He Has Carried Royal Mail On Coaches And Motor Buses

Chronicle (Levin), 6 January 1949, Page 4

He Has Carried Royal Mail On Coaches And Motor Buses

January 1 was a significant day for Royal Mail contractor and passenger bus driver, Mr. E. J. Murphy, for it marked'the « 18th anniversary of fyis, association with the daily road transport service between Foxton and Levin. It was on the. first* day of January, 1931, that Mr. Murphy drove his first bus through and it is his boast that he has only once missed a rail eonnection with his mail — when his vehicle was caught in flood waters. Now in his sevpnties, Mr. Murphy is still most active and has no immediate fhoughts of retirement. Actually his association with the road goes much further back than 1931, he being one of those.hardened veterans who- braved mud, cold and ftoods on the driving seat of the old coaches of the Manawatu.

There was no tar-sealed road when Mr. Murphy first plied between the two towns — only dust, ptfWioles and more dust, and in the winter mud. Besides this he had to contend - with flood » waters in the Whirokino area, where the trestle bridge now is, for three months of every year. His knowledge of the road, however, stood him in good stead and the best fording places were soon well known to him. Reminiscing the other day, Mr, Murphy told a "Chronicle" reporter of occasions when he was required to tranship his passengers in the Whirokino area, the passengers using a swing bridge and boarding a second bus on the other side of thb affeeted road section. Numeroiis times he had to go right around via Shannon. On one occasion during- a seven foot flood he engaged the services of a well-known Foxton personality, Mr. Charles Prew, to take his passengers across in a boat. Many are the cars which he has seen submerged in the flopd waters. Once hq had just completed the 11 a.m. run from Levin, the road then being "bone dry/' when the late Mr. R. Bryant rang him to infprm him that. if he wished to get bhck to Levin he should collect his hTail from the Post Offlce immediately, as the fiver was rising rhpidly. Describing that return trip,

Mr. Murphy said that he "just made /it" to the old Whirokino bridge. A truck coming ih the opposite direction, however, took a chance, but four inches of- its hood was all that Mr. Murphy could see of it when he returned from Levin. Passengers between Foxton and Levin were much more numerous now than in the early days, and during Christmas his buses to Fox- . ton were cfowded. Mr. Murphy "commenced operations 18 years ago with a five-seater service car. He then bought a seven-seater, followed by an 11seater and an i8-seater, and now he has two full sized buses. He has now taken his son into the. business, When a lad of 14, Mr. Murphy started the first newspaper run from Feilding via Awahuri and through to Sanson. He made the journey daily on horseback, delivering the Rangitikei Advocate and Feilding Star. He also drove coaches between Feilding and Kimbolton in his early youth. Kimbolton, said Mr. Murphy, was previously known as Birmingham, but owing to the mails . sometimes finding their way to the Engiish city of that name, it was dropped in favour of Kimbolton. Long before planes were thought about, Mr. Murphy was driving a coach from Ohakea to Palmerston North and later from Rongotea to Feilding. /