Banjo Paterson and a History of the Haste Waggons Part I - 1905

Emerging from my research into the writings of Banjo Paterson in The Evening News [1], I noted that ‘The Banjo’ while editor of the Sydney paper, The Evening News, invited himself to be a correspondent for the Dunlop Motor Reliability Trial in 1905. Several articles appeared during the trial.  The  trial finished without a clear winner, resolution of the ‘winner’ was a protracted matter. Curiously more than three decades after the event, in 1939, a piece about Banjo’s experience in the trial appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald, it is perhaps the most entertaining of all his writing on the topic.  In a series of posts I will replay Banjo’s’ reportage providing links to the full articles on Trove, the National Library of Australia’s online newspaper archive.  The title of the Banjo’s pieces were a numbered series called “The History of the Haste Waggons".  I am repairing the articles in Trove as I progressively publish them to this blog.

A 1903 Innes car, it was a car like this on which Banjo was a passenger.  Source:  https://graham64.wordpress.com/tag/motor-cars/ 

Contestants

The following table of contestants with their cars can be derived from the reports in the Sydney Morning Herald. [2] The Heralds list is used in favour of the Banjo’s list as the vehicle is also listed.  Discrepancies between the lists are noted. Lists are reordered to show Paterson’s division into light and heavy cars, and to place drivers in alphabetical order.  Paterson travelled as a passenger in the car of J.M. Arnott, of Arnott’s biscuits fame, aboard a 19-20 horse-powered Innes.

Motor Car Classes for the Buchanan Cup Garland Cup and Robert Hurst Trophy

Light Car Class

• J. C. Coleman (Vic.), Swift, 7 h.p.
• J. H. Craven (Vic.), De Dion, 8 h.p.
• S. H. Day (Vic.), De Dion 8 h.p. 
• C. J. Hall (Vic.), Oldsmobile, 7 h.p.
• C. B. Kellow (Vic.) Clement-Talbot, 7 h.p. 
• D. MacKenzie (Vic.), Oldsmobile 7 h.p.
• Mrs B Thompson (SA) Wolseley 6 h.p. 
• G. Tye (Vic.), Cadillac 8 h.p.

Heavy Car Class

• J. M Arnott (N.S.W), Innes 19-20 h.p.
• H. R. Arnott - in Banjo’s list but not SMH.
• W. H. Davidson (Vic.), Clement Bayard 20 h.p.  - not in Banjo’s list.
• Mark Foy (N.S.W.), Panhard 7 h.p. 
• H. Garratt (N.S.W. ), Panhard, 12-16 h.p. [failed to start]
• E. L. Holmes (Vic.), Oldsmobile, 10 h.p.
• T. H. Hutchings (Vic.) Clement-Talbot 12 h.p.  - not in Banjo’s list.
• A. E. Langford (Vic.) Dorranq, 12 h.p.
• W. H. Lewis (Vic.), De Dion, 6 h.p.  - not in Banjo’s list.
• F. B. Milliard (FRANCE) Georges Richard Brazier, 12 h.p. 
• H. J. J. Madon (Vic.), De Dion, 6 h.p.  - not in Banjo’s list.
• J.W. Moffat (Vic.), Clement Talbot, 11 h.p.
• H. T. Nichols (S.A.), Darracq 21 h.p. 
• T. K. Rand (Vic.) DecauviIle 16-20 h.p. 
• H. B. Roche (Vic.) Rover 7 h.p.  - not in Banjo’s list.
• W. S. Ross (Vic. ) Argyll 10 h.p.
• H. L. Stevens (Vic.), Darracq, 32 h.p.
• Sydney Stott (Vic.) Decauville 32 h.p.
• Frank Stuart (Vic.), Swift 10-12 h.p. 
• H. Tarrant (Vic.), Argyll,10 h.p.

Motorcycle Contest, for Kemsley Cup

• A. E. Fuller (N.S.W.), 2¾ h.p. Relay
• V. H. Gard (Vic), 3½ h.p. Brown.
• W. Hanson (N.S.W.), Motosacochie
• B. James (Vic), 1¾ Minerva
• T. (or F) James (Vic.), 1¾ Minerva
• E. C. Joshua (Vic ), 3½ h.p. Beauchamp [failed to start]
• H. E. D. Kelly (N.S.W.), 2¾ Relay
• E. Leitch (Vic.), 2¾ h.p. Leitch [not mentioned in the Banjo’s list]
• E. Odd (N.S.W.), 3½ h.p. Stolford
• P. Robinson - in Banjo’s list not SMH [failed to start]
• T. J. Robinson (N.S.W.), 3 h.p. Saroba
• T. D. Scott (N.S.W.), 3 h.p. Werner [failed to start]
• F. A. Taylor (N.S.W.), 3 h.p. Illawarra
• R. J. Turner (N.S.W.), 3¼ h.p. Rex
• H. H. Whale (N.S.W.), 2¾ Saroba Firefly
• S.E Withers (Vic.), 2¾ Eureka

A Poem for the event

The Banjo’s first report from the trial [3] has all the feel of an article written before the experience began.  It opens with a two verse poem, to which later anthologies will add a third verse and the poems title, “[The] Lay of the Motor-Car" [4].  It is written in 8 line verse with an ABABCDCD pattern.

