1923: Farewell to Otira Coaches

August 6, 2023

By AHNZ

Until the Otira Tunnel opened (4 August, 1923) it was up to horse-drawn coaches to bridge the gap between Canterbury and Westland’s railways. The end of the line on the east side was at Cass and on the west side it was Otira. This left 25 miles (40km) to negotiate which includes Arthurs Pass Village. The last coach run over the Otira Gorge occured on 8 August, 1923.¹

Our current era celebrates the 8.5km Otira Tunnel now over 100 years old. It has ecclipsed the building of Arthur’s Pass Road (1865) which was once considered to be one of the country’s early engineering achievements.² Like most (all?) government projects, the Otira tunnel cost more (over twice the contract price) and took longer (5 years became 15) than was promised.

Before roads you had to find your own way over the alps. Passes were found and named for men like Arthur Dobson, Leonard Harper, (Harper’s Pass,) and Henry Lewis (Lewis Pass.) Browning Pass was apparently named after a surveyor of that name but I have an unconfirmed suspicion that Prime Minister Alfred Domett had it named after his famous poet friend.

Maoris did not have roads or passes or ‘ancient traditional knowledge’ according to their own witness. The last great West Coast chief, Werita Tainui, was asked how his invasion force crossed the mountains. “As for tracks for the war parties,” he says, “they did without them.” A big river like the Grey was followed to its source and then when the mountains were crossed the trekers “followed a stream flowing the other way.” Ref. Lord (e1976)

By the 1920s people could drive the Arthur’s Pass Road in their cars but required 2 horses to pull them over the harsh grades. For a while 5-horse coaches shared the road with modern motorcars.

The narrative of the 2020s tells us that women were oppressed and must be compensated with Affirmitive Action for all the years of missing out. Yet, they keep turning up. One of the coach drivers, Lillian Fell, was a teenager. She grew up in an Otira family building the railway line that eventually put her out of a job. According to the Greymouth Star (2023) the coachline, Halls, liquidated everything when the tunnel opened. So I don’t suppose even the horse-power car-towing service lasted after the tunnel’s opening day.

In 1912….”The railheads then were at Cass on one side and Otira on the other; the 25-mile gap between being covered by Cobb and Co. (Cassidy’s) five-horse coaches…Rivers and creeks were not bridged, but had to be fordded- a risky business at times- though the skill of the drivers in handling the well-trained teams made it as safe as was humanly possible.” p221, Women of Westland (1998)

“The Prime Minister was escored into the tunnel and stood in mud and dodged the trickles fromthe roof while he examined the wet rock…The speeches were brief. The speakers had difficulty in making themselves heard..and they were addressing people standing in mud, who were rapidly reaching the point of saturation in the matter of wetness…He pressed the lever, there was a dull explosion and a shock, and the croud cheered hastily and broke for cover. The rain was falling more copiously than ever.” – Canterbury Times (13 May, 1908,) Bromby (1985)

As usual, Prime Minister Joseph Ward didn’t miss the chance to be there for the opening of something. Ward ignited the charge that started the tunneling in 1908. He was also there with other political celebrities for the grand opening in 1928.

The most recent bit of Otira politics in the 2020s sees Labour 6.0 Minister of Transport, Michael Wood, threatening to close the tunnel down. Apparently Kiwirail, who opperate and maintain the tunnel, do not have a clever enough safety plan in case of trains stopping mid-tunnel. After 100 years it’s time to respond to this contingency ‘or else’! This is no doubt a shakedown to squeeze the State-owned firm into paying Michael Wood’s Mafia in money or power or both. There’s an interesting point of view at the moment that because something is ‘old’ it is automatically unfit. Laws are like that, such as censorship laws because they were pre-internet. And even something tangible like a tunnel because it is “100 years old.” New Zealanders apparently don’t think in terms of general solutions but only temporary ones that expire. What luck for politicians and lawyers and public servants who get to do the same work all over again.  Ref. KiwiRail confronted over passenger ‘safety risk’ in century-old tunnel, One News (2023)

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1 Ref. West Coast New Zealand History. However, Greymouth Star (5 August, 2023) reports date of 3 August 1923. Also, that the particular Hall stagecoach is the same one kept at Westland Heritage Park, Hokitika.

2 p227, Women of Westland (1998)

Image ref. Coach on Otira Gorge Road. Rowntree, M B :Photographs of Aropaoanui River and a photograph of Otira Gorge, Alexander Turnbull Library; AHNZ colour mod

Image ref. Coast Road, Rob Williamson Photographic Studio, Westport. AHNZ Archives

Image ref. Boileau family album; National Library of Australia

Ref. p18 Old Westland, Lord (e1976)

Ref. An Eyewitness History of New Zealand, Robin Bromby (1985)

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