Contact Between Katikati and the Outside World in the 1920s by E. T. Jordan

Author pictured: Restored photograph from an unknown newspaper source with original inset.

In this article:

• Captain Jerry Williams — captain of the M.V. Ōmokoroa.
• Ollie Dunton — ran a service car from Aongatete to Waihī.
• Les Hume — White Star service-car driver; supplied Jordan with some information.
• Stewart Rae — driving a cartload of metal at Te Mānia bridge; also named among road/railway-construction cart and waggon drivers.
• Hon. Charlie Macmillan — passenger in Les Hume’s car during the Te Mānia bridge incident.
• Tommy Rae — named with Stewart Rae among cart and waggon drivers using the clay track.
• The Rapley brothers — named among cart and waggon drivers using the clay track.
• “Cocky” Wells — farmer at the foot of Wright’s Road; gave Jordan’s friend a lift through to Tauranga.
• Mrs Cloutman — kept the Athenree Post Office; phoned Waihī Station about whether the train should wait.
• Joan Merrielees — teacher at Ōmokoroa in 1923; supplied the anecdote about waiting for the service car.
• Jordan’s wife — unnamed; drove medical emergency trips to Tauranga Hospital.
• Jordan’s father-in-law — unnamed; his car was available for medical emergencies.
• District Nurse — unnamed.
• The baker — unnamed; described as the most knowledgeable local engine man.
• The blacksmith — unnamed; used for car body or spring repairs.
• An unnamed man who worked in the Waihī Gold Mine and owned land in Katikati.
• An unnamed friend of Jordan’s who was given a lift by “Cocky” Wells.

In the mid twenties there were various ways in which Katikati people could travel to Tauranga or Waihī. First of all you could walk and some people did. I knew one man who worked in the Waihī Gold mine and owned land in Katikati. He would walk to Katikati on Saturday night; work on his land all Sunday and then walk back to Waihī on Sunday night.

Another alternative was to push a bike and that was just what you would do - push it most of the way because the ruts were so bad.

Apart from these, there were four other ways of getting out of the district. There was the horse - and, whether ridden or in the gig, this was the surest and often the quickest way.

Then there was the M.V. Ōmokoroa, Captain Jerry Williams. This boat was giving a regular service between Tauranga and Katikati. It took all the butter and other produce out of the district and brought in all the supplies: the groceries, the flour for the baker, the benzene, the manure for the farmers (though very little was used in those days) and so on.

If I may digress to elaborate on the subject of benzene. At that time the greatest user of benzene in Katikati was not the car, for there were only a few in the district and they were only taken out on special occasions. No - the biggest consumer of benzene was the engine that drove the milking machine and a few more that drove water-pumps. In the 1925-7 period electric power was reticulated through the district and the use of the benzene engine declined. However for the first few years breakdowns in supply were fairly frequent and, because of the state of the roads, repairs took a considerable time so the benzene engines in the cowsheds were a valuable standby for a number of years.

Benzene came in two 4-gallon tins packed in a wooden box. Both the boxes and the tins had many secondary uses. Much home-made furniture was constructed from the boxes. While as for the tins - we sat on them as stools; used them as buckets; I’ve seen cars patched with them, hen-houses roofed with them, dog-kennels and even baches sheathed with them; they were filled with stones and used to weight down stack rooves; I’ve seen them used as drawers - not the winter ones (we were not quite as tough as that).

To return to the Ōmokoroa - As well as cargo she also carried passengers. However, if you travelled by her to Tauranga, you knew that it was no unusual thing for Jerry to cut things a bit fine in leaving Katikati with the result that by the time you reached the “Mangroves” (the shallowest part of the channel) the tide had gone too far out and the Ōmokoroa grounded and stayed grounded for about 12 hours while the tide went slowly out and then came slowly in again. Because of the Ōmokoroa’s draught it had to be nearly high tide before she would lift off and you could proceed on your journey. While you sat there it was very probable that you would watch horses and carts cross your bows going between Matakana Island and Matahui Point. There would not be many waterways in the world where you could have that experience.

