Re-enactment by Model T

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32459, 20 November 1970, Page 17

Re-enactment by Model T

When three men set out in a 1912 Ford Model T roadster from Wellington 58 years ago to tackle the King Country route to Auckland they were attempting a journey that would reduce the modern motorist to tears. Arthur Chorlton, a Wellington journalist, Ernest Gilling, a photographer, and Harold Richards, driver, set out at 6.15 a.m. on November 22, 1912. and reached Auckland eight days and a half later. To mark this epic trip a Model T Ford roadster of the same vintage will leave Wellington at 6.15 a.m. on November 22 this year, to trace the route taken by the pioneers. The run will also mark 60 years of motoring in New Zealand by the

Model T—the first Model Ts entered this country in 1910. Mrs P. J. Mac Lean and Mr R. A. Ivin, both enthusiastic Wellington vintage car club members, and B. G. Joyce, a Wellington journalist, will re-enact the trip in a Model T from Mr L. B. Southward’s wellknown vintage car museum at Seaview, Lower Hutt. In 1912 there were only two recognised roads between Wellington and Auckland—by way of Napier and Taupo and the more difficult one by way of New Plymouth, Mokaii and Te Kuiti. What the three pioneers set out to do was to prove the feasibility of a central North Island route. Mr Chorlton subsequently wrote a book “Motor Pioneers through the King Country,” which dramatically related how the “impossible” became possible. While on a tramping trip near Aria, deep in the King Country, early in 1912, Mr Chorlton saw the possibility of getting a car through the district by more or less following the main trunk railway line from Taihape through to Taumarunui and then through to Te Kuiti to join the New Plymouth Road.

As far as Taihape the road was reasonably good and Raetihi had been reached by car before. Beyond that there was a fair road to Horopito, but thereafter the old service road used for constructing the railway line had fallen into a sad state of disrepair. It was probably negotiable as far as Taumarunui, but a huge gap on the survey maps of the time beyond that point did little to reassure the motorists. There was much head

shaking and many predictions of doom when the three men set off. In view of the “horror” stretch in the King Country the Model T was loaded down with 60 fathoms of stout manila rope, a double block and tackle, a single block and tackle, a hatchet, an axe, a spade, a shovel and a mattock, in addition to the more usual motoring necessities. Taumarunui was the scheduled stop on the second night, but when darkness fell they were miles away, having struck wretched roads after leaving Waiouru. After buying camping gear at Raetihi they spent the night by the Mangaturuturu Stream neat Pokaka. Broken bridges and tree-strewn tracks slowed them down the next day and rain overtook them shortly after leaving Taumarunui. The King Country roads quickly turned into morasses when it rained, but little did they think that Te Kuiti 92 miles away, was also four and a half days away. Indescribable mud anchored the pioneers, who managed only four miles in one day near Matiere. After reaching Pio Pio the three men had a com-

paratively simple run to Auckland, arriving at the Post Office with 492.6 miles on the speedometer and having used 35 gallons of petrol at 14 miles to the gallon. On their return trip they took the comfort-: able way home—via Taupo,, Napier and the Rimutakas.i Mr Chorlton predicted! that a central North Island i route would supersede the’ Napier and New Plymouth roads as the main link between Auckland and Wellington when the car assumed greater importance' as a means of travel. Mrs Mac Lean found dur-1 ing a recent reconnaissance, of the 1912 route that some of the hUls and the narrow 1 road could still provide a, test for the old Model T. As the driver and an au- 1 thority on the workings of Model Ts, Mr Ivin is determined to have the old Model T in immaculate order for this year’s trip. During the last two months he has spent week-ends buried in the machinery, giv-l ing it a complete overhaul. For Mrs Mac Lean and Mr Joyce the trip will also provide valuable first-hand knowledge of Model T motoring for a book on veteran motoring in New Zealand which they are writing.