2 days ago
Stagecoach history ‘fascinating'
The first ventured from Dunedin to Gabriel's Gully, at Lawrence, on October 11, 1861, in nine hours — an unbelievable feat slashing the journey's length from two days to less than half a day.
The coaches operated around New Zealand and a new book Over Alps and Plains in Cobb's Name, by the late Peter Savage, intimately details travel by stagecoach and the contribution they made to regional development in Canterbury.
Canterbury writer and researcher Peter Savage died in April last year, leaving his unfinished book — an almost three-decade labour of love — in the safe hands of his sister Anne Rodgers.
Last month, 100 copies of the completed book rolled off the press at CopyPress, a small Nelson print factory run by husband-and-wife Dave and Philippa MacManus.
Ms Rodgers said her brother was a very vulnerable person and had been suffering from poor mental health.
Savage lived alone in Cust after being made redundant, at 50, from his high-country research jobs with Lands and Survey and the Department of Conservation. He had been working as a gardener before going into care about five years ago.
In 2016, Ms Rodgers and the MacManuses helped Savage publish his first book For Cust's Sake. But they had no idea what was coming next.
When Savage went into care Ms Rodgers discovered boxes of his handwritten notes and photographs about Cobb & Co stagecoaches operating in Canterbury and Westland more than 100 years ago. The boxes also contained unpublished material he had acquired from other stagecoach researchers.
Ms Rodgers took four boxes of the material to the MacManuses for assessment. After Mr MacManus indicated they were game to take on the project, she delivered eight more boxes containing more notes and documents.
Thus begun the painstaking unpicking and recompilation of Savage's stagecoach obsession, resulting in 230 pages about Canterbury stagecoaches and the characters who worked with them, including the Cole brothers' incredibly quick establishment of their Dunedin-based Cobb & Co business in just seven days in 1861.
Mr MacManus said it was not like the material they usually dealt with.
"This was a little unusual. It was not delivered as a fully prepared manuscript like we would usually get. We got three small pallets of material — photos, rough drafts, manuscripts, lots of slides. He had researched at a lot of museums."
Savage had written a basic plan and the first two chapters. Other chapters were quite well developed but some were just two or three lines long.
Initially, it felt a little overwhelming, Mr MacManus said.
"At the start, Philippa and I looked at each other and thought, what do we do now?
"I personally did not want 20 years and more of research wasted. I felt morally obliged to do it. When we thought about taking it on, we thought we would have to step up ourselves. It is scary, a project like that, when you add it all up."
Golden Bay editor Jim Kennard agreed to come on board to structure and edit the material, do extra research and writing where needed, and track down the owners of images for their permission to publish.
Mr Kennard said from what he could work out, Savage began writing the book about 1992 but put it aside for a long time before picking it up again about 2016.
"It was fascinating. I learned so much from it," he said.
Among the typewritten material were screeds of handwritten notes Mr Kennard found "totally illegible". Nevertheless, he boldly continued, aided by additional material he found on the internet.
He became drawn to the stories of coach drivers, called "whips", and the hardships they endured in all types of weather and terrain.
"Catching a stagecoach wasn't cheap either. A ticket from Hokitika to Christchurch was £5. That was a lot of money, several weeks of average earnings. The only alternative was walking or hitching a ride on a bullock cart. But it was interesting that from 1890, you started to see bikes being strapped on the back. You can imagine the passengers being left at their remote drop-off point and pedalling off to their villages," Mr Kennard said.
Mr MacManus said he never met Savage but talked to him and learned he was very methodical and absolutely determined to achieve his vision and dream.
It was a tragedy Savage never got to see the completed book, Mr Kennard said.
"Yes, it was daunting to edit the book, and I didn't know Peter.
"But he had done nearly 30 years of work on it and he needs to be honoured for that and his vision and dream needs to be preserved." The News has a copy of Over Alps and Plains in Cobb's Name to give away. To be in the draw to win a copy, send an email to info@ and tell us the title of Peter Savage's first book. Entries close 4pm on August 18.
— Allied Media
