“GIVE IT A SPIN”

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 51, 23 May 1927, Page 7

“GIVE IT A SPIN”

TRACTION EXPERIMENTS NORTH SHORE’S VENTURES (Written for THE SUN.) The scheme to run trackless buses or trolley buses at the North Shore is the seventh mechanical transport proposition that the marine suburbs have experimented with and is a curious manifestation of the theory of “give it a. spin” that has been at the .back of many things done in the way of public utilities at the Shore. The first horse-drawn passenger transport was ogranised from Devonport to Takapuna in the early seventies by a Mr. Davies. Between the Lake and Devonport was a stretch of farm land and passengers were not numerous. In 1883 the Devonport Steam Ferry Co. organised in 1881, proposed to run horse-drawn trams in Devonport with the option of extending the service to the Lake. The proposal lapsed. In 1885 another company, the Devonport and Lake Takapuna Tramways, secured a concession to run horse trams and actually built a section to Cheltenham Beach. Other extensions out to Takapuna (it was always “The Lake” to the old hands) were part of the scheme. This company came to grief and the assets were .sold to Duder Bros., who carried on the service for a year and then let it lapse. The rails went to a timber mills in the North. The fare to “The Lake” was to be Is, and 2s after 7 p.m. In the meantime the enterprising American, Mr. Quick, who had established a “Cobb and Co.” coaching service to the Waikato, had taken over the horse coaches to Takapuna. He was succeeded by others, and in the early part of the 20th century Messrs. Patterson put on a line of steam-driven buses from Devonport to “The Lake.” The sharp grades imposed strains on the engines and boilers which were not designed for such steepness and the venture failed. Prior to that, ill 1898, Devonport had conceded the first franchise for electric trams granted in New Zealand. The promoter was Mr. Paul Hansen, who later acquired the right to run electric cars in Auckland. In fact this later development led to a postponement of the tram work at Devonport and “The Lake” for some years, and in the meantime the option lapsed.

It was proposed to have penny section fares and the charge to “The Lake’’ was to be 6d. The concession also gave the right to supply electric power for domestic u'se. Thus the third scheme for trams, again indicative of Shore enterprise and willingness to give new ideas “a spin,” actually gave a lead to New Zealand, but the Shore never saw the fulfilment of its dreams. In 1906 an attempt was made to open negotiations again by the British Traction Trust, but the Devonport Council asked £SOO for the option of forming a company. The project was abandoned. NOT TO BE THWARTED

Two years later another concern, the Devonport Transport Co., with a registered capital of £150,000, half of which was in sight before the registration of the company, sought the right to run trams in Devonport and to “The Lake,” but polls of the ratepayers turned down the scheme. Not to be thwarted in the scheme to have trams to “The Lake,” the promoter of the first electric tram proposition in New Zealand (at Devonport), Mr. Hansen, then set goin#g the Takapuna tram scheme with steam trams. The innovation was eagerly taken up and the formation of new suburbs at Takapuna and Milford was the result. The trams shattered the connection between Takapuna and Devonport that had existed for 70 years. In 1923 another innovation in transport, motor-buses, was introduced on the road between Devonport and Takapuna. Innocent as it was it has led to the most amazing traffic tangle that our country fias recorded. Inside four years it was responsible for the elimination of the steam tram connection from Bayswater to the Milford terminus after 17 years of service more or less effectual. SAME OLD SPIRIT

Now the same ol dspirit of “give it a spin” is actuating the Shore to give a lead to the rest of the Dominion by bringing in electrically operated trolley buses. No other part of New Zealand has experimented so gamely in traction matters; and with the advent of cheap electric energy the apparently harmless scheme at the Shore may he a prelude to a complete revolution of New Zealand passenger transport, far outdistancing the effects of petrol-driven buses.—T.W.