SHOOTING STAR:

A BIOGRAPHY OF A

Geoff Mentzer

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SHOOTING STAR: A BIOGRAPHY OF A BICYCLE

Copyright © 2020 by Geoff Mentzer All rights reserved.

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In a scientific study of various living species and machines, the most efficient at locomotion – that is, the least amount of energy expended to move a kilometre – was found to be a man on a bicycle.

–SS Wilson, Scientific American, March 1973, Volume 228, Issue 3, 90

The of 1818, said to be the first man-motor carriage. Sharp, & : An Elementary Treatise On Their Design And Construction, Longmans, Green, and Co, London, New York and Bombay, 1896, 147

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INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

What began as a brief biograph of the author's forebear Walter William Curties soon doubled into a study of two men, and expanded into an account of early bicycle – and a little motoring – history in New Zealand. Curties is mostly invisible to history, while Frederick Nelson Adams – who rose to national pre-eminence in motoring circles – by his reticence and reluctance for public exposure is also largely overlooked. Pioneering New Zealand and motoring history – commercial, industrial and social – have been variously covered elsewhere, in cursory to comprehensive chronicles. Sadly, factual errors that persist are proof of copy and paste research. As examples, neither Nicky Oates nor Frederick Adams' brother Harry was the first person convicted in New Zealand for a motoring offence, nor was the world's first bicycle brass band formed in New Zealand. It must be said, however, that today we have one great advantage, ie Papers Past, that progeny of the Turnbull Library in Wellington. Of course, we do not necessarily believe all that we read; media then as now did make mistakes. However, OCR word search combined with lateral thought generally brings the facts to light. And Papers Past, together with The New Zealand Wheelman, have provided the bulk of detail in this narrative. Beyond those are the usual genealogy resources – too numerous to list – along with records held by the Turnbull Library, Archives New Zealand and other repositories; published articles and books; and the only instance of personal memoirs, a handful of letters by Curties. These are in private hands, are deeply intimate and have been described as harrowing. Other material relating to him has sadly been lost in house fires. Illustrations are most noticeable by their paucity. While there are several published drawings of Adams and Curties' premises, no photographs have been located. And while there are a few photos of Adams, none has yet been found of Curties. By luck, a photo album belonging to Frederick Adams' brother George Uvedale was found in a garage sale. Held privately in Christchurch, the album includes numerous shots of people, sadly none positively identified or dated. Further, a quantity of glass plate negatives apparently retrieved from Adams' last home address is also in private hands in Christchurch. Since photography was a hobby, and his house included a studio, these plates may include family members and work-related images. Access to the plates, however, has not proved possible. In the longer term though, there is hope. Canterbury Museum holds many unidentified glass plate negatives and printed photographs, which they intend to scan and place on-line. Eventually. And since Adams was a photographer – and was Best Man at Curties' marriage – there's a good chance that pertinent and identifiable images will yet be discovered. Finally, sincere thanks to Alan Meredith, the late Keith Guthrie, and Clare Simpson of Christchurch for her assistance, input and manuscript suggestions which, I have to confess, were not altogether adhered to.

Geoff Mentzer Hastings April 2020

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PROLOGUE

Frederick Nelson Adams was born in Christchurch in 1867, the first of eleven siblings – one of whom died young – to an English father and Scottish mother. All that remains of his education record is that he was awarded a prize in Class III at Christchurch East School in March 1877, and was enrolled at that same school in 1878. He's not found in enrolment lists of Christchurch Boy's High School, or Canterbury College – forerunner of Canterbury University. His father, Frederick Thomas, was a law clerk in England then journalist with the Lyttelton Times in Christchurch who turned the hobby of horticulture into full-time employment about 1875. That year Adams and Son – the Son being just seven – are first found as nurserymen, propagating flower seeds and bulbs. By the following year they were Adams and Sons, incorporating Henry Thomas, who was less than one year old. Frederick jnr left school at about age 13, presumably to work with his father and continue what was clearly a strong work ethic, a trait no doubt also passed on by his mother Annie, herself from industrious and prudent stock. Adams and Sons thrived and were soon selling their seeds nationwide. Frederick jnr's commitment to the profession was demonstrated in March 1886 when he returned from a collecting trip to the Wilberforce and Westland boundary with about 1000 plants. The nursery was to eventually plug itself as the "Establishment for New and Rare Plants," which included natives. Unsurprising that its specialty was New Zealand Alpine plants and shrubs, specimens of which they supplied to Kew Gardens in London. Later in 1886 Fred jnr showed his mechanical aptitude by applying for a patent for "'The Patent Magnet', an economic constant-action tubular boiler for heating horticultural & other buildings with hot water."1 But somewhere along the way, his mercantile bent branched away from horticulture.

Walter William Curties was born in England in 1868 and the family emigrated to New Zealand in 1875 and eventually settled in Heathcote Valley, Christchurch. His father Thomas was, as with Frederick Adams snr, enterprising and multi-skilled, but more prone to wanderlust. By age 11 he was assistant to his carrier father but in late 1855, he enlisted with older brother Robert in the Royal Engineers at Chatham. Both served in Malta, where Robert died from cholera, while Thomas served there and in England for twelve years as a miner then sapper – an unusual occupation for someone born and raised near the coast in Norfolk. Next, Thomas trained as a stonemason in England. After which he worked there as a railway signalman and eventually the same in Heathcote Valley, where he also leased some acres of land, presumably for agricultural purposes. Later still he was a publican, and finally a shoemaker in his latter years. At school in the Valley Walter, known to family as Watty, was twice awarded prizes for coming second then first in class and in May 1879, had his first brush with the Law. He and another lad had broken into a local storekeeper's house and stolen some apples, a pork pie and pair of spectacles. His Worship lectured each of the boys and in discharging them, said it was only out of consideration for the parents that he did not order them to be severely flogged. Which they certainly would be, if brought up again on such a charge. Like Frederick, Walter's formal education also ceased at 13, when he left school for work. While his early employment details are unknown, it's likely he went directly into the bicycle trade. In 1885, W Curtis was entered in the Christchurch Bicycle Club's Easter races at , and in November 1888, Walter Curtis was fined 5 shillings ($53 in 2019) for riding a bicycle on the footpath in Madras Street, Sydenham.

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PART I CHAPTER I – PIONEERS

Velocipede mania was sparked in Christchurch in 1869 by local coachbuilder, machinist and engineer Henry Wagstaff, who had a bicycle of his own manufacture available for public demonstration in June that year. According to , though, there were some design improvements "which may be effected as the manufacturer becomes more acquainted with the principle of the machine."1 Nonetheless, there was considerable amusement at attempts by amateurs to ride at the demonstration what was known as a High Wheeler, or Penny Farthing. By August, Wagstaff had another one made plus orders for several more, beyond which there were several more imported. In September, at festivities to open the season on the Avon river, three of Wagstaff's creations on display attracted considerable attention. Later that month, there was call to create a Velocipede or Athletics club. Although this soon came into being – then collapsed in December due to lack of support – the annual Canterbury Anniversary Sports day on 16 December included the first recorded velocipede race in Christchurch. This was "looked upon as the great event of the day"2 and of the six machines participating, four were locally made. In July 1870, AJ White Furnishing Warehouse began regular advertising of bicycles for sale. In August, Neeves Ironmonger advised that they could convert their own imported tricycles into bicycles. And at the Anniversary Sports on December 17, Thomas Hyde, an employee of local coach maker Shanley, won the handicap velocipede race on a bicycle made by himself. Shanley, presumably his employer, came fourth on an imported bicycle. Hyde soon advertised his cycle for sale, while he himself years after, was said to have built the first bicycle to be made in New Zealand. More of which claim to follow. Interest in cycle racing waned from 1871 due, it was claimed, to bicycles being "little, if at all, used in the city now."3 Even when in some years bicycle races were proposed, they were subsequently cancelled due to too few or a total absence of entries. It was not until December 1879 that Anniversary bicycle races returned, to become a permanent fixture. In the meantime, Christchurch remained well-suited to cycling, provided riders stayed vigilant on shingle and stone surfaces and ramshackle bridges, and around potholes, mud, , horses and . Riding the inherently dangerous High Wheeler continued to steadily grow more popular.

Thomas Boyd was born in Scotland in 1849 and landed with his family in Lyttelton in 1864. He spent his first year as a labourer on a farm in Heathcote Valley, after which he worked the shearing season at Cheviot with men who boasted of their strength. Yet he was the only one who could perform a certain feat, which was rising to stand from a prostrate position, with two men seated upon his shoulders. Thus suitably equipped, he took up the blacksmith and engineering trade and in 1878, started in business in Rangiora as a general machinist and whitesmith. Soon after, he added cycle manufacturing to his repertoire and became, in his own words, the first bicycle-maker in the Colony. In April 1880 he was appointed sole agent for Rangiora and Northern District for Singer's Sewing Machines, and a year later was praised in the press for a new axle he'd made from scratch for a Humber bicycle.4

Cycling although by its nature mostly a solo activity, readily adapts itself as a social pastime. Although bicycle clubs were proposed in 1869 and again in 1877, nothing enduring eventuated until April 1879, when New Zealand's first club, the Pioneer Bicycle Club, was formed. The Anniversary Sports that year was postponed by heavy rain until January 1880, when the Three Mile (4.8km) Bicycle Race proved to be the event of the day, creating immense excitement from start to finish. Which no doubt encouraged formation of the albeit short-lived Sydenham Bicycle Club in December, the longer-lived Christchurch Bicycle Club the following September and three years after that, the short-lived Tourists' , whose members were mainly Christ's College old boys. The term Bicycle Club was perhaps a little restrictive, since apart from social rides, day

7 and overnight tours and competitive cycling events, the clubs engaged in a wide range of activities: draughts, debates, concerts, card games, church parades, dance classes and other sporting code activities. In December 1886, the established a bicycle brass band; not the first in the world – that was in 1885 in St John, Michigan, USA5 – but the first in New Zealand. What skills were requisite to propel and manoeuvre a High Wheeler whilst blowing and keying a euphonium? From mid 1885, the clubs began occasional then more regular "smoke concerts" as a means to promote social good feeling amongst members, during which there may be presentations of prizes, toasts, drinking, recitations, step-dancing exhibitions and songs. One evening in July 1887 the Pioneer Club's debating class decided in the affirmative that tobacco was injurious to health, which did not appear to influence or curtail the concerts. About that same time came first mention here of the "home-trainer", a static device on which a bicycle could be mounted and ridden indoors – ie an exercycle – used by members in their clubrooms, and on which they held competitions. At least one such machine was locally made. And de rigueur in that era was the club uniform, a club badge, perhaps a cap, or a small pennant with club initials stitched in to attach to the cycle on special occasions. The Linwood Club established in 1888 – of which Fred Adams jnr was a founding member – set up a library in its club headquarters, and a workshop for members to tinker with their machines. By mid 1889 the Club with its 114 members and name reduced to the Bicycle Touring Club, was said to be the largest in the Australian colonies. The 1880s also saw the High Wheeler velocipede evolve from what became also known as the Ordinary into what we know now, the ; ie of equal or similar size mounted on a diamond frame consisting of two triangles, and with chain rear- drive. Brakes were added a little later, the first being a spoon-shaped metal plate that was simply squeezed against the traction face of the front tyre, and consequently abraded away said rubber.

Richard Kent was born in Woolwich, England in 1846 and apprenticed to the engineering trade and arrived in Christchurch ca 1867 (Not in the ship Merope as claimed elsewhere; she was not launched until July 1870.) He spent 14 years on the Railways Department engineering staff, then left to set up shop with HJ Cunnington, a fellow ex Railways engineering employee.

Nicholas Oates was born in Cornwall in 1852. He served an apprenticeship in cycle engineering and was a carriage fitter at his marriage on 17 July 1875, a week after which he and his bride and her parents sailed for New Zealand. They arrived in Lyttelton on 17 November, and on 27 December, Oates on his appliance with its 3 ft 4 inch (101cm) wheel earned £1 10s ($225 in 2019) 2nd prize in the Canterbury Tradesmen's Athletic Sports two mile (3.2km) bicycle handicap race. Apparently a man in a hurry. It seems he then worked at his trade in Christchurch; in July 1880 an Oates was a contractor in connection with an engine and carriage trial on the Papanui tramway. Then around 1882, he began to manufacture High Wheelers at his home at Beaumont St in Sydenham. In April that year his neighbour, Richard Gunn, complained to the Sydenham Council about Oates, who lit small coal fires for work use in the open in his backyard, sparks from which worried Gunn. By November the following year, Oates had begun trading in what became a minor Mecca for bicycle workers, a row of small houses-cum-shops on a portion of that land on Colombo Street where ironically the Christchurch now stands. Colombo, the major north-south thoroughfare of Christchurch, was a logical site from which to peddle transport devices.

