THE FIRST BUSES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 57, 7 March 1936, Page 8 (Supplement)

THE FIRST BUSES.

PARIS LEADS THE WAY. HACKNEY COACHES OF LONDON. EARLY ENGLISH OMNIBUSES. The omnibus was known in France nearly two hundred years ago, when Louis XIV. took great interest in the success of the novelty. Carriages on hire had already been long known in Paris; coaches, by the hour, or the day, were let out at the sign of "St. Fiacre, whence the coach itself was called a "fiacre." The hire was, however, too expensive for the middle classes. In 1057, letters patent were granted for coaches drawn by two horses, to be hired in Paris and its environs; though the prices were still high. But, five years later, in 1662, a royal decree of Louis XIV. authorised the establishment of "two-penny-halfpenny" omnibuses, or "carosses a cinq sous." The company had at its head the Duke of Roanes, and the Marquises of Sourches and Crenan; and Pascal was among the shareholders. The decree expressedly stated that these coaches, of which there were originally seven, each containing eight places, should run at fixed hours, full or empty, to and from certain extreme quarters of Paris, for the benefit of "a great number of persons ill provided for, as persons engaged in law suits, infirm people, and others who have not the means to ride in a chaise or carriage, which cannot be hired undei a pistole, or a couple of crowns a day. The public inaugaration of the new conveyances, by which could be enjoyed a two-penny-halfpenny ride, spread delight throughout the capital. At seven o'clock on the morning of the 18tli of March, 1662, three of the "buses" started from the Porte St. Antoine, and four from the Luxembourg. Previous to the setting out, two commissaires of the chatelet, in legal robes, four guards of the grand provost, half a score of the city archers, and as ms.ny cavalry, drew up in front of the delighted crowd; the commissiares then delivered an address on the advantages of the two-penny-halfpenny carriages, exhorted the riders to observe good order, and then, turning to the coachmen, gave each a long blue frock embroidered with the arms of the king and the city. For a time all Paris strove to ride in these omnibuses; the two-penny-halfpenny coach was the event of the day. The wealthier classes seem to have patronised the new carriages for a considerable time, but when they ceased to be fashionable, the poorer classes would have nothing to do with them, and so the speculation failed. The next attempt at establishing public carriages of the omnibus kind appears to have been made in England; a hackney carriage, with four horses and six wheels, was tried in London about the year 1800, but unsuccessfully. Longbodied coaches to carry twelve or fourteen passengers, plied between parts of Sussex and Hertfordshire and London about the year 1808. In England the omnibus proper was first started in London. A writer in 1853 says, "for from sixpence to a penny the whole of London can be travelled in half the time it took to reach Holborn Bar at the beginning of this century, when the road was in the hands of Mr. Miles, his pair-horse coach, and his redoubtable Boy." This coach, and these celebrated characters, were for a long time the only appointed agents of communication between Paddington and the City. The journey to the City was performed by them in something more than three hours; the charge for each outside passenger being two shillings, the "inside" being expected to pay three. The novelty by which this slow system was deposed is described by Mr. Shillibeer, in his evidence before the Board of Health, who states that, on July 4, 1829, he started the first pair of omnibuses in the metropolis. Each of Shillibeer's carried 22 passengers inside, but only the driver outside; and each omnibus was drawn by three horses abreast; the fare was one shilling for whole journey, and sixpence for half the distance, and for some time the passengers were provided with periodicals to read on the journey. Shillibeer's first conductors were the two sons of British naval officers.