CAB-DRIVING IN ITS HEYDAY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22570, 28 November 1938, Page 10

CAB-DRIVING IN ITS HEYDAY

RECOLLECTION OF MR

W. H. JONES

IN BUSINESS FOR. THIRTY

YEARS

Reminiscences of the days when 150 hansom cabs and landaus plied their trade in the city were recalled yesterday by Mr William Henry Jones, of 149 Bealey avenue, a well-known cab driver in Christchurch for 30 years.

Born in Montreal street about 78 years ago, Mr Jones has not, only lived in the heyday of cab driving in Canterbury, when £2O or £3O was made by the drivers at busy periods, but also he has grown up with the city, which has undergone great changes in his life-time.

Mr Jones’s father, Mr Thomas Jones, was well known as a contractor for artesian wells and bridges in the province, and he also built a section of the railroad from Oamaru to Dunedin.

“I began business about 1883, and retired about. 10 years ago,” Mr Jones told a reporter. “There was a big stand at the old post office, opposite Armstrong’s, and a ‘Paddy's Market’ was also located there. The longest journey I undertook in my hansom cab was to Oamaru. Although the roads were pretty rough, I reached Oamaru two and a half days after leaving Christchurch. Show day was a great day for cab drivers, and I recall a continuous stream of cabs, drags, and landaus along the Lincoln road to the Show Grounds. Drags were also popular in those days, and these carried 32 persons, and were drawn by three or four horses.” Mr Jones said that the old show ground at Sydenham Park was far too small for the large crowd which visited the show, and he believed that more persons visited the shows in those days than to-day. The first man to begin taxi-driving had been in his errtploy. However, the car was unreliable, as it would always stop two or three times on a journey. The next man to begin business with a taxi met with more success, his vehicle always being reliable. When asked where the cab drivers kept their horses and cabs. Mr Jones said that most of them had stables behind their residences. The drivers worked long hours, especially during race week. If a driver had a good running horse he became known all over the province, and would be sought by town and country people alike. Although there were many splendid cabs, the horse was the main thing, he concluded.