“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  Horse-drawn vehicles were superseded by the internal combustion engine and the days of coach travel ended.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.

Brain Behind the Boats and the Bridges

Joseph Denham Brain
Loose print from Album (BWH2004-0958), Brain-Watkins House Collection

In 1844 Joseph Denham Brain was born into a family of shipwrights on the Isle of Wight. He sailed to New Zealand, married Kate, sister of Auckland shipwright William Bishop, and came to Tauranga in 1881, taking over the shipyard of Mr Charles Wood on the northern end of the Strand. He constructed not only his own home but that of his eldest daughter Ada and built for himself three coastal boats, the Ventnor, Vectus and Dream. He also owned two whaleboats, the Esther and Tarawera. The General Gordon was another boat built by this man.

Brain's boatyard, c1900
Tauranga City Library Collection. Ref. 99-751

A quick read of Papers Past could lead one to believe that he was actually more of a bridge and wharf builder. In the BOP Times he was recorded as the contractor for at least 6 bridges: the Waetou and Atuaroa No.1 bridges on the Te Puke road, the Tarawera Bridge on the Rotorua-Te Teko route, the Waitekohe Bridge near Katikati (1882), the Kopurerua Bridge in Judea (1886) and the Wairoa Bridge at Bethlehem (1892). He tendered unsuccessfully for a couple more bridges and even tried to win the contract to construct the first bathing enclosure off Tunks Point (First Ave) in 1885. He later built the Ruahihi Bridge, the Hairini Bridge (1897) and the Omanawa Bridge (1906). He certainly knew how to build the much needed bridges for this district.

Bridge in Kaimai area built by Joseph Brain, c1900
Tauranga City Library Collection. Ref. 02-064

It is also recorded that he was responsible for the concrete seawall on the Strand and the Horseshoe Wharf at Mount Maunganui in 1913, as part of the East Coast rail project. Other structures he was responsible for were Tauranga’s first fire station and bell tower in Durham Street in 1911, a 250 ft tramway on Motiti Island for loading cattle, and his last, the Memorial Gates opposite the present courthouse in 1921, only 3 years prior to his death at 80.

The years shortly after his arrival in Tauranga must have been tough as he applied to have his section, Lot 147, assessed at a lower valuation in 1881 and asked for the annual rent for his portion of the foreshore to be reduced from 3 pounds to 5 shillings. He certainly did his civic duty, serving on the school board (1891), the Borough Council (1893), the Mount Domain Board (1894) and was nominated for the mayoralty in 1895. Brain was integral part of this town’s growth, a successful and much respected man, passing away in 1924 leaving an estate of seven thousand pounds.   

Sources
Papers Past — BOP Times 1881-1924
Historical Review  May 2003
Pae Koroki

Gamman Brothers and The Tauranga Sawmilling Company

Steam hauler in the bush, c. 1912
Tauranga City Library Collection 01-106

Saw milling in the early 20th Century was a very important industry in the hinterland of Tauranga, particularly in Oropi, Omanawa and Whakamarama. There were huge native forests of rimu, totara, matai, tawa, tanekaha and hinau, to name some of the more commonly used timber.

One of the most active families involved in setting up and operating 2 mills were the Gamman Brothers the second generation of a saw-milling family from the lower North Island. In 1908 Arthur and Frank obtained 24 acres on what is now known as Gamman Mill Road opposite the Oropi School.

Steam log hauler on ‘skids’ at the Mill, c. 1912
Tauranga City Library Collection 01-107

They had cutting rights to thousands of acres of bush in 3 blocks south of their mill. Most of the first workers and the plant were brought here from Dannevirke and the mill could cut 9000 super feet of timber in a day.

Gamman Brothers' Oropi Mill, c. 1915
Tauranga City Library Collection 06-050

Sawn timber was transported 6 miles down to the landing on the Waimapu River, and from there by launch and barge to the Town wharf.

Jack Rodgers' Horse team, c. 1912
Tauranga City Library Collection 01-108

In eight years the bush had been well cut over and many of the mill and bush hands had been drafted overseas to fight in the First World War.  Unfortunately a large number of them perished in Europe. The Tauranga Sawmilling Company went into liquidation in 1915, but the community that had grown up around it survived.

In 1910, another brother George and his sons set up a much larger mill at Omanawa, near the waterfall. This mill could process 30,000 super feet in an 8 hour day and continued until 1917, at its peak employing 100 or so men. The sawn timber was taken down to the landing at the Wairoa River, where it was planed, taken by punt to the harbour, loaded onto scows and transported to Auckland and other main centres.

Omanawa Mill
Tauranga City Library Collection 99-1367

In 1923 George and Sons moved to the Mamaku and set up again, as the topography of the land made transport of the logs a little easier. That operation was finally sold to Fletchers in the 1960s.

Other family members were involved later with the H.H. Sharplin mill at Whakamarama and a smaller private mill on Plummers Point Road.

In 1971 Arthur Gamman, 89, and by then resident at Hodgson House, was interviewed. In his words ‘the Oropi Mill was the first decent sized mill able to supply Tauranga’s needs for dressed timber and mouldings.’

Sources
Tauranga Kete, Gamman Brothers Tauranga, Debbie MaCauley - 2017
Oropi, 100 Years Following the Confiscation of the Land, Robert Craig Scott - 2018
Oropi School Centenary and District Reunion, Edited by Annie Rae - 1999
The Ngawaro Regional Historical Review, Jim Pendergrast - 2005
Omanawa Settlers 1910 - 1960, Compiled by Trish Heke and Margaret Bennett
Mamaku 100 Years, Edited by Shona Jennings - 1994