First on the block had been Cunnington and Kent. They established a joint venture in November 1881, which undertook manufacture and repair of all kinds of mechanical and electrical apparatus and model making. Next came Arthur Pillow, an engineer and machinist who also repaired bicycles and who set up shop in August 1882, more or less next door at 114 Colombo St. He was gone by September 1883, as was Cunnington in October, himself

8 replaced by Nicholas Oates in November, who split from Kent in July 1886 and shifted next door to work in opposition on his own account. There Oates took charge of the first three Rover Safety machines imported to Christchurch; he kept one for himself and soon sold the others to bicycle club members. In October 1888 he made what was said to be the first bicycle made in New Zealand for export, a 54 inch (1.37m) Ordinary made for, admittedly, a former Christchurch racing cyclist now living in Melbourne, Australia. Kent also worked solo until August 1889, when he hooked up with Henry Corrick, a bootmaker, cyclist and inventor of "useful little contrivances."6 These included a device to splice bicycle tyres and a 'safety' bicycle with 6 foot (1.8m) diameter wheels, which unsurprisingly never took off. They set up commodious premises in High St but Kent could not let go of Colombo, for which he continued advertising under only his own name. When he broke up with Corrick in February 1890, he maintained both shops on his own but eventually closed in High Street. Corrick meanwhile shifted to Manchester St, where he offered to convert rigid Rovers into Spring-frame machines, until April, when it seems he dropped engineering and resumed making boots. Mason, Struthers and Co, a large ironmonger and hardware merchant on Colombo and neighbour of the bicycle Mecca, got in on the act in 1885 and become the sole New Zealand agent for Singer's bicycles and tricycles. Well done if you've followed all this! Finally, Frederick Adams, 22, and Walter Curties, 21, began their joint adventure.

The Company's first illustrated advertisement. The Press, 4 October 1890, 2

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CHAPTER II – 1889; ADVENT OF A STAR

New Zealand Cycle Stores, the trading name of FN Adams & Co, opened their doors at 126 Colombo St on 10 August 1889. They'd operated from about May out of Adams' home on Gloucester St, and commenced advertising in the Lyttelton Times in July.1 They had for sale at least one new and seven used machines including High Wheelers, a tandem and a . The repair department was managed by Walter Curties, who had manufactured over 100 bicycles, and was well-known as an expert in the designing, manufacturing and repairing of cycles. Thus ran the firm's opinion, anyway. But he had been employed for many years by Richard Kent and was clearly mechanically gifted, judging by subsequent opinion of him in the press and bicycle circles, by improvements he later made in cycle manufacture, and the various patents he applied for. There is a little confusion as to the firm's initial staffing. In one later source, they were said to have begun in mid-1889 with six hands, but another said they'd begun with just one assistant, a boy of fourteen. Perhaps both are true, ie six hands on the mechanical side, with one shop-front assistant. Nonetheless, the partners were clearly capable, considering that neither had any formal engineering training, whereas their peers mostly if not all did. When and how they first met has to remain conjecture, but cycling would be the logical arena. Curties seems to have been riding since at least 1885, while Adams is first found associated with cycling in March 1888, when he advertised two bicycles for sale at his home. Adams is next heard of in June that year, in connection with the Linwood Bicycle Touring Club, enrolments for which were recorded at the Colombo St premises of Richard Kent, probably Curties' employer at the time. At the Club smoke concert the following month, the "energetic" Adams gave an "extremely happy speech" in which he sketched out the Club history, and his aspirations for the Club.2 In July 1889, he was elected Honorary secretary, and a Sub-Captain again. In October, Adams was charged in Court in October for contravening the Building by-law. He'd possibly modified or extended the Colombo St shop in timber, not fireproof brick or concrete or stone as required. The case was adjourned for two weeks but never proceeded. In early 1890, a petition by stakeholders was put to the City Council, which resulted in an easement of that by-law which was said to have been severely inhibiting development of the inner city. Also that month, FN Adams and Co. donated a gold medal to the Bicycle Touring Club to be awarded as a prize for road racing. With wages for at least six hands along with the costs of premises and modifications, plant and equipment, parts and materials for repairing and manufacturing bicycles, the outlay of buying new and used cycles to sell and the cost of a gold medal prize, capital was needed from the beginning. The logical source would have been Adams and or his father, courtesy of the family nursery business. Curties' capital contribution if any is unknown. It surely wasn't coincidence that from August 1889, the magnitude of the oppositions' advertising had expanded. Kent had run with just a few lines in The Star classifieds then in March, he'd begun the same in the Lyttelton Times as well. In August he, now with Corrick, had bumped that up to a larger and more comprehensive blurb. Oates had also run only a few classified lines in The Star, and in October had grown more extensive in both The Star and Lyttelton Times. FW Gough, another albeit smaller local maker, maintained his few classified lines in both the Press and the Lyttelton Times, although from October, he went solely with the latter. In August, Kent and Corrick took a new marketing tack, that of provocative advertising; they had "the largest stock of bicycles and tricycles to be seen in the Colony."3 Adams and Curties followed suit in November, proclaiming that they were "The largest repairers of cycles in New Zealand,"4 at the same time offering free tuition to buyers. While the latter was a first in Christchurch, it was not in the Colony. RW Jones, practical machinist and bicycle dealer of Invercargill, had offered free tuition to purchasers in February 1882.5 The name Star – albeit British – entered the FN Adams and Co fold in November. The British Star was a spring-frame rover safety, a design where the lower rear wheel fork was hinged just forward of the pedal crank. The upper fork from the rear wheel axle was

10 terminated at the top by a large compression spring, attached to the diamond frame just under the saddle. The purpose being rider comfort, unless of course said spring or its fittings collapsed. Nevertheless, the Adams ad ran, "...it is an Acknowledged fact that most of the exhaustion caused by long and fast rides is due to vibration. The British Star is the only Spring Frame machine upon which the Rider Is Completely Insulated from all vibration."6 Vibration was the result of the tyres being solid rubber, the only type then being made. November also saw Adams etc begin to spout their own make of Light Roadsters. These were "acknowledged by experts to be the Best Machines manufactured in New Zealand."7 These experts remaining anonymous. Finally, on 22 November, the Firm began advertising as Adams, Curties and Co, still trading as New Zealand Cycles Stores. Pricing of new machines was usually not advertised, but in late 1889 there was a brief public tussle. A new Adams and Curties-made Ordinary was £20 ($3999 in 2019) as was a Kent and Corrick-made Rover safety. Competition may have begun to affect the wider market; Edward Reece and Sons, ironmongers on Colombo, stopped importing and dealing in bicycles. In December, their entire remaining stock of machines and accessories was put up for auction. That month Fred Adams and two fellow Touring Club members departed Christchurch on their High Wheelers at 7.15 on Saturday evening, on a round trip to the Hot Springs at Hanmer. This was a total of 192 miles (309km) on shingle roads across plains, through gorges and over mountain passes, with much of that in the dark. They arrived at the Springs at 7pm on Sunday, were back in Christchurch at midnight on Monday. The entire trip was without mishap. On December 30, the Firm promoted their British Star Roadsters, which were to be seen at the Intercolonial Bicycle Meeting in Christchurch. The ad unfortunately did not specify if these were to be displayed or competed upon. Beyond which, the race results did not name any brand or model.

The British Star spring-frame rover safety bicycle. Sharp, Bicycles & Tricycles: An Elementary Treatise On Their Design And Construction, Longmans, Green, and Co, London, New York and Bombay, 1896, 295

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CHAPTER III – 1890; A STAR IS BORN

Walter "Watty" Curties said the one thing he'd always feared was poverty, the dread of which had "actuated" him. His actions in life, he said, had always been "strenuous efforts to secure myself from such a fate". Due to his father's work ethic, he's more likely to have witnessed poverty when growing up than lived it. What he did not comment upon were three instances of trauma in his earlier life. The first was a younger brother who died age four after eighteen days continual fever, the second his mother who died aged forty-three following five days suffering from an intestinal obstruction. The third – which he probably did not directly witness and which occurred just a few months prior to his mother's death – was the drunk chopped up one night on the railway line very near their railway signalman's cottage at Heathcote. The man had been severed about the waist, his left hand fingers cut off, and entrails and blood were strewn along the line. Watty's father, duty signalman at the time, had discovered the victim.1 There was surely some cumulative effect on the family. Within two months of his wife's death Thomas snr sold the land he owned in Heathcote. Five months later – in March 1885 – he'd set sail for England with his three youngest children. Watty could be forgiven for being distracted at times through 1890. His family had returned to Christchurch late in 1889 from England, and brother Thomas and youngest sister Emily were enrolled in school and went to live with their older married sister, of whom Watty had rather a low opinion. Four months later their father remarried, and Emily went to live with him and stepmother who, it seems, did not like children; brother Thomas aged nine moved in with Watty for a while. Then less than three months later, Emily was shipped off to school in Sydney, Australia. At the same time, their father was loosening ties with his wife, who was descending further from colourful dishonesty into outright insanity. Which is another story entirely.2 Finally, Watty's middle sister Mary – the sibling he was closest to and they were indeed close – married in October. A photo of Mary decades later portrays in her face and luminous large and dark eyes a stillness, a serenity that belies events in her life. Equally as colourful would have been the Adams household. Fred jnr the ambitious company co-founder who lived with parents and nine siblings – the youngest nipper of which was just three – their father a member of the Philosophical Institute, the Acclimatization and Horticultural Societies; a prize-winning exhibitor of flora; contributor to the press on various matters. They were as time came to tell a close-knit and remarkably generous family, yet also remarkably private and enigmatic. The second child was a son, born on 10 May 1869, whose birth although reported in the press at the time was not registered until June 30 and even then the boy was unnamed. No suitable death record is to be found soon after or in the following years, and there's no reference to him at the family plot in Linwood Cemetery in Christchurch. This anonymous child simply vanished. There followed two daughters, then came Henry Thomas – known as Harry – and born in 1874. Whereas the other children had attended public schools, Harry was home schooled until age ten, when he was enrolled at public for two years before leaving for work. He was of stunted growth, and certainly in a photo alongside brother Fred and siblings, he is rather smaller.

By April 1890, Adams and Curties were hooked in the slipstream of progress, they were building a spring-frame rover safety bicycle. Named the Southern Star, their machine was similar to the Whippet – which was the most complicated pattern of spring-frame cycle currently made in England – but simpler in construction and the first of its kind to be made in the Colony.3 Several more were being made for local men, and the machine was described as being well finished. Interestingly, when both men were first listed in the Electoral Roll, in October 1890, Adams called himself a cycle engineer, Curties a cycle manufacturer. The same month, the Firm opened up their campaign, this time in the Press, advertising an illustration of a High Wheeler prefaced by a provocative claim: Adams, Curties & Co., cycle manufacturers and importers trading under the name New Zealand Cycle Stores, had the "Largest and most

12 varied stock of cycles in New Zealand."4 Second-hand bicycles were priced identical to Nicky Oates', ie High Wheelers from £5 ($1037 in 2019) Rover Safeties from £10 ($2074) A batch of 20 Rovers newly arrived and for sale were unfortunately not priced, but likely in the region of £25 to £30 ($5186 to $6223) or a whisker over. Yet for all that, they'd arrived with nothing apparently new, no unique selling advantage and no particular point of difference, other than a two-column spread. Their Southern Star bicycle brand had been reduced to Star, which name had previously been used in 1883, on an American machine displayed by Cunnington and Kent.5 (This American Star was in fact an Ordinary reversed, ie the small wheel leading and able to be steered. And propelled by some strange contraption of hand-operated levers, clutches and cranks. It was faster and easier to ride and safer, and of course never caught on, The goal of hand propulsion, however, persisted.) Illustrated adverts had been used first by Nicky Oates in April 1890, and dealer prices could not be compared, since they were still unlisted. Kent on his own from February 1890 had continued the superlative bicycle ad; he had the Colony's "largest and best stock of tyres and sundries" and was pushing the genuine Whippet Rover, "acknowleged by all the best English riders to be the most perfect non-vibrating Machine yet made."6 In May with over 80 machines in his two shops, he had the "Largest and Best"7 stock in New Zealand; which he continued to claim until the following year. As did Adams, Curties & Co, although the two companies now tended to stick mostly with their own competing local dailies, the Press and The Star. Kent, perhaps in response to this new competition, adopted a new tactic in May 1890, the End of Season Sale.8 Fred Adams was subsequently described as "A quiet and unobtrusive young man" who was nonetheless "endowed with a good share of gas", and had an "oily and persuasive tongue, together with .... earnest and energetic conversation."9 He was also called cute,10 which then meant clever or shrewd, and possessed a "Herculean capacity for hard work, a restless ambition, an ambition regardless of all obstacles."11 In October 1890, he donated another medal to his Club, this time silver, to be used as a second place prize in their twenty mile (32km) road race. Finally, the timing of their founding was impeccable. The bicycle boom had begun and whereas currently cycle racing in New Zealand was strictly for trophies, there was muttering in the ranks to follow the overseas trend and compete for cash. Publicity from race winning machines was a drawcard for increasing sales.

