OLD COACHING DAYS

Taranaki Daily News, 13 October 1934, Page 16 (Supplement)

OLD COACHING DAYS

HORSES AND DRIVERS FAMOUS NELSON TEAMS. MR. TOM NEWMAN LOOKS BACK. Interesting incidents of the old horse coaching days of half a century and more ago between Nelson and Blenheim and Westport were reviewed in a chat with a Nelson Evening Mail reporter by Mr. Tom Newman, of the firm of Newman Brothers Limited. Mr. Newman and his late brother, Mr. Harry Newman—sons of one of Nelson’s pioneer settlers—were from their youth up imbued with a love of horses, and as far back as the early “seventies” they were waggoning between Nelson and Murchison. Their first mail and passenger coach service—that between Foxhill and Murchison—was inaugurated in 1878. The service was continued until superseded by the service cars. The teams of five used on the NelsonBlenheim route were widely famed. The journey of 80 miles was broken into five stages. The first stage from Blenheim to Okaramio was covered with chestnuts, from Okaramio to Canvastown with blacks, browns were selected for the stretch between Canvastown and the Collins Valley (via the Rai Valley), while bays were used from the Collins to Happy Valley, and five fine matched greys for the final short stage into Nelson. Hundreds of older Nelsonians well remember this set of fine, spirited animals as the coach swung into Trafalgar Street for the final impressive run 'to the Stables. “BRING THEM TO ENGLAND.” One day while driving the coach from Brightwater to Grassy Flat—in the Upper Buller —an English tourist was so taken up with the horses that he wished to buy the whole team and take them back to England. On another occasion, on the Richmond show ground, Mr. Newman said he was driving a pair of guncottons in a tandem when Mr. O’Rorke, from the North of Ireland, said: “Newman, I wish you could bring your horses home to England. I’m sure there is nothing there that could beat you.” Of course, taking horses to Britain was too much, “but all the same they were beautiful horses,” Mr. Newman said. Nothing hurt more than to lose a horse. Mr. Newman told of several cases where whole teams had been lost in the flooded Buller, “but the hardest experience [ ever had was in 1918 when the time came to sell the last 20 of the coacn horses,” he said. The last coach service to be driven tn the Nelson district was driven between Murchison and the Glenhope railhead in 1918. Mr. Tom Newman was the driver, and, as he pulled up at Glenhope on the last trip, he received an offer of £35 for the vehicle and accepted it. It was in that year that Mr. Harry Newman died. Mr. Tom Newman, who is now 75 years di age, has kept up with the newest form of transport, the aeroplane. He was the first and the last man to drive the coaches, and the first to arrive in Nelson in an aeroplane. He was also the first to land in an aeroplane at Murchison. COACH AND RACECOURSE. Mr. Newman told many stories of experiences on the road during his driving days, and of the fine matched sets of stately thoroughbreds, f which he was so justly proud. One of the stories was about a horse named Daybreak. This thoroughbred was driven in the coach to Murchison (then known as Hampden) in 1882 at which time horseracing on the Four River plain track was the big fixture of the year in the Central Buller district. There was a Mr. Blower In Murchison who had his horse Grey Moments especially trained to win the Hampden Cup that year, said Mr. Newman, but nevertheless he and his brother entered Daybreak. Young Jack James was chosen to ride the Newmans’ entry and the handicap of having been driven in the coach to Mur- • chison on tire previous day did not affect him, for he won the cup. After the race Grey Moments’ owner was still confident that his horse could defeat Daybreak and so he challenged Tom and Harry to race on the following day (Sunday) for £lOO aside. “We didn’t have a hundred shillings, much less a hundred pounds,” said Mr. Newman, “but news of the challenge soon spread, and £lOO was collected on the course by those keen to see the race, and given to us so that the challenge could be accepted. Well, the race, which had aroused great interest, was run over a mile and a half, young Jack James riding our horse to victory. The £lOO was duly paid over and my brother and I thus found ourselves suddenly become rich.”