BY COACH TO THE COAST

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31030, 9 April 1966, Page 5

BY COACH TO THE COAST

[Specially written [or “The Press” by GRACE ADAMS] people are living today who rattled over the Otira Gorge in one of Cobb and Co.’s coaches before the Otira Tunnel was opened in 1923 and all agree on the outstanding ability of the drivers—cool and courageous men who handled their highspirited teams with ease. No matter how steep or tortuous the road, the passengers had supreme confidence in them.

The horses too were wonderful, carefully chosen and carefully trained. The founder of Cobb and Co. was an American, Freeman Cobb, who with three of his countrymen commenced a small business in Melbourne which they advertised as “The Telegraph Stage Line." They offered and gave “good service” between Melbourne and the Bendigo diggings and their punctuality and reliability gained the increasing support of travellers. Two-day Trip When Gabriel Read discovered gold in Otago in 1861 Charles Cole, originally a groom for Cobb, was sent to Dunedin in October with one coach, five waggons, a buggy, several carts and about 50 horses. He advertised hrs coach service as Cobb and Co.’s Telegraph Line (C. Cole and Co.) and on October 11 he left Dunedin driving the four-horse team himself, and arrived at the diggings the same day. This amazed the men who thought two days a reasonable trip. Two years later Cole extended the business to Canterbury. Rugged Route The only land route to the West Coast goldfields was up the Hurunui river and over Harper Pass into the Taramakau, an old Maori route Leonard Harper had explored. The track was optimistically called the North Road. The first vehicles to attempt

this route left Cobb and Co.’s Christchurch office in 1865, the procession being led by a large “jack” coach drawn by seven heavy horses. On the flat deck sat 40 cheerful diggers with their swags. £20,000 Voted How far the coaches got is not recorded, but some men and women struggled on foot over the track with their horses, cattle, sheep and goats. All suffered hardships in the continuous bad weather. The Canterbury Provincial Council foresaw a tragedy if something was not done urgently to provide proper access to the new El Dorado. As well the gold yield from the West Coast was increasingly spectacularly, but none was coming to Canterbury. The banks would not risk sending it overland by packhorse and sent it by sea to Nelson. So the Provincial Council passed a resolution in June, 1865, that it would indemnify the Superintendent in the expenditure of any sum of money not exceeding £20,000 for the formation of a coach road to the West Coast. Cost £150,000 Up to 1000 men were employed in parties working on either side of the Divide. The new road from Canterbury began at Porters Pass and in less than a year the hundred miles of road, by any standards was an engineering triumph, was ready for wheeled traffic. The cost was £150,000.

In June, 1865 Cobb and Co. was given the mail contract

I for £7OO per annum. The mail was limited to 35 pounds (equal to about 1500 letters.) Coaches travelled as far as possible, then the mail was taken by horse to the top of Arthurs Pass and by foot to the Otira river where a boat manned by a Maori crew was used. After the boat had been upset twice horses were used. The first mail from Christchurch to Hokitika took four and a half days. Later the time was cut to three days. As the road progressed the coach service was extended and the first through coach from Christchurch to Hokitika made the journey on March 20. 1866. Shelf On Cliff The road was very narrow, in places it was merely a shelf bracketed on the cliff-face. To bring the gold to Christchurch, a bullet-proof waggon was constructed and police barracks were built at Beaiey, and Barrack creek at Otira near the mouth of the gorge. Squads of police were given weeks of special training. More than £4OOO was spent but the gold was sent by sea. The gold escort travelled once to protect an ounce of gold. The coaches were licensed to carry 17 passengers. Three vehicles were used on the journey;, one coach from Christchurch to Beaiey, another to the Taipo and the third on to Hokitika. Over the Plains four-horse teams were used; six horses drew the coach over Porters Pass and Castle Hill and a fivehorse team preceded the coach on the Otira road. There were 11 changing places for the horses, roughly every 15 miles. There were 13 rivers for the coaches to cross not counting the innumerable creeks. The Taipo was the worst. Little rain turned it into a foaming cascade carrying boulders into the Taramakau. Whenever the Taipo was in flood the passengers crossed on a swing bridge to a coach waiting on the other side. In the great snow storm of

1895 the coaches had to stop running for three months because the snow was six feet deep at the top of Arthur’s Pass. Went To Sleep On one occasion the coach left the Beaiey in the dark. There was only one passenger whose companion was a whisky bottle. It was so cold he had a nip and onct the coach was across the river the driver had one too. This went on from time to time until the top of Arthurs Pass was reached. Here a final nip was taken before the hazardous descent of the Otira Gorge. Before long the traveller’s scalp began to tingle as the horses began to cut the corners, and as they descended the zig-zag he said more than once, “That was a bit close!” At another turn he screamed. One narrow shave followed another and when at last the 10 hair-raising miles had been traversed and the horses had pulled up outside the hotel, he found the driver fast asleep, with one foot hard on the brake. The Inns were, perhaps, the worst feature of the coaching trips in the early days. Most of them were little fsore than corrugated iron shacks. Sometimes even canvas was used. Crowded Rooms The accommodation was understandably limited and if two or more coaches arrived every room would be crowded. The beds were usually narrow stretchers packed into tiny rooms. Food was hard to get so the meals were not good, but even so the inns carried the names of the famous hotels. There was the White Horse and the Black Horse, the Coach and Horses, the Nag’s Head, the Highland Home, the Great Britain, and any amount of “Royals.” The pictures show two coaches crossing the Otira river and a coach leaving the Glacier Hotel which was near the Beaiey.