Competition was endemic in the cycling community, cycling was as much a sport as it was a mode of transport and pastime. Most if not all Christchurch bicycle makers were members of bicycle clubs – sometimes of more than one – and were club or inter-club racing competitors at some stage or another. Curties hasn't been identified with a club and was recorded only once in competition, while Adams participated in various club and inter-club races, though more so in social runs and longer overnight touring. He had, however, won his Club's 10 mile (16km) road race in May 1890, riding a British Lion spring frame Rover. And that machine may well have been used as a template for their own construction the previous month.

Unsurprisingly, competition could descend deeper. And darker. In September 1887 Kent and Oates who'd parted company the previous year wrangled indirectly in court over a tricycle.12 It had been sold on HP by Oates, who'd taken a tandem bike as deposit, which tandem had been bought from Kent and remained unpaid for (which Oates is said to have known.) Kent went to Court, and a bailiff seized the tricycle to settle the debt. Whereupon Nick interpleaded in Court, and the Bench ruled in his favour. The hearing however was further complicated by a witness who peeped through a crack in the Courtroom door, to overhear the testimony of another. He was later insulted outside the Court by Oates who, recalled to the stand, contradicted what it was claimed that he'd said. Thus he was severely reprimanded by the judge, for what almost amounted to contempt of Court. Oates it was turning out had more than just a competitive edge to his temperament.

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This, however, did not intrude on his salesman technique. Young Nick, now trading as Zealandia Cycle Works had, in November 1889, along with other Christchurch bicycle makers, displayed his wares at the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition in Dunedin.13 His cycles there won three First and two Second prizes, yet he did not capitalise on that in advertising until April 1890; and not at all on the fact his First Prize winning Zealandia Racer, described as a "very light, compactly built and well-finished machine"14 was of the type upon which the colony's 50 mile (80km) road record time had been set. But now set upon that track in April, he maintained the same old advert declaring those prizes, which grew rather stale, until January 1891, when he dropped all straight advertising. Instead, he remained in public view with a dodge, a little creativity which was: 1) a £5 ($1040) reward for the recovery of a Singer bicycle taken by mistake from outside his shop the previous August and 2), he wished to hear from a gent who'd called at the shop also last August, regarding a Singer cycle for sale.15 Then he plugged away almost daily with this unaltered ploy until near the end of April 1891, when he reverted to straight adverts. The inference being that straight promotion was more rewarding than psychology. And he also changed allegiance; whereas he'd dealt solely with The Star newspaper, he was now so with the rival Press.

But then, Kent and Corrick also did not cash in with the success of their Jubilee brand on which, in November 1889, the New Zealand five-mile (8km) record was set. Not directly, that is; they merely advertised the vague assertion that their Jubilee Racers "have won the highest awards."16 And the prizes they were awarded at the Dunedin Exhibition were never promoted, since their partnership was dissolving by then. Kent, by September 1890, was trading as Pioneer Cycle Exchange at 110 Colombo St and pushing a range of sundries, and cycles that included the old High Wheeler, in a choice of wheel sizes. Thus the speedy capitalization of racing success was left to Adams and Curties.

Proof of this arrived in the Press of 7 October 1890, an article which stated that the New Zealand 50 mile bicycle race record had been beaten the previous day, on a Star Light made by Adams, Curties and Co.17 In the same edition in a two-column spread, the Company proudly stated that fact, albeit not naming the rider. The Company per se was later said to be "thorough masters of the art" of advertising.18 For that, read Fred Adams, who utilised dynamic and forceful messages and surely subscribed to the dictum, Advertising is salesmanship in print. Fred Adams also appears to have thrown himself more deeply into the business. In July he'd stood down as Touring Club sub-Captain and Secretary, the latter role for which he was presented with a secretaire by way of thanks. An example of his magnanimity occurred in the Magistrate's Court in December 1890.19 Thomas Prisk, 17, was charged with stealing bicycle fittings worth £2 2s 6d ($439) from Adams and Curties, his former employer. Adams testified that he'd accused Prisk of taking things, but if they were returned, the matter would be dropped. Prisk returned only some of the items, denied taking others and was discharged due to making poor progress at work. But he had since brought them work and had the run of the shop and was given a good character, thus received only three months' probation. As contrast, a man who stole a bicycle in 1887 worth £18 ($3830) got three years prison.20 As it happens, that bike was found in Oates' shop, where the thief had tried to flick it off to Nick. Late that month Fred Adams and SR Stedman of Dunedin made a test run in the Interprovincial Race meeting at Lancaster Park on a , made by Adams, Curties & Co.21 Constructed on the Rover principle with the front seat built to be ridden by a lady, it was named the Tandem Star and said to be the first of its kind in the Colony, highly finished and strong, enamelled and nickel plated, and was "a most creditable specimen of local industry."22 An earlier form of tandem was the tricycle, on which the two riders sat side by side; ideal for a courting couple, less so when there was a third or dickey seat behind them to

14 accommodate a chaperone aunt or young brother. Good exercise though, considering the machine weighed about 150lb (78kg) whereas a single seat safety was from twenty to forty- five pounds (9 – 22.5kg)

Local papers had been a little helpful for years, sometimes naming model and brand of a winning machine and from the late 1880s, also the maker's name. There was a little justified parochialism, since mostly they were Christchurch concerns. And a little back-scratching, since those same concerns were regular advertisers. The papers were however scrupulous in not naming brands and machines in coverage of major amateur events held in Christchurch, such as the annual Interprovincial Bicycle Races. And ranking equal alongside competition, was co-operation. Each Spring, the opening of the cycling season would set the tone. All the clubs and any unattached riders and visitors wishing to participate would muster in Cathedral Square replete in their colourful uniforms. Under command of various Captains, sub-Captains and buglers, they would parade along city streets, perhaps then continue to some pre-ordained outlying suburb or beach where there may be entertainment, scratch races or speeches. Such a procession through Christchurch streets in December 1889 was described as a monster, the largest ever seen in the colony; 186 riders, the majority on bum-jarring High Wheelers.23 The spectacle was watched by large crowds, who also enjoyed the novelty of a Singer Rover safety machine with a second seat attached to the crossbar, which carried the rider's small son.24 From the 1880s club members would act as officials in races or events conducted by another, and there was always inter-club attendance, fraternisation, toasts and goodwill speeches by one club towards another. But while there were riders who belonged to more than one Club, the Pioneer Bicycle Club decided in August 1886 that no active Club member should belong to another . Canterbury Anniversary night on December 16 was celebrated by a tournament at the Rink organised by the Touring Club, whose members glided around the half-lit hall with Chinese lanterns tied to the handles of their cycles.25 There followed a one mile (1.5km) bicycle race, then a skate race and finally, a polo match between club members and Rink employees.

The Whippet; just how Curties simplified this design is unknown. Sharp, Bicycles & Tricycles: An Elementary Treatise On Their Design And Construction, Longmans, Green, and Co, London, New York and Bombay, 1896, 296

15

CHAPTER IV – 1891

January 1891 saw the local cycling cash amateur movement gaining ground. The Bicycle Touring Club was the prime motivator, although members of other clubs were also supportive.1 Signatures, including those of some of the prominent resident racing men, were being collected in favour of competing for cash not trophies. But the Christchurch makers and dealers stayed silent. At least, they did not at that time express opinions in the press. They were businessmen, cognisant that a large proportion of cyclists nationwide were against the cash movement, some vehemently so, and all riders on both sides of the debate were clients or potentially so. Late that month, the Press advised that Adams and Curties "have received the first shipment of the new cushion-tyred bicycles which has arrived in New Zealand."2 The implication that this was a first was a tad misleading. Nicky Oates had, the previous month, been the first in New Zealand to import these new style tyres, which were often like a thick-walled garden hose.3 They gave a more comfortable ride, plus they couldn't be punctured. Adams and Curties soon advertised this new stock, but neither claimed nor implied any 'first'. Then in February, Adams and Curties upped their marketing tactics with: 1) an "Easy Payment System" of £5 ($1040 in 2019) deposit followed by monthly payments, ie Hire Purchase; and 2) an illustrated price list, free upon request.4 Except, once again, these were not really 'firsts'. The earliest bicycle Hire Purchase found in New Zealand was October 1883, when Wellington cycle dealer Robt Gardner & Co. advertised that they intended selling their machines on the Time-payment system.5 Then there was Oates and Kent's little stoush in 1887, where the tricycle in question had been sold on time-payments. And in 1888 Oates was advertising that he "sells on time payments." The following year in October, Oates – who else? – began advertising "Price and Description on Application – Free."6 In March, Fred and Watty took their home-made tandem for a spin around the outlying hills and sectors of Christchurch. The tour "proved that a tandem safety bicycle is well fitted for pleasurable touring, and further, that the locally-manufactured cycle would stand the heavy work of the hilly roads." And even though the cycle was fitted with jaw-jarring solid rubber tyres, "Down the many long declines the machine flew at express rate." 7 No doubt the pleasure of their outing was lessened two days later in Court, where the Company claimed £50 ($10,406) from Luigi Cerchi.8 He was a cabinetmaker and mechanic and fellow member of the Bicycle Touring Club, who had along with Adams, donated a medal to the Club to be used as a prize. Cerchi was also an inventor who'd engaged Adams and Curties to manufacture and sell his device. But they fell out over the subsequent details and a promissory note was destroyed and the case boiled down to the word of Adams against that of Cerchi. Thus "looking at some slight hesitation which the former had shown about it, the Court non-suited the plaintiffs, with costs against them." On the family front, Watty had a scare in May. His father, lopping branches off a tree, fell and the axe cut his right arm and penetrated his back as far as his lung. He was admitted to hospital, and the injury may well have contributed to his death years later.

Benjamin Saville, born in Riccarton in 1871, was described as being of a studious and musical disposition. He left Riccarton School in December 1884 with dux honours, and immediately began working for Kent and Oates. An accomplished cricketer and member of a church choir, he also belonged to cycling clubs and was clearly competent, both mechanical- and mercantile-wise. In March 1891, having been manager for Kent and Co, he bought the premises and goodwill at 110 Colombo St and began trading as The Christchurch Engineering & Cycle Works. He immediately set about some important alterations to the premises, after which he undertook gun repairs and mechanical work of every description, and offered to manufacture cycles to order of every pattern with all the latest improvements. At the same time, Richard Kent having sold out was setting up in opposition as Kent's

16

Bicycle Factory, in large and commodious premises on Bedford Row. He'd just imported considerable additions to his machinery including an Enamelling Stove, which would enable him to do "All Kinds of Cycle Work in the Home Style."9 Meanwhile, Adams, Curties & Co. trading as New Zealand Cycle Works were also expanding into larger premises. They were now on the corner of Colombo and Manchester streets, as the "Largest Cycle Works and Showrooms in the Colony."10 They also, however, continued trading as New Zealand Cycle Stores at Colombo St until July.

But Oates had again taken the lead with the latest improvement, the pneumatic tyre.11 He had at the beginning of March been the first in Christchurch to import them for bicycles and tricycles, although he didn't advertise that at the time. This was, however, not quite the pneumatic as we know it; the inflated inner tube was held in place by two strips of canvas with flaps that sat on the outside of the wheel rim. And the rubber tyre was shaped so that it too overlapped the rim. Nonetheless the pneumatic with its inner tube, although prone to puncture, was the fastest riding tyre, and the ultimate in handling and comfort. There was, however, a snag: the rubber tyre and canvas flaps were glued to the rim. A puncture meant peeling back the tyre, slitting the canvas, extracting the inner tube and patching the hole. When the tube was reinserted, the canvas slit was stitched with needle and thread, generally all on the roadside. Uncouth needlework led to the inner tube bulging out through canvas and rubber, huge revolving hernias that rubbed on the forks and eroded due to the friction, and exploded. The original metal or wooden rim velocipede wheel which had been the least comfortable had been improved briefly by strips of leather fastened to the rim. Next came an endless band of solid circular India-rubber cemented in place, which cement soon came loose. Solid rubber was little more comfortable than metal or wood, and the larger diameters used on roadster cycles were too heavy. Then came the cushion tyre of varying diameters both external and internal. But the narrow internal cavity made for a heavy, dead tyre, while the larger cavity made a thinner-walled tube, which led to the sides of the tyre being cut into by the rim. Further, the expense of India-rubber soon led to adulteration of the tyre composition by some manufacturers, with the inevitable failures. The cushion did have a variation, the clincher tyre, which was moulded to lock into a matching fold of the steel rim edges and remain firm. Benjamin Saville did not follow suit with pneumatics until June, Adams and Curties in August, Frederick Gough in September, Mason Struthers & Co. in October and Kent in November.

