AFTER FIFTY YEARS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26749, 19 April 1948, Page 4

AFTER FIFTY YEARS

COACH DRIVER RETURNS FAIRLIE-PjUKAKI RUN Carying his 78 years lightly and with his sharp, bright eyes missing nothing in their sweep of the landscape, Mr George Shaw stepped out of the service bus at Lake Pukaki one day last week on his first journey from Fairlie to Pukaki since he stopped driving coaches over the rough road 50 years before. He saw great changes in the highway, the scenery, and the people, but he expressed no regret that the years had altered so drastically the views he had held in his memory. Mr Shaw has been keeping fully abreast of the world since he gave up coaching.

The mail coach, known like most others in those days as “Cobb and Co.’s coach,” used to run daily over this route in good weather, but in the winter only an “express” mail delivery operated to Pukaki. Mr Shaw began driving for Kerr and Frame on the run between Fairlie and Pukaki in 1890. He used to leave Fairlie at 8 a.m., arrive at Tekapo at 2 p.m., and be at Pukaki by 6 o’clock. The horses were changed only once, at Tekapo. “ There used to be four coaches arriving at Pukaki every day,” Mr Shaw told the Daily Times, “and didn’t we have a time at nights! The coaches came from Kurow, Queenstown, Mount

Cook, and Fairlie. They used to cross the river by a punt just below the hotel. A man named Riddle operated it when I was driving. We used to keep our horses in a paddock up that hill,” he said, pointing in a northeasterly direction, “and many the chase 1 have had in the early morning catching them.” When he left the Pukaki-Fairlie run in 1899, Mr Shaw’s life changed considerably. He. helped build the Otira, tunnel, he worked in the North Island, was employed on hydro-electric works, and then trained and raced horses. He has been living in Christchurch for many years. His son, Mr J. S. Shaw, is a well-known trainer and a wrestling referee, and Mr Shaw, sen., has never lost interest in horses. He says he is too old to train them now but he still has one old favourite which he retains for teaching his grandchildren to ride, and which is also used in the training of young horses. Not only was Mr Shaw determined to revisit Pukaki, but he also has a keen desire to come further south. He was born in Oamaru, and he has other ties with Otago—his father was a miner on the Tuapeka and Waipori goldfields. He was making only a brief visit to Pukaki before returning to Fairlie to try to find.some of his “old cobbers.” Later, he intends coming to Otago. “ Does the mail coach call at the hotel? ” he. asked as he puffed at his pipe and gazed over the Pukaki hydroelectric scheme looking for the service bus. “ They’re pulling down this old hotel? ” he inquired when his first query had beben answered. “ Many a good time I’ve had here," he chuckled. “ There used to be a cook I spent some time with in the kitchen, but, of course, I was a young man then. Yes, it’s been good to come back.”