COACHING DAYS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 235, 4 October 1935, Page 5

COACHING DAYS.

PIONEER'S MEMORIES.

TRAVELLING COMPARED.

RAILWAY AND STEAMER.

The contrast in travelling facilities compared with pioneer days was remarked upon this morning by Mrs. Elizabeth Mac Kinder, of Catherine Street, Onehunga, when she referred to the cable report in the "Star" that the streamline train Silver Jubilee had reached 112 m.p.h.

Mrs. Mac Kinder recalled that she travelled by stage coach from London to Lincolnshire before the opening of the Great Northern Railway. That was 88 years ago, when she was five years of age. Relating the incident to a friend Mrs. Mac Kinder said that although she had now turned 93, she had a clear recollection of a 130-miles journey. They stopped at several inns for refreshment and for fresh relays of horses.

I Her father, Mr. S. Robinson, was a 'solicitor in Gravesend, where she was | born on September 7, 1842. He gave up his practice and bought a farm. She was married in 1861. They arrived in New Zealand, with two children, in 1865, after a voyage of 16 weeks in the ship Armstrong, commanded by Captain Armstrong, who was part owner of the vessel. Mrs. MacKinder's chief recollection of the voyage was the very primitive provision for doing the passengers laundry. The Silver Jubilee's run took place on the 110 th anniversary of the opening of the first railway service in England, between Stockton and Darlington, when a speed of eight miles an hour was achieved.

With regard to sea travelling, the outward mail, which left New Zealand by direct steamer on October 2, is due in London on November 3. This is about one-fourth of the time taken by the Armstrong. But Mrs. Mac Kinder has no desire for this speedy travelling. She spends most of her time reading and doing crochet work.