As miners and prospectors from the Victorian gold fields rushed to the new goldfields of Otago in the 1860s, the renowned coach operators Cobb and Co, also extended its business. In this important contribution to New Zealand’s transport history, E. M. Lovell-Smith relates how coaching companies operated in the Otago and Southland areas until the late 1870s. Lovell-Smith has recorded the competition, struggles, incidents and accidents – the tragic, humorous and even courageous.
Excerpt: A large party of diggers was on its way to Fox’s Rush, and accompanying them was an elderly man and his better half. The river was in flood that day – and the crossing entailed a certain amount of risk. The diggers gallantly lent their aid to the fair dame, and with some difficulty managed to get her safely across the stream. The water rose so rapidly, however, that her lord and master was prevented from” following her – so there they stood, one each side of the raging torrent.
Becoming frantic with fear, the old dame raised her voice. “Jock! Jock! I ne’er shall ken ye nae mair!”
She made such a clamour that her lamentations filled the air, and a wag muttered something about “Roaring Meg,” and so the stream was named.
132 page paperback, illustrated with black and white photographs, A5 size