction from 1823 onwards and at least one of his four-wheeled steam tractors hauled a coach between Gloucester and Cheltenham several times daily. The 9-mile journey, operated by Sir Charles Dance, took as little as 45 minutes, but the apparent success alarmed other operators. On June 23rd 1831, piles of loose stones were scattered across the road and resulted in the coach breaking its back axle. Consequently the Turnpike Trusts imposed additional tolls on self-propelled vehicles and the venture came to an end. The opposition of the Turnpike Trusts (whose apparent dislike for these vehicles stemmed from an opinion that the roads were inadequate for this type of vehicle, even though a House of Commons Select Committee had found that the wheels of horse-drawn vehicles were more likely to damage the roads than those of the steam-drawn vehicles) proved the downfall of many innovative ideas. Some idea of the excessive nature of the tolls can be illustrated by the toll of 48 shillings demanded for steam carriages operating between Liverpool and Prescott, whilst that for horse coaches was just 4 shillings. Walter Hancock’s steam omnibus ‘Enterprise’ ran between London Wall and Paddington from 22 April 1833. Although a dispute between Hancock and the operators curtailed this service, he built and operated steam buses between 1833 and 1840. In 1836 he introduced the 22-seat 'Automaton' and ran over 700 journeys between London and Paddington, London and Islington, and Moorgate and Stratford, carrying over 12,000 passengers and reaching speeds in excess of 20 mph. John Russell's Steam Carriage Company of Scotland built 6 buses for an hourly service between Glasgow and Paisley in 1834. It ended when a coach was overturned by a heap of road metal and the boiler exploded, but 2 of the buses ran in London. A novel concept proposed by the London, Holyhead and Liverpool Steam Coach & Road Company, would have seen the construction of a stone pavement alongside existing roads upon which the Company would operate its own vehicles and charge tolls for other traffic, but the proposals came to nothing. Frank Hills of Deptford built a 12-seater steam-powered coach in 1839, which made the return journey to Brighton in a single day, demonstrating that passengers could be carried at twice the speed of a stagecoach and at half the expense. The 1861 Locomotive Act imposed speed limits on 'road locomotives' of 5mph in towns and cities, and 10mph in the country and allowed turnpike tolls for every 2 tons equivalent to the toll for a horse and cart. The Locomotives Act of 1865 further cut speeds to 4mph in the country and 2mph in towns. In addition the act required a man bearing a red flag to precede every vehicle. From 1879 street trams were authorised under licence from the Board of Trade. A Locomotives on Highways Act came into force on 14 November 1896 abolishing the red flag and increasing speeds to 14 mph, although this was later reduced by the Local Government Board to 12 mph.

John Heywood
Manchester booksellers, brothers Abel and John Heywood (link to photo), became the largest British provincial publishers in the late 19th century. They were born at Prestwich, to a family said at one time to have required parish relief. Abel became an 18d a week warehouse boy, but, sacked at 20, took on a wholesale agency for The Poor Man's Guardian, but was fined ₤54 for selling it without a stamp and imprisoned for 4 months for being unable to pay. His family then managed the shop, still selling the Guardian, but in a quieter manner. In 1834 and in 1836 he was again fined, but could by then afford to pay. The Government next seized the papers from carriers, after which they were concealed in chests of tea or hampers of shoes, until duty was cut from 4d to 1d in 1836 and the poor could afford stamped papers. Abel was again prosecuted for the publication of a penny pamphlet by Haslam, but bought copies of Shelley's works from the chief Manchester booksellers, claimed they were more blasphemous than his pamphlet and the prosecution was dropped. A similar defence was mounted soon after in Queen v. Moxon. In 1838, Fergus O'Connor started the Northern Star, and for 4 years it prospered. Abel sold 18,000 a week. In 1847 he joined some paper-stainers, and by 1860 paid more than ₤20,000 in paper duty. Among the most successful of his recent publications were over 75 tourist guides, "Abel Heywood's Penny Guide Books". He also issued a 1d pamphlet of "The Gates Ajar", which was usually a sizeable book. In 1835 he became a Commissioner of Police, and took a conspicuous part in quelling the 1842 and 1849 Manchester riots. in 1864 he took his son, Abel, into partnership.

John Harwood  (1801-1875) Politician Born 27 June 1801 Bridge Hill, Chorley New Road, Heaton, Bolton Died 28 December 1875 Woodsleigh, Heaton, Bolton Educated Mr Wilson's Commercial School Mayor of Bolton 1860 (Liberal) Corn factor and cotton spinner. In 1832 he started his own business as a Baker and Provisions Dealer in a small shop on the corner of Simpson Square. As his business grew he moved to premises at 121 Deansgate as a wholesale flour dealer. Brother of Richard Harwood, Mayor of Bolton 1863-64. Grandfather of John Percy Taylor, Mayor of Bolton 1934-35. John Heywood (1849-1910) Politician Born 19 October 1849 Bolton Died 15 August 1910 The Pike, High Street, Bolton Educated Owens College, Manchester; St John's College, Cambridge  Mayor of Bolton 1903, 1904 (Conservative). Barrister. Organised Mayor's Relief Fund in 1904 to feed unemployed workers and their families. Son of Robert Heywood, Mayor of Bolton 1839-40. John Heywood was one of the first Nonconformists to enter Cambridge University when the religious tests were removed.

