From 1873 to 1910, riding horses, horse-powered transport or walking, were the main ways to travel between Devonport and Milford. We are now used to electric-powered buses on the Devonport-Takapuna and Takapuna-Milford routes, and the odd remaining diesel-powered bus, but between 1904 and 1906 there were steam-powered buses on those routes.
The ‘Papers Past’ website now hosts copies of the recently digitised ‘NZ Motor & Cycle Journal’, dating from 1905 to 1915. The March 1905 issue refers to Clarkson steam buses operating on the Devonport-Lake Pupuke route. In the United Kingdom, Thomas Clarkson (1864-1933) established the Chelmsford Steam Car Company in 1903, with his cars powered by steam boilers heated by kerosene or paraffin. However, there were reliability issues with this technology. Clarkson later formed the National Steam Car Company, dating from 1909 to 1919 and operated steam-powered buses in London.
Back in July 1904, the Takapuna Motor Company had ordered two motors (and likely also the chassis) from Clarkson’s Chelmsford Steam Car Company, with the bodies built in Auckland by their local agents Cousins and Atkins, Auckland coach and carriage builders since May 1864. At that time Cousins and Atkins were based in Elliott Street. The Takapuna Motor Company had also ordered a French-designed Gardner-Serpolette steam car, built in York. The designer Leon Serpolette died in 1907. The company’s first bus service began on 14 December 1904, from its garages in Clarence Street, Devonport.
The ‘New Zealand Herald’ of 15 December 1904 reported “These [Chelmsford] cars are most substantially built and neatly finished, with spring seats and specially-strong solid rubber tyres. The cars are fitted with 30 [horse power] steam motors … the heating power being supplied automatically by kerosene. Each of these cars, which are named respectively Pupuke No. 1 and [Pupuke] No. 2, are licensed to carry 16 passengers, and they will be constantly engaged in the Devonport-Lake service. The third car, a Serpolette, is a very handy runabout which will carry nine passengers, and will be used for auxiliary services, or as an adjunct to the main service, as occasion may require.”
Two other Serpolette cars, each carrying 12 passengers, were to follow. The two Chelmsford buses met the Devonport Steam Ferry Company’s steam ferries in Devonport and carried passengers all the way to Milford Road, in 20 minutes. The fare zones were set at the racecourse (now the golf course), Victoria Park (now Ngataringa), O’Neill’s Point Road (now Bayswater Avenue), St Leonards Road, Hauraki Road and Lake Pupuke. The Serpolettes may also have provided a bus service to Cheltenham and Stanley Point.
Certainly, the steam bus service was still operating in April 1905, but in the long-term the service didn’t pay its way. In January 1906, there was a plan to use the buses on the central Hamilton-Frankton route, but in April 1906 the two Chelmsford buses and now three Serpolette cars were all put up for sale by the Takapuna Motor Company. Instead, from 1910 to 1927 steam-powered trams were used on the Bayswater-Milford route, with North Shore Transport Company petrol-powered buses dating from 1927.
Separately, around August 1905 the Howick Motor Bus Company applied to the Devonport Borough Council to run a steam motor bus service to and from Devonport and Takapuna. Each bus would take 12 passengers. The Howick Motor Bus Company had been formed in 1903 and initially ran a two-bus service between Howick and Auckland. That company also wanted to start a service to and from Mount Roskill and downtown Auckland. However, neither their North Shore nor Mount Roskill steam bus services eventuated.
david.verran@xtra.co.nz