The Ōmokoroa only did one trip a week and so, if you were planning your return trip in her, it did not really matter if she did get stuck because you would still have plenty of time to do your business. In fact, if she got stuck on a night tide, it would save you the cost of a night’s board at the pub. You always took food with you in anticipation of such an event.

Organized picnics at the Katikati Heads or at Ōmokoroa were arranged from time to time and the Ōmokoroa was hired to transport the people from Katikati to these places.

The third means of transport was the service car. In those days these were literally cars; big eight-seaters. There were two running from Tauranga to Waihī and back. One was the White Star Company’s car and the other belonged to the Aard Company. There was also a service car run by Ollie Dunton going from Aongatete to Waihī which drew its passengers from the Katikati people including the several railway construction camps in the district at the time.

It must be remembered that all these cars travelled that road at approximately the same time because their purpose was to connect with the train leaving Waihī at 10.30 a.m.; Waihī being the end of the line in those days.

Les Hume, who was driving the White Star car for some years, provided me with some of the following information.

To understand travel by service car in those days you have to bear in mind both the state of the cars and the state of the roads.

The cars had canvas hoods which folded back. The sides were open except in wet weather when side curtains were put up. These let in most of the wind and much of the rain too. There was no boot so mail bags etc., were usually stowed in the valley between the front mudguard and the bonnet.

Cars, at that time, only had brakes on the back wheels and, as they were not enclosed, the mud built up on the brake bands and had a continual braking effect when you did not want it so service cars removed them and went brakeless. In those days when an average of 35mph on a metalled road was considered good and cars were few, the advantages were deemed to outweigh the dangers. At times however this did lead to awkward situations -

On one trip Les Hume, when on his way to Waihī, came round the corner to run down the slope to the Te Mānia bridge and saw, in the middle of the bridge, Stewart Rae with a cartload of metal pulled by three horses. It being a fine day Les was doing a good 35mph (and he had no brakes). The creek in those days went round in a horse-shoe with the bridge at the toe so, which ever way he turned, he was headed for the creek. Incidentally he had the Hon. Charlie Macmillan, who weighed 22 stone, in the front passenger seat. What was he to do? He put the accelerator on full throttle; he aimed the drivers-side wheels so close to the hub of the cart that he just about scraped his mudguards and with Charlie suspended over the water, he wiped every rail and upright off the up-stream side of the bridge but he landed on the opposite bank. Furthermore - and this is a measure of the way that cars were constructed in those days - while he had a broken headlight and he had to straighten out the mudguard with the axe he always carried, he was able to drive on to Waihī and catch the train with his passengers. Whether you call that an awkward situation is a matter of opinion.

As for the road, there was metal at the approaches to Waihī and the approaches to Tauranga but in between, apart from a strip of metal in Katikati township from about the Police Station to where the R.S.A. Hall now is, it was just miles of twisting turning, one-way, clay track. Railway construction was in full swing which meant that carts and waggons driven by Stewart and Tommy Rae, the Rapley brothers and others were using this clay track in all weathers, with the result that the wheels cut deep ruts. Cars had to straddle these, for if the wheels slipped into them the car “bellied” with inches of fresh air between the tyre and the bottom of the rut if the weather was fine. In wet weather there was a liquid mud between the two. If you stalled the engine then, apart from your other troubles, you had to dig a hole in which to swing the starting handle. This meant that when you swung that handle you were nearly standing on your head and if the engine backfired the handle was likely to give you not only a broken wrist but possibly a broken jaw or broken neck as well.

To give you some idea of fine weather driving on that kind of road - a friend of mine was given a lift through to Tauranga by “Cocky” Wells who had the farm at the foot of Wright’s Road. When they got on to the metal near Tauranga they realised that something was seriously wrong. They got out and had a look and found that a tyre and rim were missing (your tyres were on split rims bolted on to the wheels in those days). The tyre was not any-where in sight so they started to look further back. Eventually they found that tyre a whole mile from where they stopped. The road was so cut up and uneven that they had driven a mile without noticing that the tyre was missing until they got on to the metal.