Frederick William Gough was the sixth of the major bicycle players in Christchurch. Born in 1854 in England, he was the son of an engineer with a substantial business. He'd arrived in Christchurch in 1878 as an unassisted passenger, ie he was possessed of some means. He was a foundation member of the Pioneer Bicycle Club in 1879 with a minor dabble in competition and by February 1880 was the sole colony agent for Harrington & Co. (UK) bicycles. In July 1887 he showed his engineering talent with a model vertical engine and boiler displayed at the Canterbury Industrial Association exhibition.12 The following February, he began advertising new and second-hand bicycles and tricycles for sale and exchange at his premises on Colombo St. He also built to order bicycles of any pattern. And in the Dunedin Exhibition of 1889, he'd won along with Kent and Corrick and Oates various awards for his bicycles, and a lathe he'd manufactured.13 In September, Gough introduced the Clincher pneumatic tyre into New Zealand, and at last began to advertise his bicycle awards earned at the Dunedin exhibition in 1889.14 The Clincher pneumatic was almost the tyre as we now know it, ie an inflated inner tube, the outer tube with beaded edges held in place by flanges on the wheel rim. Braided wire embedded into each rim of the tyre, which made the modern tyre, came a little later. In April 1891, Ben Saville enlisted in a blanket coverage combative advertising campaign, by confusion. His first announcement, "Calliope Cycles are guaranteed and acknowledged by competent judges to be the most serviceable, the lightest and the most exquisitely-finished

17 machines made in the colonies," appeared in the Press under the name B Sackville.15 The same ad the following day in the Press, the Lyttelton Times and The Star was under his correct name. All local makers were now regular advertisers in the local media, and all were still assisted by various news items concerning their activities and developments small and large. In May, Saville was reported as having turned out three Ordinary machines in one week and introduced the Abbington ball bearing head to make steering lighter; a 54 inch (1.37m) Ordinary made by Oates set a new New Zealand 50 mile road record with the other competitor also riding an Oates machine; and late that month Oates ever open to trial and experiment was the first to fit cushion tyres to a 52 inch (1.32m) Ordinary. That owner took a two day tour to Akaroa and highly praised the tyres, which led to speculation that the older style bicycle would become greatly popularised.16 That month the Daily Telegraph in Napier mentioned talk of a tandem bicycle club proposed in Christchurch, but nothing further was heard elsewhere.

At last, in June 1891, Adams and Curties took the lead in innovation. They began a Riding School for tuition in cycling that was open daily 8am to 6pm at the Manchester St shop. Purchasers of a Star cycle were taught free of charge. Nonetheless the point of difference was now quite apparent: partnership. Adams was the gifted salesman with advertising nous and mechanical talent, Curties the practical man with an even deeper mechanical skill, managerial abilities and a fastidious control of quality. Kent and Oates each seemed unable to sustain business partnerships for long, and Gough and Saville remained solo, thus each had to wear all the caps associated with their affairs. Richard Kent was the first to cater specifically for lady riders. A comprehensive write up in The Star in July announced that his latest novelty was a Whippet bicycle. This had "a detached saddle bar, so that a lady can, when seated, command the use of the pedals without inconvenience, the rider has full control of the motive power, and can sit gracefully between the two wheels. A shield over part of the hind wheel protects any portion of her dress from contact with it, and she can propel the bicycle quite as rapidly as a gentleman can."17 This machine would supply a long felt want. Kent had four sisters and was married with four daughters – the eldest admittedly only 10 – so was hardly divorced from feminine influence. And he would surely have been aware of the growing movement towards female emancipation which in New Zealand, was strongest in Christchurch. Surprisingly again, he did not capitalise on this free publicity by advertising ladies' machines. Adams and Curties each had three sisters but the Company, apart from installing a front seat designed to be ridden by a lady on their tandem the previous December, did not build machines for women until the following year. The other local makers also declined at that time to manufacture for women, but that was simply the reality of the marketplace. There was only a small need, and it seems cycles for ladies were imported as required. In July, Adams and Curties quit their Colombo St store to concentrate on Manchester St, and in August expanded their illustrated price list to a full-blown catalogue, still free upon request. Then in September the Bicycle Touring Club, of which Kent and Adams were members, became the first club in New Zealand to elect active lady members, four of them.18 It does seem though that the Pioneer Club had a lady member by the following month. October heralded the club-organised spring opening run of the season.19 On a fine though windy Saturday afternoon, somewhere up to two hundred cyclists including members of the newly formed Addington Club and unattached riders assembled in Cathedral Square, on machines decorated with flowers and flags. Fred Adams representing his Club was one of the marshalls, and prominent was a group of a dozen riders, his employees who'd mustered first at their shop. Also featured was the Company tandem, ridden by a Club sub-Captain, and a lady Club member. The three other lady members rode on specially constructed Safety machines. Clearly this was no begrudging acceptance of women by the Club, which promptly presented each of its lady members with a brooch as a memento of the event. This was the first time in New Zealand that women had participated in such a meet. After the customary photographs

18 were taken, the cyclists paraded off to New Brighton. Unfortunately, no reference has been located as to who "specially constructed" the ladies' machines. Richard Kent had also taken another first. In May, he extended his market horizon with regular advertising in the village of Leeston, 44km south-west of Christchurch. Admittedly using his factory address, not an agent there. No one else followed suit until October, when Adams and Curties did the same, except in the township of Temuka, 146km south of Christchurch. Within days of them, Saville followed suit in the same local paper. Kent soon widened his net, advertising in the Hawke's Bay Herald and the Ashburton Guardian, while Adams and Curties leap-frogged into the Timaru Herald. Oates remained static until mid- December, when he took up the reins in the Southland Times in Invercargill. Gough, however, never advertised outside of Christchurch. And in one small first, Adams and Curties whilst maintaining their usual two-column classified spread also began what eventually became known as run-of-paper-advertisements. These were small unclassifieds of several lines inserted into news text body at the editor's discretion, to catch the eye of those who didn't read the classified columns. Commonly used by other advertisers, they were however new for Christchurch bicycle makers. Earlier in October, Adams had been made Consul for the Bicycle Touring Club, and was the only Cyclists' Consul in Christchurch. The New Zealand Cyclists' Alliance appointed consuls in every district of the Colony. Their duties, based on the English Cyclists' Touring Club system, were to report on the state of the roads, recommend to members the best hotels, provide local information, promote touring and generally look after the interest of cyclists.

The New Zealand Cyclists' Alliance was the proponent and defender of cycling amateurism and was composed of club delegates from throughout the colony. The dates of Adams' involvement as a delegate for the Touring Club are murky, but at the Alliance November meeting, he seconded a motion proposed by a fellow BTC member that racing men be allowed to appropriate a portion of their winnings to cover travel expenses, such monies to be handled by the Alliance. Clearly this was an attempt to strike some happy medium between the opposing cash and amateur camps, but opinion was equally divided. The matter was referred to affiliated clubs for their appraisal. As the year came to a close, Adams and Curties were given a comprehensive write up in the Press.20 Their considerable array of plant and machinery was detailed, they had fifteen employees and forty machines currently under construction for all parts of New Zealand. They manufactured twelve different designs of Star cycles, and the Ordinary or High Wheeler was still in demand. A week later they advertised staff wanted – Improvers, Fitters and Turners for engineering work. Then on Boxing Day at the Interprovincial Race Meeting, AC Wilmot the North Canterbury "crack" – ie expert or star – on an Adams and Curties Star pneumatic safety beat the Australian champion Busst in the first heat of the one mile scratch test race. And in the five mile test race. On the last day of December, the Company advertised that fact and included an endorsement by Wilmot, which named endorsement seems to have been a first by any Christchurch maker.21 The Company had recognised that by naming Wilmot, they had identified the expert, thus greatly increased the weight of his product evaluation. Wilmot went on to win both races in the finals on New Year's Day.

Irish-born Alexander Lowry arrived in Christchurch in 1871 aged about 12 with his widowed mother and three siblings. He started work in 1876 at the Hallenstein Brothers New Zealand Clothing Factory upon its inception in Christchurch, and was appointed manager there in January 1892. He'd been elected a member of the Pioneer Bicycle Club in September 1881, and was a competitive cyclist. Over the years he was elected to officer roles in the Club including Captain, and acted as an official at various meets and events. In 1889 the Club began a short-term journal – The New Zealand Wheelman's Gazette – of which he was editor. The organ's date of demise is unknown, although it was extant in March 1890. It was later said that the ashes of this journal led to the creation in 1892 of arguably the Colony's finest cycling publication, The New Zealand Wheelman. And some years again after that, Lowry

19 using official statistical returns and figures supplied by the leading Christchurch makers – where he assumed nine-tenths of colonial cycles were made – compiled what he called a "fairly probable estimate" of bicycles imported and made in New Zealand for the decade beginning in 1885.22 That year, 45 were imported, 50 made here. While the import numbers fluctuated, locally made increased by leaps and bounds: 270 in 1889, 468 in 1890 and 624 in 1891. Lowry early on had played a prominent and eloquent role in protection of amateur sports, but in October 1891 he admitted that a reform in cycling race prizes was needed. He of conciliation, hope of a harmonious outcome from dialogue.

The Company premises, corner of Manchester and Colombo Streets, from April 1891 Adams, Curties & Co. Star Cycles catalogue, 1894-95. (Author's collection)

20

CHAPTER V – 1892

Adams and Curties opened the New Year with a two column spread in the Press that boldly proclaimed that they were the Largest Cycle Works In The Australian Colonies. And they were the first to innovate in 1892, announcing early in January an agent, Mr JE Beckingham, undertaker, of Timaru. It seems they were the first of the Christchurch congregation to appoint an agent. Nicky Oates, however, was not idle, he soon introduced a new braking system, albeit one invented overseas. The current crude brake that was simply a metal spoon pressed against the front tyre was renowned for its tendency to cut that tyre, whereas this new brake was a band acting on the rear wheel hub, operated via a light wire connected to a lever on the handlebar. Adams also in January shifted his role in the Cyclists' Alliance; he became delegate for the Aurora Cycle Club of Greendale, a small town inland from Christchurch. Whereas he'd been a BTC delegate to the Alliance, two new such delegates were elected by the Club that month. The Alliance had ruled in December that a delegate need not be a member of the club he represented, just a member of an affiliated club. Other delegates were in the same position as Fred. Adams and Curties' network continued expanding, receipt of its catalogue was acknowledged by newspapers in Timaru, Dunedin and Feilding. In March, they donated a gold medal to a bicycle club in Napier, to be awarded to the winner of the 40 mile (64km) Waipawa to Napier race. That month the record for the routine 50 mile road race was reset on an Oates-built pneumatic roadster, which event he again failed to capitalise upon. In April, he built a High Wheeler with a geared front wheel and pneumatic tyres.1 Such a novel machine had been exhibited at the recent Stanley show in England, where it created a 'furore' among experienced riders and cycling journalists. It was described as having "a lightness in running and speed," and was predicted to cause a revolution amongst road riders. Nick obtained sole patent rights for New Zealand, and his creation was bought by a local rider, who held high hopes for its speed on the road. The 'geared' part was simply an enclosed system of a toothed ring and pinions on the front wheel axle powered by the pedals, which effect was like the third gear of the modern Sturmey Archer gear box. Depending on its diameter, the wheel would rotate 1½ to 2½ times for each pedal rotation. Ergo a faster road speed than the ungeared ordinary, but more pedal grunt needed from a standing start. The advantage was no chain and open gear wheels subject to grit and abrasion. The spokeless wheel was another novelty in England. Constructed of two notepaper-thin discs of convex cymbal-shaped steel pressed together, they were pierced at the widest portion – the centre – by the axle, while the circumference supported the wheel rim.2 The claimed advantages were rigidity, lightness and less friction from traditional cutting the air. Perhaps this was to the chagrin of wire makers, who annually drew out 3900 miles (6277km) of wire for English cycle makers alone. But they needn't have worried, the spokeless wheel was yet another short-lived innovation.

