Cobb And Co.

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29820, 12 May 1962, Page 3

Cobb And Co.

Sir.—l am wondering if “E.M.R." ia aware that Cobb and Company never operated in New Zealand. Freeman Cobb (born United States 1830. died South Africa 1878>, with three other Americans. J. M. Peck, J. B. Lamber and J. Swanton, commenced a coaching service from Sandridge, Port Melbourne, to Melbourne, in December. 1853. In the early 'sixties a depression hit Victoria while news of Gabriel’s Gully gold caused many Australians to cross the Tasman. One coaching proprietor. Charles Carlos Cole, arrived at Dunedin from Geelong on October 4, 1861. with a coach, waggons, and buggy and 50odd horses. Cobb and Company in Australia had such an enviable reputation that Cole decided to give his coaches the same name. As other coaching firms opened up they too used the name. To write the story of “Cobb and Company” would be to write the story of a dozen or more firms. I would recommend to "E.M.R.” Edgar Lovell-Smith's book "Old Coaching Days in Otago and Southland.”—Yours, etc., FOUNDER. May 11. 1962.

Sir, —I note with interest the references to Cobb and Company made by your correspondent E.M.R. It is true that mention of this one-time well-known name is seldom heard today but changing times have inevitably brought this about. This famous name will again gain prominence and come before the public for a fleeting period in Central Otago later this year. The Dunstan Goldfields Centennial Committee in Central Otago, where suitable celebrations are to be held in September of this year, [have decided to bring from the West Coast, at no small cost, a Cobb and Company coach to feature in a procession at Clyde. Without a Cobb and Company coach such an event would be incomplete and devoid of an exhibit the like of which played such an important role in the lives of the people during the early mining days (and settlement of wha» is today an extremely productive. I prosperous and attractive part of the province of Otago. Yours, etc., C. J. DAVIDSON. May 11. 1962.