John Heywood (1804 - 7 October 1864) became a handloom weaver when he was 14. Within 10 years his wages rose from 2/6 to 30s a week; giving his mother ₤1 a week. At 24 he married and became manager of a small Altrincham factory, but it failed, and he returned to "dressing" for power-loom weavers until he was 35. He worked a paper-ruling machine in the evenings. In 1835 Abel, now a successful bookseller in Oldham St, offered his brother a paper-ruler job at ₤2 a week. In 1842 he took a little shop in Deansgate, and, assisted by his son, 13 year old John, the business increased rapidly and vastly. They started with weekly and Sunday papers, and hand delivered the newspapers. After a few months, they needed a wheelbarrow and later a pony and trap. After enlarging the shop, they took a larger shop across Deansgate in 1859. Further additions were made until 3 buildings were combined, and in 1866 a 6-storey factory was built behind the triangular shop. About 2 tons came from London 5 times a week handled by 150 staff and 9 spring-carts delivering 1,000 parcels a day for 3- 400 orders. Besides being the largest provincial news vendors and booksellers, they were the largest copybook makers (1,500 gross a month), despatching a total of 250,000 publications a week.

He was on Manchester City Council from March 1860 to November 1861 and chairman of the Chorlton Guardians.

In 1864, John Heywood, senior, died, and his son took over. In 1867 he introduced a platten printing machine, adapted to take impressions from the stereo-plates of his school-books - 'John Heywood's Code' and 'John Heywood's Manchester Reader'. Excelsior Printing Works opened on 4 July 1870, employing 355. Between 1871 and 1880 eleven 'Science Lectures for the People' were delivered at Hulme Town Hall, and sold separately at 1d each. Quarterly periodicals were the widely circulated Railway Guide, the decorative artists' Lithographer and Ben Brierley's Journal of vernacular contributions. The 3-weekly Sphinx, a satirical journal, was the most popular. The career of the Heywoods is a striking example of the labour, energy, and success which Lancashire folk are apt to think the true attributes of the typical "Manchester man;" and if they have not been instrumental in adding much to the higher literature of the world, their publications have very widely extended the taste for knowledge among the lower orders in the north of England.

Alderman Abel Heywood opened a small shop in Deansgate in 1842 for the sale of periodicals and newspapers. John Heywood, then 13, was an errand-boy in a solicitor's office, but joined his father at the shop. In 1859 they moved to a larger shop on the other side of Deansgate. Further extensions followed, and in 1866 a 6-storey factory was built behind the existing buildings. John Heywood, senior, died in 1864, when his son took over. Another branch that arose from the energy and ability displayed by Mr. John Heywood in extending and developing the business was the church and school furniture manufactory in Turner St, Cornbrook. The widening of Deansgate in 1877-8 led to the demolition of Heywood's shop, and the present large stationery warehouse in Ridgefield, covering 2½ acres, was built. The adjoining premises in Deansgate were added soon after.

John Heywood's was bought by W H Smith in the early 1960s. Soon after the shop closed and the wholesale newsagency was transferred to W H Smith at Stockport.

External links

photo Manchester Library 1930 aerial view (bottom left)

Hants and Sussex
'Hants and Sussex' and its successor, 'Southern Motorways', were companies running buses in parts of those counties from 1937 until 1996. Basil Sylvester Williams was 23 when he started a bus service to West Thorney, near Chichester in West Sussex in 1937 when his Hants and Sussex company began running to the island. He developed bus services across Sussex, benefiting from wartime and post-war traffic booms, and eventually operated as far east as Horsham. A 1983 article said, "But rapid expansion overstretched the business and it folded in 1956, after a winding up petition was lodged by a passenger whose hat and coat were stolen from the company's lost property office." One commentator said, "Basil Williams tried to present a 'big company' image . . . without ever having had the resources to back it up."

Maintenance
As the photo shows, many of the buses were old. For example, in 1972 North Downs Rural Transport hired one of those Southern Motorways ex LT buses. It failed totally less than a mile from their depot. It was possibly a problem of the later years. Another commentator said, "Due to persistant failures to keep the buses roadworthy and the death of the elderly company owner in his late 80s, Basil Williams, they shut down in 1996." Commercial Motors reported In 1986, that the 12-vehicle Southern Motorways PSV operator's licence was renewed for 2 years by South Eastern Traffic Commission. Borough of Havant and local residents had asked for the licence to be restricted on environmental grounds. The Commissioners didn't accept this, but restricted the licence to establish the adequacy of maintenance and banned double-deck vehicles at the Sultan Rd, Emsworth depot, due to lack of space and manoeuvrability. However, the Commission said the company's good repute was not in doubt, and it met the requirement of professional competence.