Adams and Curties although focussing on manufacture, continued importing complete machines. In April, they announced sale prices on some newly arrived English cycles. And as the cycling season drew to a close, RP Clarkson of the BTC set a new 50 mile road race time, on an Adams and Curties Star pneumatic. Only to be eclipsed two days later by HJ Pither of the Aurora Club, who rode a Jubilee pneumatic safety made by Richard Kent. Kent did follow that up, he advertised that racing success and named the rider. His old neighbour Mason, Struthers & Co. then advertised Singer's Ordinary Bicycles at half the usual price, since more riders were turning to Safeties. The old Penny-farthing however refused to lie down, it was still in common use into the 20th century. Advertising continued to widen its national coverage. Adams and Curties tailed Kent into the Herald in Napier, announced agents appointed in Geraldine and Invercargill and advertised in the local press. Kent and Saville took on opposing agents in Oamaru, Oates

21 hooked up with well known racing man and importer SR Stedman at his shop in Dunedin. In May, Fred Adams tried a new technique, a two column spread of occupation-specific testimonials.3 Dr DeRenzi of Christchurch Hospital decided his Star Safety was simply perfect; Christchurch collector/canvasser/assessor W Blake's Star cost him only 1s 6d to travel 1000 miles ($10 & 1931km in 2019) while EY Simpson of Christchurch declared his machine invaluable to expedite business. The campaign ran for about seven weeks; presumably there was some success. In June, lady friends of BTC members put on a Leap Year ball in the Club rooms, to which members of all Christchurch athletics clubs were invited. In mid-July, the BTC Wednesday Debating Class topic was Female Franchise. Mr G Rowe opened in the affirmative and spoke at length of extending political power to women. Mr H Thompson responded in the negative and at the conclusion of the debate, the vote went against extending the franchise to women.4 Twelve lady Club members who were present refrained from expressing an opinion or voting. Clearly these twelve knew their place, and their cause was hindered by two-thirds of the local press, who ignored the debate altogether. Only the Lyttelton Star gave a write-up, admittedly a fortnight later. Usually all three papers reported on the Debating Class, and sooner after the event. That month at the BTC annual meeting, Fred Adams was elected an auditor of the Club. Their rooms in Hobbs' Buildings, Cathedral Square, had been handsomely decorated and refurnished, the reading-room well supplied with cycling and other literature. The Club also at that time had the largest number of lady members of any New Zealand cycling club, which apparently didn't entirely fulfil female requirements. In August, a large meeting of ladies in Christchurch – presided over by a man, who expressed his hope that this movement would remove existing prejudice – founded their own Atalanta Cycling Club.5 Within a fortnight the Club had twenty-five active (women) and four honorary (men) members. The Club founders were said to have been eight local women who'd been observed riding since early that year. While they were far from being the first ladies club in the world, they were that in the Southern Hemisphere. Adams and Curties promptly wrote and offered them free use of their riding school, at certain hours. And that month, the Company began publishing a special list of second-hand cycles for sale. Later in August, the ladies' Leap Year ball was responded to by one put on by the BTC, attended by over 120 folk. On this occasion the Club room was decorated with palms, evergreens and Japanese nicknacks, and a large number of bicycles 'kindly' lent by Adams and Curties and Oates were displayed round the room. Which shows the impartiality of the Club – Oates was not a member – and the ready exploitation of free promotion by both manufacturers. A little mutual back-scratch may also have been at play. RP Clarkson, the BTC Captain and former 50 mile road champ, had given his endorsement for Star Safeties in a brief ad campaign in July. He'd toured and raced his machine for 2000 miles (3219km) without a bolt coming loose or a joint giving way. The Company coupled that with a special reduced rate for new Star Safeties, ranging from £15 10s to £18 10s ($3176 to $3791) and pre-owned Roadsters at 40 shillings ($409.) Adams and Curties new season's combined catalogue and cyclist's manual – free and now 48 pages – was released early in September In an apparently new tactic, the Company wrote to the Dunedin Cycling Club and asked for a list of its members. Presumably this was to enable the latest catalogue to be sent to each member, and since no objection was raised at the Club meeting, the request was likely agreed to. Then at the Alliance annual meeting in September, Alex Lowry tendered his resignation as Pioneer Bicycle Club delegate. The meeting comment that "regret was expressed that he could no longer continue to act"6 was not difficult to interpret; he'd been pushing for over a year for some happy compromise in the battle of amateur trophy versus cash, and had endured considerable friction and controversy. Seems he'd simply had enough, and was surely aware of what was about to happen. Also at that meeting a letter was read from Alexander Wildey, who asked the Alliance to recognise a cycling journal that he was to publish, for it to be the official organ of the

22

Alliance. The organisation, according to the Press, hedged its bets, merely resolved to accord its sympathy towards the proposal.

Cycling exploded into the new season on Saturday afternoon, October 8.7 In weather described as simply perfect, the largest crowd ever witnessed watched the opening run, and had to be restrained by police from pressing in on the riders. The riders mustered in where photos were taken, and after three cheers for Her Majesty the Queen, cycling and the ladies, the procession set off through the streets of Christchurch. First to follow the marshals, who included Fred Adams for the BTC, were the Atalanta ladies, resplendent in their Club dark skirts, cream-coloured straw hats, cream blouses with bow of old gold and navy blue tied loosely on the neck of the blouse, and a handsome brooch-shaped monogram with Club initials engraved thereupon. Then came about ninety BTC members with little light and dark blue flags with BTC neatly worked in and fastened to their machines and some with their machines gaily decorated; about fifty Pioneer men looking neat in their chocolate and gold uniforms and headed by one of their lady members; and about twenty of the newly- formed Porowhiti Cycling Club, all trailed by a large number of unattached cyclists; a total of almost 200 riders. The procession finished at Lancaster Park where the Atalantians led two laps of the track and were then entertained at afternoon tea. Finally, there was a series of races and rounds of three cheers for the lady cyclists. What followed two days later was not quite so pretty – a meeting that saw the creation of the New Zealand Cash Amateur Bicycle Club.8 Twenty-seven cyclists met at the City Hotel, twenty-three signed up and established a pro tem committee to firstly, draw up rules and enquire for suitable club rooms. Second, draft a race programme for Anniversary Day in December, and invite Australian cash men over to compete. The division within the cycling community was now active and formal, and duly nationwide. Four days later the cash men met again, and a further thirty-two men signed up. The Alliance consequently met later that month, Fred Adams present as the Aurora Club delegate.9 The main topic discussed was the BTC, whose name had been published in a Timaru newspaper in connection with the Cash Amateur Club, the majority of whose officers and committee were BTC members. After some wrangling, it was agreed that BTC member delegates on the Alliance and BTC members who'd also signed up as cash amateurs would resign from both the Alliance and the Club. Further, the BTC as a club was given twenty-one days in which to repudiate in writing any connection with the Cash Club. Failure to accede would result in exclusion from the Alliance of all BTC members. Fred Adams was presumably still a BTC member, and it seems he hadn't yet signed up with the Cash Club. Meanwhile, Walter Curties had been active on the work front; he'd built an Ellipse.10 This was a wheel-frame bicycle, a recent English development of the diamond frame. Straight jointed tubing was supplanted by "four curved tubes, two on each side, passing, the one up and the other down from the neck, to meet again at the axle of the back wheel, thus forming the ellipse that gives the new model its name." With three nickelled spokes or strengtheners, crossing in the centre, the frame was said to be extremely rigid, and much lighter than the usual diamond frame. The first local buyer of this new machine was said to be most enthusiastic of its merits, and Watty had specially designed and was building for Mrs Burn, secretary of the Atalanta Club, an Ellipse frame ladies safety machine, "a most ingenious piece of mechanism" which "should be a miracle of strength and lightness, the ideal bicycle for women." Yet for all its miraculous merits, the Ellipse was reported in depth in New Zealand only in the North Otago Times. This was followed by an oblique reference in November to an improved but unnamed safety constructed by Adams and Curties, after a new pattern. Finally, there came a garbled mention in the Oamaru Mail regarding Mr and Mrs Burn of that town, who were both "mounted on Ellipse frame M'Intosh safeties."11 So it seems that Watty knocked out several Ellipses, while Adams and/or Curties' name/s was transmuted into M'Intosh. An Ellipse frame anywhere in that era has proved to be otherwise elusive. But that did not hinder the firm, who ran a wee campaign in October whereby a £20

23

($4089) machine would be lent free of charge to ladies who wished to learn to ride, upon their placing an order for a Star Ladies Safety. On the last day of October, the President and four members of the Canterbury Industrial Association inspected with great interest the establishments of the five main Christchurch bicycle makers.12 They were highly pleased at the advances made in the cycling industry.

Alex Wildey in a word was pithy. Rambunctious. Sarcastic. Humorous. Opinionated. Flippant. Colourful. Racist and anti-racist. And intelligent. Apart from that he was scrupulously fair and impartial regarding all the Christchurch bicycle makers. Also towards other towns, providing they advertised in his journal. He also possessed a photographic memory and was a stickler for accreditation of published articles, both those by himself and those of his own used by others. Moreover, he was a cyclist. Born in Dunedin in 1864, his education is unknown but by 1884, he was a printer in Lawrence township in Otago, where he married the following year. He liked the stage and in a wonderful presage, had a role in a farce in a concert in Lawrence in 1888, playing the part of Mrs Quarrelsome. He was probably not a man to be crossed, bearing in mind his proficiency on the range as a Volunteer with the Tuapeka Rifles. Wildey then moved north, and most likely was in Christchurch by February 1892, where his second daughter was born. In October, he began advertising his services as a printer on Cashel St, and on the 22nd, published the first number of his fortnightly journal, The New Zealand Wheelman. It was at the time the only wheel paper in Australasia. His maiden editorial promoted Christchurch makers, who kept employed fully fifty men and boys, and he hoped "to be supplied with all the interesting wheel doings from one end of the Colony to the other."13 He also appealed for contributions from lady riders and readers, invented the word hicycle as an alternative to high wheeler/penny farthing and became a member of both amateur and cash clubs, to both of which he eventually became a regular donor of prizes. And he caused the Cyclists' Alliance to focus their response from their annual meeting; from being merely sympathetic to his proposed journal, they would now "heartily support the same." Early in November, the Bicycle Touring Club in unanimous decisions voted to sever membership of the Alliance and as a body, join the Cash Amateur Club. This increased the Cash Club's membership by almost 80, while the Christchurch makers including Fred Adams remained publicly noncommittal. Alex Wildey however was not so reticent. In his first issue of Wheelman he gave a column each to the Works of Saville and Boyd.14 In Issue No 2, he gave over a page of glowing review of Adams, Curties and Company, including a detailed drawing of their premises which was "an edifice of commanding aspect."15 They employed 30 hands; what had been a riding school on the upper floor was now used as a fitting shop with a bench that ran the whole length of the building; over 60 machines on order were currently being constructed; they had a gigantic stock of cycle accessories; a number of ladies' safeties were underway for different parts of New Zealand and as for a showroom, "they have not the space for such a useless superfluity as this, nor have they the time to construct stock for it." All this is under the critical eye of Mr Curties, "who is perpetually on the watch, and personally tests every part by special appliances at every stage of progress." It is thus "impossible for inferior workmanship to pass muster in the establishment." Thereafter came a blow by blow account of the entire plant and equipment, and for bicycle frames there was "enough tubing to supply beer – home brew, of course – to every prohibitionist in Sydenham." This was of course the era of quaint and colourful. A week later, the Company advertised prices of their Humber Star Light Roadster at £19 10s to £26 ($3987 to $5316) depending on tyres and method of payment. The included accessory was a bag containing an oil-can, spanner and pump. Optional was a lamp and bell for a quid ($204). The next day they announced an open invitation for visitors to inspect "the largest manufactory of cycles in Australasia."

24

By 1890, Humber had adopted best engineering The long-established English firm practice, that straight steel tube is stronger than Humber and Co. are credited curved, and had matured the frame shape into what we with evolving the safety bicycle know today. But while Adams etc called their latest diamond frame. Their initial machine a Humber Star, Gough and Oates utilised the diamond design of 1885, term "Humber pattern" for their new season's cycles. however, elicited this delightful Richard Kent was the maverick; his Jubilee cycles had non-PC account: "In this all the had a near-diamond frame for some time, except that arrangements of the 'Ordinary' the tube that ran from the saddle to the crank axle may be said to be reversed: the bracket was curved. And remained so for some time. proverbial Irishman's description of it being "The is the Whether it was a typo or some misunderstanding is smallest, and the hind wheel is in unknown, but the Cash Amateurs announced that the front.""16 Aurora Club amongst others was to participate in the Cash Club's forthcoming meet. Sometime later though it was clear that Aurora remained in the amateur camp, and that the BTC was extant until at least November 23.

Nicky Oates was next to receive a Wildey luminous liturgy.17 Almost a full page promoted his abilities as a maker, although "A detailed description of the many machines used would only be embarrassing to the reader, and as Mr Oates has a particular abhorrence of courting anything appertaining to "blow," (as in one's trumpet, or brag) there is no occasion to recapitulate here." It was an open secret that he paid the highest rate of wages in the trade, did not believe in employing boys, nor in importing cycle components in their finished state. He preferred instead to employ the most skilled labour obtainable, and since taking possession of their new factory, they’ve been working an average of twelve hours a day. They currently have orders on hand for 47 machines, and Nick is naturally proud of the fact that his were the only colonial-made machines holding New Zealand track records. That same month, yet another manufacturer started up on his own account.