OVERLAND TO MELBOURNE ON AN AUTOMOBILE.
THE HISTORY OF THE HASTE WAGGONS.
No. I.

'We're away! And the wind whistles shrewd
In our whiskers and teeth.
And the granite-like grey of the road
Seems to glide underneath;
As an eagle might sweep through the skies.
We sweep through the land,
And the pallid pedestrian flies
When he hears us at hand.

We outpace, we outlast, we outstrip!
Not the fast-fleeing hare,
Nor the racehorses under the whip,
Nor the birds of the air
Can compete with our swiftness sublime,
Our ease and our grace;
We annihilate chickens, and time,
And policemen and space." 

Do you mind that fat grocer who crossed?
How his dropped down to pray
In the road when he saw he was lost;
How he melted away
Underneath, and there rang through the fog
His ear splitting squeal
As he went — Is that he or a dog,
That stuff on the wheel?

There is nothing very granite-like about the roads in Australia — worse luck. Ruts and loose metal, sidelings, and sand-drifts, washed-out creeks and heart-breaking hills — these are the items on the bill of fare before the cars that start on the reliability trial to Melbourne to-morrow. If an English or French automobilist were told that a 'reliability' trial in Australia consisted in running 600 miles in five days on a main public road between two capital cities, at sixteen miles an hour, running time, if he were told that this constituted a 'reliability' trial, he wouldn't see where the 'trial' came in. On English or Continental roads such a trial would be a mockery, as every car would get full marks, and as for sixteen miles an hour, they wouldn't call that motoring; they would only call it oozing along. They would tell you that a good motorist ought to be able to get out and push the car as fast as that. But it the same English or Continental motorist had a look at our roads he would whistle softly and would withdraw his car. In those old-fashioned places they don't care about racking a car to pieces by teaching it to jump down the side of a hill from one rock to another.

ENGLISH MOTORING.
And right here it is worthwhile to say a little about motoring in England. The roads in England require to be seen to be believed. Even narrow little country lanes, overhung by great oaks, and littered ankle deep in leaves, even these have a surface as smooth as glass, where on the motorist can let her out to his heart's content, drawing the leaves and dust in a whirlwind after him. Down about Brighton, which is the happy hunting ground of the London motorist, in dry weather each car flies along; raising a cloud of dust that moves like the pillar of fire that guided the Israelites, but a trifle faster. And it is just the excellence of the roads that has made the motorist so unpopular in England. When a man has got a machine under him that can travel at 30 miles an hour and a good road to run her on, it isn't in human nature to throttle her down to six miles an hour. So they let her out, and the Bumbles and Parish Council prosecute and fine them relentlessly, planting policemen in hedges to take the time of the flying motors. from one milestone to another; and the motor clubs pay men to track out these policemen and to stand outside their hiding places and wave a red flag, so that the motorist can see where the danger lies and can slow up in time.

SHAVING THE 'COPPERS.'
In rural England they do not love the motorist. The local squire, who has never been hurried in his life, is condescending to cross the village street at his usual leisurely strut, when 'Booh! booh! whizz!' — a motor is all but over him, and he has to skip in a very undignified way for the sidewalk if he wishes to save his precious life. Giles Jollyfowl, the farmer, taking a load of manure home, sleeps peaceably on top of his load as usual, and lets the old horses go their own way. Next thing there is an appalling whizz, and a racing Panhard or Gladiator tears past like a long streak through the atmosphere, the old horses wheel rounds and rush off the road, and Giles Jollyfowl finds himself in the ditch, with his load of manure on top of him. That is why the English papers are full of complaints against motorists. They don't like being hurried in England. But the motorist is a good deal to blame, for a sort of professional pride exists among gentlemen motorists and their chaffeurs, and it is considered de rigueur to drive full speed, just where the traffic is thickest, to cut corners by the merest hairbreadth, to graze vehicles as closely as possible in passing— just to teach them to give a bit more room another time — and, above all, always to pass a traffic constable so close as almost to shave the buttons off his uniform. They are great people for 'the correct thing' in England, and 'the correct thing' in motoring is to make all created things step lively when you are on the road.

