“We took the Service Car”

Service car, thought to be on Kaimai Range road, pre-1930s
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0669/08

“We took the Service Car” was a common expression when I was young.  People were usually referring to a bus like NZ Railway Road Services but the name was a left over from the 1920s and 30s when a privately owned transport system of large motor cars provided a network that linked with the passenger trains.  Horse-drawn vehicles were superseded by the internal combustion engine and the days of coach travel ended. The country was covered by a train system on all the main routes so it was now only a matter of getting to the station.

Service cars in mud on Tauranga-Rotorua route, undated
Photograph by Blyth Harper
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0673/08

The usual vehicles that were suitable to carry passengers were the large American cars known as tourers that were usually driven with the hoods down and made by Hudson, Studebaker, Chandler, Buick or Cadillac. Two people would sit in the front seat with the driver, two on a folding dickey seat, and three in the back seat. The luggage was tied on the running board. Potholes, slips, fallen trees, broken springs, and punctures were hazards to be expected, and a shovel, axe and rope were always on board.

Service cars being dug out of mud on Tauranga-Rotorua route, undated
Photograph by Blyth Harper
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0674/08

The Model T Ford was a smaller popular vehicle, but the lights were connected to the generator and the volume of light depended on the speed, so could be very weak when navigating a stretch of road that needed the brightest light. The Model T only had two gears but its light weight meant that it could be physically lifted out of trouble when necessary. 

J. O. Musgrave, an English emigrant sent to New Zealand to learn farming, soon found he did not like milking cows and set up as a taxi driver, then later a service car provider in Opotiki. A typical journey would be: left Rotorua at 9.am and stopped at Rotoma for morning tea, a midday dinner served at the Te Teko Hotel, reaching Awakeri Hot Springs by 2.15 pm and changing cars there to Opotiki, ending the journey at 4.30 pm. The early morning service from Whakatane had breakfast at Rotoma and caught the 9 am express to Auckland from Rotorua.  Another service car route was from Gisborne to Opotiki and Whakatane, then to the railhead at Matata. The railway line ended at Mount Maunganui and it was from Tauranga that the traveller could catch the steamer to Auckland. Musgrove eventually began importing the chassis and having the car built to his specifications.

Walker's Service Car outside Waihi Post Office, c1925
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libaries, Pae Korokī, Ref. 99-655

Throughout the country these small businesses were flourishing by the 1920s. United Motor Service had cars travelling between Kaikoura and Christchurch. Williamson Motors in Gisborne advertised a first-class service car available for the Tolaga Bay Races, costing £3 return. The Brighton & Taieri Mouth Motor Service provided a service to the Green Island Railway Station.

Nelson “Pat” Allely of Tauranga drove for Douglas Walker, who began his service car route to Matamata to meet the Rotorua Auckland Express train in 1918. Walker’s car was a Cadillac. In 1924 Allely advertised that he would run a car to the Paeroa Races if there was sufficient interest. Due to the poor state of the Kaimai Road, Allely later advertised that the Matamata service would cease and passengers would be driven to Rotorua to catch the Express.

Pat Allely on the way out to Omanawa, undated
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0516/08

The earliest advertisement in the Western Bay was in 1916 when the Tauranga, Te Puke, Rotorua Motor Service advertised that they left Tauranga daily at 8.45 am for Frankton Junction on the Main Trunk Line. Other companies dealt with the Waihi and Matamata routes and by 1921 the name AARDS Motor Services featured in the Royal Mail Service in the eastern and western Bay. The name was thought up by R.R. Woodcock with the intention of being first in the telephone directory. Other service car drivers were recruited into the AARDS organisation and, along with another group White Star, they achieved coverage of the North Island.

Service Cars on the Kaimais, undated
Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0670/08

In May 1916 a service car driver from Katikati unfortunately spent some time in one of the hotels in Tauranga after bringing a carload of people into Tauranga and, on the return trip, ran off the road and Mr John Tanner was killed.

In 1924 the writer’s parents took the Newmans’ service car from Napier to Rotorua for their honeymoon, and later told me of the journey where the driver made three point turns to drive around corners on the Napier Taupo section.