Robert Wilkin was a Christchurch lad born in 1860 to Scottish parents, his father a colonist, farmer, merchant and auctioneer. His cycle career may well have kicked off in 1885 when his father's company began auctioning bicycles on behalf of the importers. Beyond that, he joined the Pioneer Club in 1890 and doesn't seem to have been competitive. Described as a quiet and obliging young fellow, he worked for Fred Gough until November 1892, when he commenced business at Manchester St repairing bicycles. Prepared also to make Humber or other pattern safety machines, he was the first of the minor manufacturers of Christchurch. Subsequently trading as Holmwood Cycles and in business until 1920, he never advertised further afield than the Ellesmere Guardian. Alex Wildey's Wheelman issue of November 19 1892 contained an early reference to a new English device, a sort of hybrid between a geared ordinary and a front-driven safety machine. It was in fact called a "Rudge front driving safety or geared ordinary." In his words, "It looks an ugly brute." Delegates of the Cash Clubs met later in November and formed the New Zealand Cyclists' Union, although the clubs represented were all from the South Island. And whereas the Christchurch Cash Club had been created in meetings on neutral ground – the City Hotel – meetings now including the Cyclists' Union were in the BTC rooms, which Club was last heard of in June 1893, when the Christchurch Cash Club took over their furniture and fixings.

In a minor and unsurprising coup, Adams and Curties scored the backing of local character and identity Professor Bickerton. In a glowing testimonial, he espoused the safety bicycle, in particular the Star Ladies' Safety made to his order, and with which he was simply delighted. The safety, he said, will be of especial value to the fair sex, and considering the price and perfection of such colonial machines, it would be simple folly to use the imported. English-born Alexander William Bickerton studied and taught science there, and also

25 worked in railway engineering and cabinet-making. He emigrated to New Zealand in 1874 to take on the post of foundation professor of chemistry at the newly-established Canterbury College in Christchurch. He later also taught physics, served as a government analyst and beginning in April 1885, gave a series of popular evening classes at Canterbury College on Technology.....or the Application of Science to the Useful Arts. Open to anyone, the entire course of twelve lectures that cost only 5 shillings ($49) was recommended for all those engaged in mechanical operations of any sort. Bickerton was very much in favour of technical training, and for his students to have a knowledge of projection or mechanical drawing. His lectures covered various branches of metal manufacture and working, paints, oils, varnishes, paper, printing and lithography, and the course concluded with a lecture on steam engines and other prime motors. But in the ensuing years, he came into dispute with college authorities and the University of New Zealand concerning his teaching duties and system and college administration. Then there was his theory of cosmic philosophy; his disrespect towards the church; his outspoken scorn for social respectability; and his espousal of socialism. Beyond that he was a member and sometime president of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, thus was acquainted with Fred Adams snr. From comments made by Watty many years later, it's clear that he also was well acquainted with the controversial Professor. Thus it's easy to imagine his attending the popular science lectures, taking on some formal mechanical training. The Company followed up the Bickerton promotion with a crafty three day campaign in early December; they were prepared to teach gentlemen or ladies the art of cycling at any address in New Zealand. Costs or otherwise weren't mentioned, and the advertisement appeared only in the Press in Christchurch. The number of those nation-wide who took up this offer is unknown. Watty and his team meantime had knocked out a geared front-drive safety. The first in the Colony, this curious beast was like an enlarged child's trike, with one less wheel at the rear. Further, unlike the safety whose wheels were generally of equal size, this one's wheels were three foot front and two foot rear (0.9m and 0.6m.) By description, it does sound rather like Wildey's 'ugly brute' Rudge, and in fact two Christchurch papers called it a geared ordinary. At the Cash Amateur inaugural meet on Canterbury Anniversary Day, December 16 1892, the novel appearance of Adams and Curties' front-drive machine "called forth no small amount of curiousity."18 Whilst probably not that sharp when turning a tight corner at speed the Star machine, propelled by T Clarkson, won the One-, Two- and Three-mile (1.6, 3.2 and 4.8km) Roadster Handicap races. The Company was almost as quick off the mark, advertising those results the next day. And in the second day's racing, RP Clarkson on a Star Racer came second in the One-mile New Zealand Championship race. He'd been pipped at the post by the champion of Victoria, Australia, which also was promptly promoted. The first day's racing was judged a success with 4–5,000 attending. The second day was less so due to strong winds and on the financial side, the Club incurred a small loss. Unfortunately, there is no source that might tell directly of the power of plugging racing successes. On Christmas Eve, the thirty-five Adams and Curties employees held a very pleasant reunion at the premises on Manchester St. Also along were Australia's most popular cyclist, Wally Kerr – who was Sydney's fastest amateur – and assorted local bikers. Entertainment was by way of songs by a number of gents including Watty, who along with Fred Adams was involved in various toasts. Late in December in a nod to women's emancipation, a new ad campaign by Ben Saville featured a drawing of a woman riding a bicycle in the street. That was soon after, as Alex Wildey charmingly put it, "A gentleman with, as the phrenologist would say, 'a bump of acquisitiveness highly in predominance,' paid a visit to the works of Mr B Saville last week, in the Calliope maker's absence, sometime during the night, and took French leave with the contents of the cash-box." (French leave – to go AWOL, disappear suspiciously) Altogether, £30 ($6133) in gold and notes was stolen. Alex sympathised with his friend, but as he said, "We get a good supply of sympathy sent to us to run the WHEELMAN with..." The geared ordinary, which had slipped into the background, was regurgitated in The Star,

26 which extracted a piece from an English paper. The ordinary, it said, "will eventually outlive the safety." The geared ordinary was advancing by leaps and bounds, and "it conduces to an easier and more comfortable posture on the part of the rider, and.... must to a great extent do away with the cramped and ugly style now so common amongst cyclers."19 So why was Nicky Oates not pumping them out? 1892 was well into the boomtime of bikes, with an estimated 343 imports, and 738 New Zealand-made.20 Yet 738 does sound a smidgeon low, considering Adams and Curties had 60 underway in November alone and Oates forty-seven.

Back cover of The New Zealand Wheelman first edition, 22 October 1892, 18 (Author's collection)

27

CHAPTER VI – 1893

The new year opened on January 3 with a pun presumably penned by Fred Adams. Inserted in the News Of The Day column, it ran, "STAR-TLING NEWS....New Zealand amateur wheeling flyers....defeated by....A. C. Wilmot...on a Star racer..." This had occurred the previous day at the Rangiora Athletic Association's Sports event. On the same day, at the Oamaru Caledonian Association's sports event, "Stars were 'shining,' having secured three firsts." Currently, Half and One-mile (800m and 1.6km) New Zealand amateur records were held by Stars. And at two other South Island New Year's Day meets, "those riders mounted on Stars were the successful competitors "right down the line."" That month in another small first, the Firm began advertising "Safeties and Bicycles taken in part payment for new Stars;" ie trade-ins. And their initial second-hand list was now enlarged into a catalogue. Pre-owned bicycles, ie High Wheelers, were now priced from 20 shillings ($203 in 2019), while safeties remained at £10 ($2033) and up. While work in local bike industry had picked up from mid-January, a shortage of material for some had been resolved by the good feeling amongst owners; there was always one or another willing to come to the rescue. Richard Kent emerged from the colourful eye and pen of Wildey in mid-January.1 In an extensive piece, we're told that Kent was the pioneer cycle builder of the Colony. Hence, perhaps, his trading name, Pioneer Cycle and Engineering Works. Dick was also "one of those steady, unassuming, go-as-please sort of gentlemen who is imbued with a stickativeness and thoroughness which portrays itself in a prominent and unmistakable manner in everything that passes through his hands." And he'd put out an average of seven machines a week for the past six months. Late in January, Adams and Curties began selling Star geared ordinaries. Their promotion seemed to have been slow off the mark; perhaps Nicky Oates' sole agency for the Crypto geared ordinary gearbox had some influence. And their campaign seemed a tad erratic and low key, the first advert appearing in Temuka. Two weeks later they ramped up a little with a full page in The New Zealand Wheelman, but it was not until March that they entered the Christchurch media. That, however, was simply a paragraph inserted in the news column with a half-hearted claim that the "new Star Geared Ordinary was here to stay." It may be, though, that their focus was on the safety machine. The first front-drive safety seen in Wellington and, apparently, the whole North Island, was a product of "the popular firm" of Adams, Curties and Co.2 It had been ridden by a local man, accompanied by another cyclist on an Oates Zealandia safety. They'd raced together from Upper Hutt to Wellington, the Star winning by ten minutes. Admittedly, the Zealandia man had suffered a couple of nasty spills. In February, Alex Wildey took a spin on a geared front-drive safety just built by Oates.3 It was, Alex said, anything but prepossessing on its fat pneumatic tyres. But his eye grew accustomed to the machine, and it lost its clumsy appearance. After which, "it almost goes itself, the cranks simply serving to relieve the monotony of sitting still and to banish 'pins and needles' from the dangling extremities." The same month, Adams and Curties – still the largest manufacturer of wheels in Australasia – appointed an agent in Temuka – which gent also touted for Nicky Oates – and another in Ashburton. They also donated a gold medal to the North Otago Cycle Club for use as a prize; now had 37 employees; and had engaged the services of Ken Lewis, an Australian cycle engineer and Cash Amateur racer. Ostensibly an employee at the plant, his declared real mission was to break all records up to ten miles (16km) on a Star cycle. The Company's investment however was more longer term than short, since Lewis did not break records until November. And the Press in a piece on local industry gave a glowing write-up of a Star tandem for man and woman made to order for a local doctor.4

On February 11, Watty had set sail on ss Miowera for Melbourne. The steamer then reached Sydney on February 23, returning to Lyttelton on March 7. He'd travelled saloon class, the

28 inference being that it was a business trip, but whether that was to obtain materials or facts or even look for orders or agents is not known. But while he was absent, his father Thomas early in March also set sail, his voyage returning him to England for good. The manifest listed him as a railway official and married, but omitted the fact that this second wife remained in Christchurch and was outright deranged. Presumably his departure was known to Watty, since they appeared – later, at least – to have a close enough relationship. And caught in the middle was Watty's brother Thomas, who was living with their father when he was enrolled at school in February, and presumably went to live with Watty in March. Just why Thomas should return to England is unknown. On the face of it, he had in Christchurch a single and two married daughters, one dependent and one adult son, and four grandchildren. More than sufficient to keep him here for family ties. Although he had a brother and sister in England, it appears he never lived in the same towns as them, spending instead the rest of his days in London. Finance does not seem to have been a motivation, Watty was doing well enough to help and as he proved many years later, was happy to do so. It may be that Thomas was unsettled, adrift. He could well have been so since the death of his first wife in 1884 at age 43, which instigated his previous return to England.

