“BEN SHEEN”

Hawera Star, Volume L, 10 January 1931, Page 12

“BEN SHEEN”

MR. G ! . HENNING'S MEMORIES

EARLY OARS IN AUCKLAND

<- Can you tell me where I can get benzine ?”

The farmhand pondered deeply. “Ben Sheen? I don’t know anyone of that name about these parts.” (Collapse of motorist.) The motorist to whom the farmhand admitted that he had never heard of “Ben Sheen” was Mr. George Henning, who has some, rollicking memories of early motoring in Auckland. The incident, which serves as an introduction to this article, it need hardly be mentioned, occurred many, many years ago, when the appearance of a motor car made pedestrians halt in their tracks and gape, and sent horses and cattle half out of their wits. It was in 1891 that Mr. Henning, who has now retired from the trade, first entered the motor business as a tyre manufacturer. His connection with motor traction began when lie acquired a De Dion Bouton tricycle, equipped with a single-cylinder motor engine of French design and make, and in those days it was considered a marvellous feat to drive to Onehunga and back to Auckland without a breakdown. In 1900 Mr. Henning was appointed sole agent for New Zealand for locomobile steam cars. He was the

first motor car importer in the Dominion.

FIRST TRIP TO ROTORUA

The first tour to be undertaken in a motor car in the North Island was from Auckland to Rotorua. This was done in six days by Dr. Henry Haynes in a car which ■ Mr. Henning sold to him. It was a steam locomobile of 31 h.p., with a cylinder capacity of 2fin by 3Jin. Dr. Haynes started from the top of Shorthand Street and got as far as the old Junction Hotel in Newmarket. Then lie stopped. He could not gut his car to budge an inch further, so he got in touch with Mr. Henning, who rode out on a bicycle to get the old machine moving again. With a good deal of coughing and spluttering, Dr. Haynes started off once more, and this time went all the way to Otahuhu without a stop. Again Mr. Henning pedalled along to lend a hand. The outlook was not too bright for a successful run to Rotorua, so Mr. Henning decided to accompany the doctor and his wife. A rope was attached to the back of the car and Mr. Henning was towed behind. When Mercer was reached the car again broke down. This time Mr. Henning had to grind in the safety valves to prevent the boiler from blowing up. Boiler trouble held the tourists up again when Huntly was reached. The next day the party managed to make Tirau, where they stayed overnight.

On the fourth day the party found themselves in the middle of the Mainaku Bush, where they camped the night. “The fifth day started off well,’’said Mr. Henning, in telling the story of the trip. “Just as we were congratulating ourselves on our good luck, Dr. Haynes allowed the water level to drop so low that the bottom of the boiler was badly scorched. Then we had a nice old picnic. We had to expand the whole of the water tubes in the boiler —about 208 of them —before tlie journey could be resumed. To do that we had to tip the car up on its back springs. Again on the next day we had the same trouble, and again we had io expand every one of the water tubes. While we were cleaning ourselves up a little at a water trough a few miles out of Rotorua, the mail coach from Rotorua came along crowded with passengers, and they all laughed at the strange sight of a motor car tipped up on its hind legs. None of them had seen a car before. However, we duly arrived at Rotorua. I rode back to Auckland, and Dr Haynes later had a, good run back.”

In the early days it was Mr. Henning’s ambition to prove to the public that motor cars were quite reliable. He covered many a short tour round Auckland —runs that to-dav would take only a couple of hours. Then he decided to set out on a run from one end of the North Island to the other, and he did the trip without much trouble, giving demonstrations all the way. It took him a fortnight to get from New Plymouth to Wellington. Everywhere he stopped great crowds flocked round the steam car, and every time he left her he had to force his way back again through the crowd. TRAVELLING THE SOUTH ISLAND

In Wellington Mr. Henning sold ten cars. Then he went on down to the South Island and drove the first ear over the hills from Lyttelton to Christchurch. He journeyed to Dunedin and back again.

“When I returned to Auckland 1 had firmly established myself as a motor car importer,” said Mr. Henning. “To give you an. idea ; of what I thought of the motor industry, I immediately placed an order in America for ten steam locomobiles. In those days that was a very large order. In fact it was the biggest order placed for many years in the southern hemisphere. Those were the good old days.” T . , . Some time later Mr. Henning established his own business, which was known until a few years ago as “George Henning, Limited. His first petrol-driven car was a Daimler, and he was the first agent for that car in the Dominion. The early Auckland motorist, recalls Mr. Henning, had to contend until every conceivable inconvenience. Ihe word “garage” was unknown and the man who owned a- stable liad terv deep-seated objections against housing an automobile under the same root as his horses. The very sight of the “rattling contraption,” lie said, set his horses trembling.