In the wet weather the cart wheels and horses hooves combined to turn the whole track into a sea of mud, very often with no indication as to where the ruts were underneath a smooth shining surface. Where possible the service cars dodged the road and drove through the tea-tree or over the paddocks but, by prearrangement, they had teams of horses waiting at various points along the road to pull them through the worst stretches that could not be dodged, and they were pulled by horses for up to eight miles in the worst weather; most of that being between Tauranga and Work’s Road. Do you wonder that those cars were leaving Tauranga as early as 4 a.m. in the winter, allowing 6½ hours for the 40 miles to catch that train? Even then they were sometimes too late. Mrs. Cloutman who had the Athenree Post Office, about 600 yards on the Katikati side of the Athenree turn-off, would be waiting for the cars with the question “Will you make it?” She would then ring their answer through to the Waihī Station. There was an arrangement that the train would wait up to half an hour beyond its normal starting time if, by so doing, the cars could connect.

Even under the best weather conditions the journey could not be covered quickly. I remember a fine morning in early 1928 when the road was dry. Due to trouble with the car that I was in, I was at Cameron Road/11th Ave junction at 5.30 when Les Hume, who at the time lived near by, drove past on the way to collect his passengers from the pubs. So, under good weather conditions, he was allowing say 4½ hours for that 40 mile trip.

Joan Merrielees tells that when she had her first teaching post at Ōmokoroa in 1923 she used to go back to Tauranga for the weekends in the service car and so the driver, every Friday, when he got to Katikati used to ring Ōmokoroa and give his estimated time of arrival at the Ōmokoroa turn-off. On one occasion he gave his ETA as 2.30. Joan was at the corner by that time but she had to wait and wait until the car finally arrived at 10.30! It had taken the car ten hours, plus the time that the driver had allowed for the journey, to get from Katikati to Ōmokoroa.

That car must have left Katikati at about its normal time and anyone boarding it there would have hoped to arrive in Tauranga in time to do his business before closing time, stay the night and catch the service car back home next morning. As it was he would have had to do his business the next day, put in a second night in Tauranga before going home or else go home without doing his business. These sort of problems were a recognised part of life at that time.

Those service cars were the only public transport and the drivers recognising this, would pile passengers into their car in a way that would not be considered today. Les Hume told me of his record load. He got to the Athenree corner one morning to find a number of people waiting for him and he already had some in the car. He piled them all on to what was officially an 8-seater car. He managed to squeeze ten, including himself, inside. He put the hood down and 4 sat on that; two stood on each running-board, while three with their arms linked, to stop them falling off, sat across the mud-guards and the bonnet. He drove those 21 from Athenree to Waihī. Obviously they had to get off and walk up the hill at the far end of the Gorge. Les said he never knew how those old type tyres stood up to that load.

Les would have had to rely on those on the bonnet calling “Left hand down a bit” to tell him how to steer. Imagine driving a gig through the Athenree Gorge in the opposite direction and coming round one of the hair-pin bends that there used to be on that one-way road and meeting that, and that without any brakes! I drove a gig through that gorge in those days, do you wonder that I made sure I never went through at service-car time?

The fourth alternative for getting out of the district was to use your own car, if you had one. As I said at the beginning there were not very many in the district and in most cases they were only taken out of the shed on special occasions. Perhaps you took your family to church in it, all in their Sunday best, providing it was fine. You would certainly take them to the A & P Show, providing it was fine, to let the world know that you had a car. And very impressive those half-dozen cars did look, even if most of them were Tin Lizzies. But even for very special occasions you would never take the car out in the wet because you would probably never get to where you wanted to go, let alone get back. No matter how dry it was the chains, sacks, spade and axe always stayed in the back of the car, “just in case” (as I have said there was no boot).