In March, Richard Kent announced his own geared ordinary, which advert was dropped in April. Adams and Curties ceased plugging their geared ordinary in May, however it remained advertised by an agent in Wanganui until May 1894. But most telling was Oates, who never advertised the geared ordinary at all, although it does seem that he made at least one other. And after all the 'furore' and hype in England, at the National Show at Crystal Palace in February, nine-tenths of the cycles on show were the rear-driving safety. The geared ordinary and front-driver it seems were out of favour with most manufacturers. But still there were 'competent authorities' and some makers convinced that this front-driver was coming to the fore.5

Early in March, Adams and Curties staff chipped in £3 4s ($650) in a nationwide appeal for the Queensland Flood Relief Fund. They may well have given more – or less – were it not for media confusion. Reports in New Zealand variously had a river as six or seven feet (1.8m or 2.1m) and sixty-seven feet (20.4m) above normal. In fact, the river rose ninety-eight feet (29.8m) above normal. Simultaneously, the employees got together and decided to establish a cycle club, open only to company employees who would ride only Star machines. There was, however, a little confusion to begin. Early in March, there were a couple of press reports that the Star Record Club had been formed, membership of about forty.6 The name itself was rather suggestive, since Australian crack Ken Lewis was a member. News of this Record Club reached as far as Australia, where late in March, there were cynical misgivings.7 In attempts at breaking records, said the Aussies, timekeepers should be independent. Otherwise, an "unkind public might receive the times dubiously." And, they continued, the ordinary ie non-Company rider would be placed at a disadvantage, so would "grow to love the makers' employees less." Doubtless though, the staff were encouraged by reduced prices to ride Company cycles. The confusion arose since the Club was not created and a committee formed until a meeting on March 20 at their works, almost two weeks after the initial press reports. Secondly, the name was in fact the Star Cycle Club. Two days later the committee met, and amongst other matters, changed the name to Star Wheel Club. At a meeting four days after that, Watty was voted to the Chair but otherwise, as with Fred Adams, took no recorded part in the running of the Club. By then, the Company had upped the largest staff in Australasia to 38 hands. Alex Wildey chimed in with observations of local clubs.8 They were, he said, in a state of inanition. Something was needed to rouse them from their comatose condition. "The club rooms should be the resort of a merry crowd each evening," and while the Pioneer Rooms came in for a little patronage, the two or three men seen there were merely shuffling cards. And the Cash Club Rooms were simply deserted. Why, he asked, did they not cultivate a taste

29 for chess or draughts, exercise their brains to some purpose? Which led to his praise of Adams and Curties, who had recognized the want of activity of local clubs, so established one of their own. Their intention was that it should be a real live club, a thoroughly sociable affair with its own rooms and weekly meets and runs. In April, Wildey spotted Fred Adams riding a nice Star light roadster that seemed well up to date. It had leather mud-guards and a scorcher (a speedster, or someone who cycles furiously) saddle covered with a Jacquers' patent cover. Whoever Jacquers was. Alex politely refrained from referring to advice in a previous issue, that recommended cycles should have "full-sized steel mudguards, not make-shift affairs of leather and wires, which save only a few ounces and are but partially effective."9 Later in April he again applauded Adams and Curties, "who are always open to suggestions if they see value in them."10 He was pleased, he said, that his remarks on the 'funerally' appearance of now-a-day bicycles had borne fruit; some of Adams and Curties' "latest productions are lined in gold." Presumably golden pinstripes. In February, Alex had realised that the cycle world was on the border line of its first distinctive and genuine fad, coloured wheel rims.11 He'd then hammered on for over a column of print, travelling from Oscar Wilde to Banquo and the florist's window, all in relation to ladies' wheels being coloured to match their owner's dress or complexion. Apparently it began in Boston, America, where a gent departed from conventional black and turned out a "frail- looking safety enamelled a ghostly white." Other folk soon followed, viz safeties coloured blue or green; wheels of a sickly yellow, bright fiery red or a beautiful baby blue. Generally, Alec decried the monotony of mournful black wheels of the previous year. In the same edition, he commented on the Star Wheel Club who, judging by the turn-out the previous Saturday, were possessed of some life. The Club management, he said, were very liberal in allowing all wheelmen of whatever persuasion to attend their meets. Richard Kent was next to employ a crack rider. HJ Pither was living in Greendale village inland from Christchurch when he first raced. He won the Pioneer Club Fifty-mile (80km) road race in October 1891, went on to win ten more races including a Five-mile Provincial Championship. He had from the start ridden Kent's Jubilee machines, although Kent did not capitalise on Pither's name and fame until May 1892. No doubt there were 'arrangements', compensation of some sort under the table until April 1893, when Pither moved to Christchurch and began working for Kent. The following month, he lowered the New Zealand time for a 100 mile (160km) road trip. Herbert John 'Bert' Pither was yet another fascinating character from that era. Born in Surrey, England in 1871, he arrived in New Zealand with his family in 1877 and left school in October 1886 to work. Along the way he trained as an engineer and mechanic, continued his winning ways on a Jubilee, and remained strictly an amateur rider. Until May 1895, when he suddenly switched codes, nation and brand. He became a cash rider for the Austral Cycle Agency in Sydney, Australia and rode a Beeston-Humber machine. In 1896, by then in Melbourne, he defeated the World champion, American Arthur Zimmerman, in a One-mile Scratch race. By 1903, however, he was back in Christchurch, where he opened a cycle shop, after which he moved to Invercargill, built a monoplane and was reported nation-wide as being New Zealand's first airman, having made the nation's first flights at Riverton Beach in early July 1910.12 One newspaper quoted an unidentified 'onlooker' who described a flight, but there were no other witnesses to the secret trials, and his aircraft never flew again. Pither then returned to Christchurch where he built a motor car from scratch, and established a reputation as a maker of marine engines. After being bankrupted in Invercargill he took his tools and aircraft, fled his creditors and returned to Melbourne, where he died in 1934. By the end of April, the New Zealand Half and One Mile Amateur records were still held by Stars, and the Firm had 40 employees.

On May 9 at a social evening of toasts and songs at the Cash Amateur Club, Fred Adams and fellow manufacturer Thomas Boyd were identified as Club members.13 Fred had not been mentioned in connection with the Aurora amateur club since last October; when he signed up with the Cash Club is unknown. But at the meeting, he certainly stamped his position. In a

30 vigorous speech he urged the necessity for a proper cycling track in the Colony, and that Adams and Curties would plump down liberally for the same. Competition, he continued, was going to be keen in the coming season and the Star makers were going to advertise Stars on all the railways North and South. They were also going to stock cycles "to the tune of 100 machines", which would induce riders to buy the locally made article. In addition, they intended to supply English machines such as Howe, Raleigh and Humber, but they meant to "boom" Stars. Capital could do anything, he said, and Adams and Curties were well provided with gold. There's no reason to doubt Fred's fiscal disclosure, which tells as much about the Firm as any balance sheet would. The company suitably roused then rose and sang the Club ditty, "She's the only Girl I love," in their "usual affectionate style, and then went home full of happiness."14 So Alex Wildey wrote. He commented later on the page at the good form in which Adams and Boyd had been at that meeting, how they'd taken the opportunity to advertise and "boom" their respective jiggers. "Good solid old Fred," he'd concluded. "Always has an affection for a free advt." And if he thought there was even a hint of immodesty or boasting in Fred's speech, he certainly kept it to himself. You can't help but like the guy. Later in May the Cash Club held a Handicap Road Race, the first prize for which was £1 10s ($303) and a gold medal presented by Adams and Curties. It's unclear if they donated both prizes, or just the medal. Tom Boyd and Fred were two of the four timekeepers. By then, the Star Wheel Club medals were almost completed, and uniforms underway. Fred kicked off a wee campaign that may have deliberately been a pun, cashing in on a burlesque that was doing the rounds nationwide: " 'FAUST UP TO DATE' – Yes, and so are Star Cycles." But Ben Saville was not one to let a challenge go unchallenged. Two days later he captioned his advertisement of woman on bike with "Phyllis a-wheel" and tacked on the ditty: ''When Phyllis does a-wheelin go She rides a Calliope don't-cher-know" Alex rounded off the month by coming out pro-geared front-drivers which were, he said, slowly coming into favour in Christchurch. They were, he said, tip-top machines for road work and wonders at hill-climbs.

At the same time in England, the geared ordinary was on a slippery slope. In October 1892, journalist and biker Ernest Godbold determined to trial this new class of machine.15 Pleased with the pace and ease, he bought it. And over the ensuing six months, discovered good points which had previously passed him unnoticed. But also some serious defects, one of which was the near impossibility of climbing a steep or long incline. Next was the difficulty of riding at pace into a headwind, followed by the danger of slipping and flying headfirst over the handlebars. Performing the latter from a safety was safer, since there was more opportunity of landing other than on one's head. Godbold subsequently tested two further front-drivers, which he described as "dead and inclined to drag up hill, and the life and swing were gone." By October, it was clear the geared ordinary had reached its nadir.16 Although made world- wide, demand had abated. Most manufacturers sold only a few machines, and were glad to flick off remaining stock at a loss. A small number of firms continued making front-drivers, although it seems the majority of riders of these were old Ordinary men. Thus the front-drive machine refused to go belly-up.

Adams and Curties joined the emancipation crusade in June. Their new advert had a drawing of a woman on wheels in the street but thankfully was titled simply, "'Star' for the Girls." But for all the camaraderie in the makers' ranks, a little discord was edging in. It began in May, when Nick Oates testified at a Canterbury Industrial Association meeting.17 He spoke of the injustice done to himself and the other makers, by the duty-free entry into the Colony of certain parts of machines. He was asked to put into writing a list of those parts which in his opinion should be admitted free, which he did.18 Simultaneously Richard Kent, in his unique position as an Association committee member, was to contact the other makers to canvass

31 their views. In June, at the next meeting, Oates' letter pointed out that some finished or partly- finished cycle parts that should be dutiable were in fact free. Other parts, in particular those that couldn't be made here, were dutiable when they should be free. The committee then resolved to advocate duties in line with Oates' comments. They would write to the manufacturers stating what they proposed and ask for replies by June 22, when a decision would be made. They hardly hurried, not writing till June 19. But the makers duly replied by the 22nd and dissent was clear.19 Five of them jointly wrote that they did not wish any change to the current Customs Tariff for bicycle parts, but did want an additional five or ten percent duty on finished machines; Gough coughed up an alternative plan; and Oates stayed silent. For the interim. The tight five were Adams and Curties, who now had 45 hands, Saville 14, Kent and Co. 10, Boyd and Son 6 and Wilkin 2. Alex Wildey in June followed up his March comatose cycle club comment. He took credit for renewed life in said club rooms, informing of new activities including debates and lectures, musical evenings and progressive euchre. Resuming the colour discourse, and to eschew any tint of favouritism, he described a machine knocked out by Boyd and Son as "what, without any extravagant language, may be said to be the finest specimen of the wheel- builder's art yet produced in this country," a statement subsumed by "Every part of the machine pourtrayed (sic) the cunning hand of the master workman, the delicate substantiality of the whole structure being nothing less than worshipable." 20 Continuing the colour theme, he had a dig at Adams and Curties who had the 'neck' and 'temerity' to enamel a machine they'd built for a local man in the Pioneer Club colours – chocolate and gold.21 This go-ahead firm, he railed, have put out a smart-looking mount, with its extended wheel base, extra narrow tread and all other up-to-date improvements. After which, he was compelled to admire a front-drive Atalanta safety just built by Boyd and Son.22 It had "a sleekness and fineness that is captivating." And one of the notable features was "the facility with which the saddle could be raised or lowered." The tariff debate deepened in July, at an Association meeting attended by Wilkin, Saville, Gough, Adams, Oates and Boyd.23 Kent was absent. A letter written by Adams that day was read out. Signed also by Kent, Saville, Boyd and Wilkin, it was against the proposed alteration of tariff. The industry, it said, was developing under the present 20 percent tariff on finished machines and parts. But by the further protection of 10 percent on imported finished machines it could be further developed. The proposed alterations would affect a large number of parts on which 20 percent was already being paid, resulting in machine price increase, thus decreasing sales. Oates then took the floor, and cast doubt on the five agreeing amongst themselves. Earlier that evening, he said, Kent had told him he'd stand with himself and Gough. And his friend Boyd had said three times in the previous 24 hours that he also would stand with them. It was well known, he said, that many men in other full-time employment in Christchurch and Ashburton were importing bikes. Since they were earning wages at their trade, they were able to undersell local makers. Ironmongers and a soft-goods firm he named were also importing bikes. Men in Christchurch who called themselves makers employed boys on 12 months trial and paid them no wages, other boys were getting 2s 6d or 3s 6d ($24 or $34) a week. Finished parts and tubing cut to length, he said, were imported from England, paint burnt off so numbers on them could be seen. Those parts were then assembled by their numbers; kitset bicycles. Boyd then spoke. He agreed with what Oates had said, but that he'd now changed his mind and was going with Adams. He also put on record that he'd made the first bicycle in New Zealand, having also made all the parts for it. Adams in turn asserted that his firm paid 20 percent duty on all dutiable articles, and he'd gone to a great deal of trouble setting the tariff right. He'd sent to Wellington all the parts of a bicycle and explained in detail all the parts known in the trade as both finished and unfinished. He was now awaiting the Commissioner's decision. They needed, he said, lower prices on parts so they could compete against low grade foreign machines. The outcome was that due to division of the makers, the committee could make no

32 recommendation to the government. That month Adams and Curties applied to register a Trade-mark, that of the word STAR, which Trade-mark they said they'd been using now for four years.24 That was apparently unsuccessful, as they reapplied the following year, this time for a logo containing the Company name and the word Star.25 And they donated for use as a prize in a race by Waipawa and Waipukurau wheelmen "a very handsome gold jewel in the form of a six- pointed star, of 15 carat and substantial weight."26 And that month, they made a geared ordinary with 52inch (1.3m) wheel and solid rubber tyres – which were now rarely used – for an out-of-town customer. Since this model had fallen from favour world-wide, and the Firm were no longer advertising them other than in their catalogue, we may surmise this to be an example of their company motto: Customer Service. Someone wanted that exact style of machine, so they obliged. Also in July, Watty's brother Thomas left school to begin work. It would be easy to assume that that was with the Company, and that he was living with Watty. Alex Wildey demonstrated his impartiality by extracting a comprehensive article from the English Bicycling News that highlighted the front-drive safety machine's inherent drawbacks.27 The main one being that because the front wheel wobbles in motion, "the feet in pedalling are describing anything but a circle." It was therefore unreasonable to expect a man to pedal at his best when his feet "are subjected to a secondary wavering movement." Which was all a prelude to introducing the English-invented front-drive, that was possessed of a steered rear-wheel. This appliance had a two-piece frame that was hinged slightly behind and under the saddle, while the handlebars that swivelled independent of the front wheel were hooked up via a linkage to the back frame. But whereas the diamond shape was accepted as the strongest , this one was square with no diagonal brace. It would surely have twisted and/or collapsed at the first bump in the road. No surprise this curious coot was rarely if ever heard of again.