IN AUSTRALIA.
And how will it be with the overland to Melbourne trip? The Australian is not so conservative as the Englishman, and the only objection to the cars is that they frighten horses; but the Australian looks upon a race of any sort as a sacred thing — all business and public interests must be suspended in favour of a race, so that the cars on the reliability trial are being warmly welcomed, and a country Mayor is actually going to entertain the motorists in his public capacity. In England, he would take all their names and 'summons' them.

A TRIAL TRIP.
A Sydney car had a trial run as far as Picton and back last Saturday. Roads were not bad; but how they will be for 18 or 20 cars, if it is dusty, goodness only knows. However, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. It's no good anticipating trouble, as they told the steeplechase rider who wanted to know whether the horse he had to ride could jump the fences or not. "You will find that out," they said, "as you go along." So we will, no doubt, find out a good deal between here and Melbourne. 'Cras ingens Iterabimus aequor.' To-morrow we start on a reliability trial, as our old friend Horace used to say.
[Note.— Our special representative, in one of the competing cars, will furnish notes of the contest from day to day.]

The second days reportage [5] was clearly sent to press not long after the start of the race.

OVERLAND TO MELBOURNE
START OF THE MOTOR CAR RIDE.
SCENE THIS MORNING.
HUNDREDS OF SPECTATORS. 

Though it meant "getting up in the morning early," a crowd numbering several hundreds saw the competitors in the Dunlop Reliability Motor Contests from Sydney to Melbourne start from the Sydney Town Hall this morning. They had come from all parts of the city and suburbs; while at various places along the Parramatta-road persons congregated to watch 'the haste waggons' go by.
There could scarcely have been more excitement had it been a race instead of merely a contest, for in trains and trams one could hear the particulars discussed. As soon as the clock chimed half-past 5 four motorcyclists were sent away, followed at intervals of three minutes by the other competitors in that section. At a quarter to 6 the first of the motor cars was dispatched, the others leaving at three minute intervals, the last starting the long journey just about 7 o'clock. The time occupied in starting was, therefore, about an hour and a half.

THE ONLY LADY DRIVER.
Most of the competitors were wished a successful trip; while Mrs. B. Thomson, of South Australia, was given a cheer, she being the only lady driver.
There were 35 competitors, only four failing to face the start. They were: — 

Readers are referred to the list at the top of this article for details.

THE START.
All the competitors got away to time; in fact everything went off without a hitch. Though they were allowed half an hour to reach Ashfield, many of the cars were sent along at a great pace, giving many the impression that some were intent on having a race. Even before Ashfield was reached a couple of cars met with slight mishaps, but they only occasioned a delay of a minute or two.
For the convenience of the visiting motorists, a trail of paper was land to Ashfield, in order that the right course could be followed. All have been supplied with a carefully prepared map, giving full particulars of the roads and the direction for each day's run.

TO-DAY'S RUN.
To-day the run will end at Goulburn, the light cars being allowed 10 hours to do the 129 miles (an average speed of 13 miles per hour), the heavy cars 8 hours 45 minutes (average speed of 15 miles per hour), and the motor cycles 7 hours 50 minutes (17 miles per hour.). The contest is expected to end on Saturday afternoon, and the competitor with the greatest number of points will be the winner. The maximum number obtainable each day is 500. One point will be deducted for every minute or part thereof exceeding the time allowed.

IN CASE OF ACCIDENT.
The distance of the contest is 572 miles, and the course comprises 343 miles of good road, 140 of second rate, and 89 miles of bad. The competitors, who had a beautiful morning for the start of their long trip, may, therefore, expect trouble before the southern capital is reached. All had provided themselves with extra tyres and other parts, in case of emergency.
The officials, who were responsible for the carrying out of the excellent arrangements made by Mr. H. B. James, were: — Starter, Mr. H. A. Jones; marshals, Messrs. S. Hordern, jun, C. W. Bennett, A. Hunter, R. Gillett, H. Skinner; Press steward, Mr. H. C. Bagot; time keepers, Messrs. W. T. Kerr, and W. L. Kerr; and control official (Ashfield), Mr. H. S. Cusack.

The report of the next days events will appear soon in this blog, together with some illustrations by Lionel Lindsay.

References

[1] http://underthelino.blogspot.com.au/2017/10/banjo-paterson-in-evening-news.html
[2] THE DUNLOP MOTOR CONTEST. (1905, February 10). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 4. Retrieved October 6, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article14694020
[3] OVERLAND TO MELBOURNE. (1905, February 20). Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931), p. 3. Retrieved October 26, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112751801
[4] See either  https://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/paterson-a-b-banjo/lay-of-the-motor-car-0026029 or
http://www.wallisandmatilda.com.au/the-lay-of-the-motor-car.shtml
both accessed, February 4, 2018.
[5] OVERLAND TO MELBOURNE. (1905, February 21). Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931), p. 6. Retrieved September 8, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112753507