Unfair competition?
However, some contend unfair competition was behind the 1956 liquidation. In 1955 Hants and Sussex was given as the only example of a "quite large" independent bus company, not operating in "a compact area", but wholly within the operating areas of the "Associated Companies". That may explain why a commentator wrote, "From its inception, relations between Hants and Sussex and the surrounding major operators – Southdown, Aldershot and District and London Transport – were fraught with deep suspicion. It was not until the Fowler Act that Basil Williams was able to operate free of constant Traffic Court battles with his neighbours." An early battle was in 1943. Basil Williams bought Silver Queen Bus Service and set up a new company to run it. Southdown objected to transferring the permits, leaving the new company with no permits to run buses. The buses were sold to Southdown instead. As a result Basil Williams' future takeovers simply replaced the old directors, leaving him running many companies. Former Southern Motorways manager, Alan Lambert, gave another example; "in 1948 Southdown and Maidstone & District were anxious to ensure that Williams did not expand into East Sussex, so Southdown paid him £1,000 to withdraw from the negotiations, leaving Southdown to take over Beacon Motor Services, Crowborough." The battles continued after the liquidation. In 1959 Basil Williams appealed against a Traffic Commissioners' decision to transfer licences from Triumph Coaches to Southdown. He'd bought Triumph in 1947 for £12,829, with 3,000 shares in the name of Hants and Sussex and 1,000 held by him and his wife. From October 1951 Triumph had licences to run week-end services for the Forces, but Southdown and others illegally competed, despite being fined in 1953. This is said to have led to the Triumph and Hants and Sussex receivership in December, 1954. In 1957 Southdown Motor Services Ltd. acquired control, and took over completely in 1959, when Triumph went into voluntary liquidation.

Successes
Despite failing in some acquisitions, his Silver Queen experience meant that Basil Williams ended up running many companies. In 1947 he took over Portsdown Motor Co. (Portsmouth), Ltd., Cosham, Southsea Royal Blue Parlour Coaches (as Southsea Royal Blue), and appointed Victor E. Candish, former maintenance engineer of Liss and District Omnibus Co., Ltd, to manage Sunbeam Coaches (Loxwood), Ltd. In addition to those companies and Hants and Sussex, he also owned Empress Coaches Stockbridge; Triumph Coaches Southsea; Blakes Tours of Plymouth; Glider & Blue; Glider Coaches ; B.S. Williams Ltd; White Heather Travel ; F.H. Kilner; and Southern Motorways. Not all battles were lost. Former Hants and Sussex Motor Services, Ltd. routes reverted to Basil Williams when the South Eastern Licensing Authority granted him licences for Emsworth to Thorney stage services, Thorney to London expresses, Portsmouth to Alton, and Portsmouth based tours from July 23 1955. Southdown Motor Services, Ltd., who opposed Mr. Williams' application operated under short-term licences. Southdown thought they'd bought the Hants and Sussex goodwill, but the bank nominee directors had not signed the agreement. Rural services were built up again, operated by a new Southern Motorways company.

The end
On 29 Mar 1996 B.S.Williams Ltd changed name to The Southern Bus and Coach Company Ltd which was dissolved in 1998. Thus ended an eventful 60 years. However, another independent, Emsworth & District, started in 1977.

Ulster Queen
In 1967, three new car ferries were delivered to Coast Lines to update their Irish Sea services. The Ulster Prince and Ulster Queen replaced the pre-war motorships Ulster Prince and Ulster Monarch on the Liverpool-Belfast night service of the Belfast Steamship Co, and Lion took over the Ardrossan-Belfast day service of Burns & Laird. Coast Lines were purchased by P&O in 1971, and the Liverpool boats appeared in P&O Ferries colours with pale blue funnels. Ulster Monarch was one of 3 sisterships built 1929-1930, the other two were Ulster Queen and Ulster Prince. One was lost during WW2 and the other not refitted after the war. This left the Ulster Monarch which ran on the Belfast - Liverpool run until scrapped in 1966 in Belgium. She was joined after the war by Ulster Prince ex Leinster which was also withdrawn in 1966, and sold to Greek owners and finally scrapped in 1979. The Belfast - Liverpool run was serviced by M.V. Irish Coast and close sister M.V. Scottish Coast until the two new car ferries, Ulster Queen and Ulster Prince took up the service in 1967.

Arnott Young
Arnott Young had shipbreaking yards at Dalmuir and Troon and several yards in northern Britain for scrapping railway motive power. Arnott Young were at the Troon yard from 1938 to 1977. Ships were laid up on both sides of the North Breakwater. As the ships were cut up and made lighter, they were dragged further up until they could go no further and then cut up at low tide. The scrap was removed by train over a line on the pier. The pier is now a berth for P&O fast ferries to Belfast. The Dalmuir Yard was was built by William Beardmore and Company in 1905 and the site is now the Clydebank Business Park. In the 1960s Arnott Young cut up 367 steam locomotives at Avonmour Ironworks ( Bilston), Carmyle, Dinsdale (see photo and map), Dudley Hill, Old Kilpatrick, Parkgate and Troon.

External sources
Arnott Young's Dalmuir, Shipbreaking yard, August 1967, PS Caledonia in Arnott Young's, Dalmuir, 1970.

For £15 you could learn more about Arnott Young in this and the subsequent volume of Ships in Focus.