OLD-TIME COACHING DAYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3448, 13 April 1920, Page 61

OLD-TIME COACHING DAYS.

THE LATE B. B. WILLIAMS. A well-known figure in the 'seventies of Otago coaching history, passed away at Wellington early this year. Robert Benjamin Williams, better known to his intimate friends as "Bobbie" Williams, was the son of Dr Robert Williams, of the early provincial (days of Otago, a sketch of whose career appears in another column in this issue. R. B. Williams was born In Berkshire, England, in the year 1842, and arrived at Port Chalmers in the Bernicia in 1848, with his parents. The excitement created, by the gold discoveries at Gabriel's Gully fired his imagination and he soon made his way there, although but a lad at the time. After various adventures he joined the Bank of Otago, under' the late Mr Bathgate. But he yearned for outdoor life once more, arid after a few years' service he secured the mail contract between Balclutha and' Clinton. He purchased Barr's coaching plant, and commenced coaching between those places. Gaining experience he bought the CiintonInvercargill service, which was run by Jerusalem Smyth and John Knox, and ran the coaches right through to Inveroargill. Coaching in the 'seventies was no joke, especially in the wet weather. The roads, if they may be so called, were in winter something atrocious. The Popotunoa Gorge, then used, was almost impassable at times, and between the gorge and the Mataura River there was practically only a track, which passed through Otaria and emerged from the hills about four miles above Mataura Bridge. Many were his adventures. He had the unique experience of having his coach burned under him on one occasion, the fire having started in the mail bags. All efforts to save the coach proved unavailing. On another occasion, travelling at night over the tussocks, he lost the track in the darkness. After wandering for some hours he saw -wheelmarks. Following these with his team of tired horses, he came/upon a cottage. Pulling up with the coach alongside the window he rapped on the door with his whip handle. He heard a shriek within, and a woman's voice crying : "John ! John ! get up, here is the de'il himsel with great blazing eyes come to tak' us awa' !" He soon allayed their fears and they showed him a way to the road again. The opening of the railway to Balclutha from Dunedin made it possible to go through from Inveroargill to Dunedin in one day Mr Williams has given us a graphic account of that first trip. He and three others left Inveroargill at 2.30 a.m. aboard the locomotive known as "The Rat," 'reaching Mataura at 6.30 a.m., on a bleak, misty October morning. Ham and eggs at Cameron's Mataura Hotel, and then 50 miles by road, with three changes of horses. Three or four days of hot winds had dried the sui-face only of the wet_clay. The journey took seven hours instead of five. A cheering crowd at Balclutha and Tom Logan's Crown Hotel thrown open_ to the public, other publicans following suit. Train to Dunedin at 4 o'clock and a day's rest. The return journey was less fortunate. Leaving Balclutha at 9 p.ma. in a light' mail cart and a picked team of four horses, a sharp "Tchk" was heard as they struggled through the clay and awheel was left standing .up right in the mud. ' The borrowing of another vehicle from an irate resident gave an added zest to the adventure, which had a successful termination when Clinton was reached. With the railway opened from Dunedin to Balclutha, and' from Inveroargill to Mataura a larger number of people began to travel. More coaches were required to convey them between the two rail heads. An arrangement was made with Messrs Chaplin and Co., of Dunedin, to run a daily service between Balclutha arid Mataura, R. B. Williams and Co. driving three days a week, and Chaplin and Co. the alternate days, both travelling as Cobb and Co. Ultimately Mr Williams bought out Chaplin and Co., and continued running until the railway was opened right through. By this time the present road from Clinton to Gore had been formed and opened''. His coaching days over, he. in conjunction with Mr E. Melland, o.f Dunedin, purchased from Mr Jack Dundas, the Cheviot Station, near Manapouri Lake and Te Anau Downs. The rabbit pest and had times generally, forced them to vacate the place in 1888. In 1896 he went to Melbourne, and while there met and renewed acquaintance with the late Edward Devine (Cabbage Tree Ned), so well known in Otago and Victorian Coaching Annals. Returning to Southland in 1905 he resided there till 1912. when he retired to Wellington, where he lived till the day of his death. Doggedness and pluck were his characteristics, and coupled' with great kindness of heart made him a -general favourite. Although broken in health no word of complaint was uttered by him. Nothing delighted him more than to talk over the good old days of Cobb and Co. in Otago and Southland 1 . Hie married in v 1883, Margaret, youngest daughter of the late W. Brnnton, M.1.C.E., of Otara Station, Toi Toi, and had two sons and a daughter—Mr W. . B.' Williams, of the National Bank of New late lieutenant on active service with the Ota<?o Infantry Battalion ; Rev. R. H. B. Williams, vicar of St. Luke's, North Fitzroy. Melbourne; and Miss Margery B. Williams. A photograph oi the subject of the above sketch and one of his coaches preparing to leave Clinton appears on our illustrated pages.