WHEREABOUTS OF N.Z.’S FIRST CAR UNKNOWN

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27498, 4 November 1954, Page 11

WHEREABOUTS OF N.Z.’S FIRST CAR UNKNOWN

Where is New Zealand’s oldest car? Is it rusting unforgotten, unrecognised in a shed somewhere in New Zealand? Fifty-four years ago Mr P. R. Skeates brought to New Zealand a Star “horseless carriage” to befcome the pioneer importer of cars in this country. The vehicle was btiilt in England by the Star Engineering Company of Wolverhampton, and was an exact copy of the 1895 Benz. Mr Skeates sold it to Wardells. Ltd., a grocery firm, who used it for many years as a delivery van in Christchurch.

The one-cylinder, belt-driven Star arrived in Auckland in September, 1900, and was the subject of an article in the “Weekly News,” which used it as an excuse to/attack the Government on Auckland’s public wdrks. “It is quite'likely that the people of the province, tired of the Government’s procrastination and injustice in the matter of railways, will compete against State monopoly and slowness by means of these inventions.” Auckland was “by far the worst-

roaded place in New Zealand,” said the article, and it was not likely that the fastest kind of motor-cars would become common, “but it will not need a very fast car to compete against the Auckland railways.” Mr Skeates does not know where the car is now. He fears it has been destroyed. “I wanted to buy it back and give it to a museum,” he said. “It is an historic car.” The second car to come to this country, a Benz, is still running. It was first owned by Mr N. Oates, of Christchurch, and is now the proud possession of an Auckland motor parts firm. It recently came to Christchurch to lead the Waikato contingent in the Ranfurly Shield procession. The Star was a four-seater car with two large spindly wire-spoked wheels at the rear and two smaller ones at the front. Passengers sat facing each other across the small, vertically mounted wheel rising on a column from the middle of the floor. It was completely open and was equipped with two candle-burning headlamps.