Apart from urgent business I can think of only three occasions that might cause Katikatians to get their cars out to go to Tauranga in those days. There was the Tauranga Show; several might want to go to that. A few would be interested in going to the Regatta and one or two would try to go to the Hunt Ball. The Pakuranga Hounds worked the district each year and the Ball marked the end of their brief season here. All these outings depended on the road being dry and even then you made arrangements for the possibility that you might not get back as planned. It might rain. Your car might break down, for they were not as reliable as they are today.

I should mention that there was no garage in Katikati of course. If your car went wrong the most knowledgeable man in the district on engines was the baker. For anything to do with body or springs you went to the blacksmith.

On a long journey such as the one to Tauranga you took wirestrainers and fencing pliers for even in dry weather you could get stuck. In January 1927 I was invited to go to the Regatta. We got about eight miles on our way when we came up behind two cars, both “bellied”. There was no possibility of getting past even by taking the fence down and driving through the paddocks. For two hours we tried to help but those cars were still stuck so we managed to back to a place where we could turn and went back home. As an indication of the traffic density - in the whole two hours we were there no other car came from either direction. This must have been an occasion when we were not carrying the wire strainers otherwise we could have got those cars moved. With these tools you looked for a tree, a fence strainer or anything solid in the direction in which you wanted the car to go that would act as an anchor. If there wasn’t anything you cut down a small tree or a good branch, trimmed it and drove it into the ground in a suitable place. You then measured the distance from the car to the anchor and cut a piece of wire off the fence of the requisite length, tied it to your car and got to work with the wirestrainers to pull it until it was free. It was a rule of the road that, after you had used the wire, you left it there on the side of the road. The accepted idea was that when the farmer came to see where all his stock were getting out, he would have something with which to repair his fence. This generosity on your part made you feel all good inside. The real reason was that if you got stuck again half a mile further on, when you came to measure the length of wire needed, as sure as fate this time you would want 25 yards whereas the previous length had been 20 yards and so would have been no good to you anyway. Also a coil of muddy wire, as a fellow passenger, is not appreciated by the people in the back seat.

There was no doctor in Katikati in those days nor any ambulance but there was a District Nurse and these nurses did a great job. This brings me to one reason that would take a car out on the worst of days; if a patient had to be rushed to a doctor or to hospital. As I have explained, many people did not have a car but the District Nurse knew that my father-in-law’s car was always available for such emergencies and, more often than not, my wife was the driver. In bad weather these trips could take a long time and involve a lot of hard work but they always got through eventually. However I just want to tell of one incident on one trip. My wife set off one summer evening for the Tauranga Hospital with the nurse and a patient. The road was fairly firm but greasy because of showers so she put on chains before starting up the hill now called Turntable Road (up to the 1950s this was a part of the Main Highway). About half way up to the top she came round a bend and there facing her was a car, stopped. The occupants were standing beside it drinking beer. They were all dressed in white shirts and pants and wearing panamas and blazers. They had obviously been taking part in some tournament and were on their way home to Waihī, Paeroa or elsewhere and were probably celebrating the fact that they had successfully climbed the steep zigzag up the Tauranga side of that hill which was known to everyone in the district as the “Corkscrew” (This no longer exists).

The watertable looked shallow and my wife decided that if she put her outside wheels into it the chains should keep the car moving and she would just squeeze past the other car. However the tilt was too great and the inside wheels spun.

The gents, seeing a lady driver, gallantly offered to push and, with their help, she was on her way again. Going up-hill on a greasy road like that, once you got moving it was not safe to stop. She called out “Thank you” and looked in the mirror and what she saw nearly made her go off the road again. When they built cars in the 1920s they didn’t worry to prevent back-splash from the rear wheels and when those wheels spun with chains on, they threw the dirt out quite viciously so the two gents pushing on each side had their white pants not just bespeckled but plastered with dirt. As for the man pushing in the middle, his feet had slipped from under him and he had measured his length on the road with the result that even his nose had collected some of the greasy clay, while as for his clothes - oh, dear!

Those gents weren’t feeling gallant any more, they were shaking their fists at that car.