RECORD OF SERVICE

Wairarapa Daily Times, 31 July 1936, Page 4

RECORD OF SERVICE

25 YEARS AS MAIL CARRIER. ONLi? ONE MISHAP. To-day marks the completion of 25 years of service as a mail carrier for Mr E. H. Spackman, Totara Street, Lansdowne. During that time Mr Spackman has been bogged, held up for hours with slips on the roads, has had to wait for creeks to go down before he could cross, but on only one occaj sion has lie had a mishap. On Ist AugI ust, 1911, Mr Spackman purchased the Masterton-Te Wliarau-Lands End mail service from Mr E. Richards, and he has carried on a three day a week service on this route for the 25 years, first with a coach for four and a half years j and after that with motor vehicles and | although over 60 years of age, is still carrying on.

' Mr Spackman has, indeed, a record I to be proud of. The occasion of his j one mishap was in 1913 or 1914 when he , was washed off his horse at Hender- . son’s Creek ford between Te Wharau j and Lands End. Mr Spackman. man- . i aged to hang on to his horse but lost # grip of the mail bags, lie was carrying, . one of which was lost and two others

1 recovered the next morning. It was at i this ford that Mr W. T. Douglas, own--1 er of Lands End Station, lost his life ;on 20th February four years ago. Up 1 till eighteen months ago when the 1 creeks were bridged, Mr Spackman had three fords to cross on his trip, all of which were very dangerous at times. These were Jackson’s, Henderson’s and ■ Pah Hill. I “I used to have some tough battles 1 crossing these creeks at times,” - said

Mr Spackman. “They rose very qu'ekI ly with a terrific rush of water and often I had to wait for an hour before attempting to cross. ’ ’ | For four and a half years from 1,911, when he first took over the run with | coaches, Mr Spackman started with a i three-horse coach which he increased shortly afterwards to five. In 1913 he carried the first mails through Westmere, using one coach in the summer and two in the winter, for three years, after which Westmere was separated from the Lands End run and became a separate tender. In those days there was no metal on the Westmere route. For a period during the war Mr. Spackman sold out his mail contract to

Hood Bros., who sold to Messrs Fairbrothers and after three years Mr Spademan successfully tendered for the run again. After selling the mail run he carried on a six-horse waggon team hauling timber on the same road. “In 1911 there were eleven settlers on the mail run/’ said Mr Spademan, “and to-day there were eighteen private bags as well as nine on rural delivery. There have been very few changes of ownership on the. stations althought, of course, some have taken over properties which were run by their fathers in the early days.” There were some, big hills on the route, said Mr Spademan, and although the roads are much improved to-day, when he first started there was very little metal on some portions of the road. At times in the winter he found it quicker, if there were only mailbags to carry, to walk from Te Wliarau to Lands End by leaving the road and taking short cuts. In his coaching days the trip, which is a distance of 32 miles, took two days, one day out and the next day back. With the car the trip and return is now done in one day.