All this fiddling with geared ordinaries and variations of front-drives were simply attempts to overcome the primary defect of the chain-driven rear-wheel safety, which was the chain mechanism. Magnets for road grit and dirt, the chain and sprocket wheel teeth were abraded away and the chain itself stretched and overall, more of the rider's effort was lost, due to subsiding efficiency. English inventor J Harrison Carter had in the mid-1880s come up with a sealed gear case which held an oil bath, through which the chain ran. Folk who rode the same mount one with a gear case, one without described the latter as "a veritable crock as far as sweetness of running against the wind or up hills is concerned."28 Perhaps a slight overstatement, nonetheless there was a case for the case. The same source also ran a wee extract regarding cyclists who in the main ride flat-footed. Apparently ankle motion – ankling – yields added power and speed.

Adams and Curties had installed a Carter case on the Star tandem they'd built in February, which appears to have been the first such usage by a New Zealand maker. The snag with Carter's case was the difficulty attaching and removing it, so Watty designed a two-piece case with oil bath.29 With just three fixing screws, his was simple to attach and remove. Fred Adams may have had some input with the design, since the patent was under their joint names. Whatever the case, their case began to appear on their machines from about August. They were assisted that month by a minor stoush between two local cash amateur cracks, Albert Body who rode a Star with gear case, and Jack Boyd on a T Boyd And Son's Atalanta Cycle Works Atalanta machine. Not to be confused with the Atalanta Ladies Cycle Club, nor the anagram of Body and Boyd. The Fifty Mile (80km) Road record – Riccarton to Leeston and return – was first set by Body, who days later was eclipsed by Boyd, who in turn was surpassed by Body. The media further assisted, by identifying Body's machine. Not to be outdone, Thos Boyd continued this wrangle in the Wheelman advertising columns.30 "Some local Makers," he declared, "are continually advertising their machines as

33 holding the One Mile Bicycle Record of New Zealand. Such statements are not according to fact." He then went on to reveal that Atalantas held the New Zealand One and Three Mile (1.6 and 3.2km) Records and Fifty Mile (80km) Road Record. Dick Kent immediately beneath Thos Boyd's piece disclosed that his Jubilee machine held the New Zealand Fifty Mile Record.31 But he had the sense to clarify that this was the Amateur record, whereas Boyd did not identify his Atalanta records as being made by cash amateur riders. Nicky Oates was careful to point out the distinction, but Adams and Curties were rather lackadaisical in this regard and kept mum. In a little trans-Tasman transitioning, Australian champ AC Duff who had competed at the Christchurch Cash races the previous December elected to remain in New Zealand awhile. After holidaying in the South, he signed up with Adams and Curties in August. Soon after, a team of four Christchurch amateur riders set off to Sydney to compete. Two rode Oates' machines, one a Star and the fourth a Kent Jubilee. The Sydney Morning Herald gave a cursory nod towards the cycle industry in Christchurch; there were currently seven manufacturers, with one hundred and twenty employees. The Lyttelton Times, in contrast, gave a blow-by-blow and comprehensive write-up of the Adams and Curties factory, which article was repeated in the Hawke's Bay Herald and Southland Times.33 The Firm had, since Wildey's November 1892 'useless superfluity' comment, created a showroom, with 'a few fine machines' on display. They now had forty-five hands and utilised an individualised system of manufacture; each man worked on the same specified component each day, which instilled expertise in his labour.

Allan Cameron Duff's role with Adams and Curties was brief and unspecified. Born in Dunedin in 1868, he had moved to Australia with mother, step-father and siblings prior to the mid-1880s. Later in life he was variously a salesman, motor mechanic, accountant, company secretary and manager. Seems he was simply an all-round nice guy, untarnished by years in Australia. His mission here was to promote Cash Amateur racing, although his competitive nature was modest, to say the least. Until, that is, February 1894, when he departed Christchurch in style and cycled pretty much non-stop to Dunedin, the entire 245 miles (394km) in 26 hours 5 minutes.34 This broke the Australasian 12 and 24 hour records, but Duff by then was signed up with Dunedin dealer Sam Stedman, who'd supplied the Beeston- Humber machine on which the records were set. Despite Fred Adams' salesmanship and his candid perhaps outspoken stance within cycling circles and the industry, he was outside of those a private, reticent man. By now the main cycling establishments of Christchurch had been covered by the press almost nationwide, and Wildey had done a number of pieces in each of which he put a few lines of biography, or a little personal appraisal. All except for Fred, who apart from random admiring asides by Alex – which was also accorded the other makers – remained invisible. Watty however was often mentioned in the press and Wheelman in relation to his management skills or inventiveness. As if to celebrate their impartiality and status, the Company in August donated a gold medal to the recently formed and amateur Invercargill Cycling Club, to be used as a prize for a road race. Their network spread further, with a short promotion of a Star in the Poverty Bay Herald of Gisborne, and the appointment there of Humphrey and Davys, mechanical engineers, as agent. Later in the year, the Company via their agent chipped in a guinea to the Caledonian Society's fund to be used for trophy purchases.

Nicky Oates while strictly against anything appertaining to blow – as in brag, boast or bluster – was certainly not immune to blow – as in erupt, or out of proportion. It began – anonymously at first – in the Wheelman in August and exploded into the open in September, both there and in the Otago press.35 Oates had a new catalogue due out in August and he had requested from the Hon. Secretary of the Otago Cycling Club a list of their members. Presumably he was to post a catalogue to each member, and in a little sales pitch, he explained that there was useful and informative data in this catalogue. Back came the Hon.

34

Sec: Yes, he'd happily supply the list, upon receipt of a small donation to the Club, such as a guinea. To which old Nick promptly retorted, "Sir,– Enclosed please find one penny stamp. See if you can buy a rope with it and hang yourself." Alex concluded his August piece with a pun too dreadful to reproduce here. And through September, he and the Otago press gave blow-by-blow accounts of the continuing clash between the now named parties, together with third party comments. Oates' chief fault, said Alex, was his lack of nickel-polish.36 But beneath his thin allowance of veneer, there sparkled a real rough diamond. There was, he said, no bigger-hearted nor open-handed fellow in the whole colonial wheel trade than Nick; which pretty much closed the affair. Oates' request was hardly innovative or controversial. He was a businessman investigating a legitimate potential source of business. Further, his and other makers' catalogues were sent gratis to newspaper editors around the country. "Nearly all the secretaries in the colony," he said, "responded to my appeal and supplied lists of members, to whom I sent my catalogues. Neither of the Dunedin secretaries did so, however; but I hardly expected they would, as they were evidently afraid their members would get contaminated by "Nicky."" It's unknown when or what other Christchurch makers tapped into club memberships, apart from Adams and Curties the previous September. The latter also began advertising Saturday evening trading, open till 9 pm, and the Southland Times came out with another long piece.37 Titled 'The Evolution of the Cycle,' the article ran from the days of the dandy horse up to the modern machine, with a focus on Curties' gear case invention and a plug for local agent RW Jones. It also reviewed Adams and Curties' latest catalogue, now 64 pages and containing much useful information such as bicycle maintenance details, how to train and win on the path. And for the final time in their annual catalogue, geared ordinaries and tricycles were included.

The Adams family business – Victoria Nursery – had ceased advertising in December 1892 and the level of trading activity since then is unknown. No family member took over the business, which was extant until at least June 1895. The nursery may well have devolved to more of a hobby for Frederick Adams snr and sons. In the meantime, the entire family continued to lived there. Watty was a little less stable. In October, he shifted to the same street if not the same house as his married sister Mary. Their brother Thomas may also have moved there, but within four months Watty – and Thomas? – had moved yet again. For Watty though, romance was about to take hold, if it had not already. Fred also was active. The Company appointed agents in Oamaru and Blenheim and advertised in Napier for an agent required there, which request was duly fulfilled within weeks. Also in October he was elected a member of the Richmond Amateur Club and three nights later, elected a vice-President of the Cash Amateur Club. That evening, perhaps in response to Alex Wildey's September condemnation of the New Zealand Cash Amateur Bicycle Club’s "witless paradox" and "jarring appellation" of a name, they retitled themselves as the Christchurch Cycling Club. Another enterprise began in October: Messrs Beckwith and Ditford of Victory Cycle Works, Tuam St, Christchurch. Their announcement spouted the customary "Bicycles built to order" and "Repairs a specialty." John Edward Beckwith, born in Yorkshire in 1871, had arrived in Christchurch in 1884 and finished his schooling there in 1887. His initial employment is unknown, but he was working as a fitter for Adams and Curties by December 1892, and was subsequently bugler for the Star Wheel Club. In April 1893, he applied for a patent for a tandem bicycle with certain detachable parts that would readily convert the machine into a single bicycle suitable for man or woman.38 Ditford departed after just four months, and Beckwith continued alone until September 1894, when he packed his bags for England. He'd been commissioned by a Christchurch syndicate to arrange for manufacture thence exhibition of his creation at the Stanley Show, an annual bicyclefest in London. He was to figure again in Watty's life, further down the track. The opening run of the season on October 19 papered somewhat over the split between the

35 cash and non-cash people.39 The Christchurch Cycling Club in their light and dark blue uniforms together with the Porowhiti Bicycle Club cash men had the largest representation, followed by amateur Star Wheel Club, Atalanta ladies in blue and gold, a few Pioneer members and 26 unattached riders. The group assembled at the Band Rotunda for the obligatory photo, after which the colourful parade made its way to seaside New Brighton, received there by the mayor and mayoress. Local crack AJ Body continued his stamina-testing ways. He eclipsed both amateur and cash amateur 50 and 100 mile (80 and 160km) records, all in one marathon event, on a Star cycle with gear case. Those facts and that his mud-covered jigger (slang term for a bicycle) was on display in Adams and Curties' shop were rushed into print for the following day.

Although the Wheelman announced fixed advertising rates per page, column and portions thereof, there surely was some private system for placement. Ben Saville from inception of the journal had every front page to himself, the other makers had subsequent half or full pages. Adams and Curties had the back page to themselves until January 1894, when they took a full internal page that was embedded within text articles. Presumably Fred's' philosophy was to catch the eye that did not read advertisements. From December 1892 The Wheelman had had an intermittent Ladies column. From May 1893 and titled Women of the Wheel, it became a permanent fixture. Ben was trotting out Danish lass Dagmar Laugesen at the time; they married on September 28. Nine days earlier, the Electoral Bill had been signed, making New Zealand women the first in the world to have the right to vote. Dagmar had signed the petition demanding this right; perhaps she'd badgered Ben into shifting in May his "Phyllis a-wheel" illustrated blurb to alongside the Women's column, where it remained for almost a year. By September, Ben had begun producing his Calliope geared front-drive safety, but even to the non-mechanical mind, his design looked rather flimsy, more like a toy with a backbone liable to buckle or break.40 Beyond which, the inherent flaw of the front-drive was that pressure on the crank was at the same time a force on the handlebar, ie whichever pedal was being pushed was also trying to turn the steering in that direction. Contrary to Alex Wildey's opinion of a hill-climbing wonder, the front-driven bike made hill-climbing a challenge. Not that Alex relented that readily.41 In November he gave an admiring write-up of the Calliope, in which he composed a simile of Ben's recent three-tier wedding cake and a broom handle to explain the workings of the machine's gear mechanism. An "edible illustration" of the workings, he chortled. However, in addition to cantankerous steering and with no front fork rake, road shocks made for a more unusual experience for the rider. And worst of all, the geared front-driver did not appeal to the racing man. Oates, Kent and Boyd and Son dabbled briefly in front-drives, Gough not at all. Ben ceased plugging them by mid-December, and from December 23 Adams and Curties ran a campaign to dispose of their stock of Ladies' geared front-drive safeties. Unusually for them, they advertised in both Christchurch dailies. By early November Adams and Curties employed fifty hands, was still the largest cycle works in Australasia, and now offered a free factory tour. Ken Lewis finally began to earn his keep; in November, he broke the New Zealand One- mile (1.6km) record, on a Star. And the Company was the first – and only – cycle maker to exhibit at the Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Show that month.42 Their presentation of thirty cycles was on a raised platform covered with red baize, surrounded by a railing with "Here and there among the machines, palms in pedestals, poised perfect perpendicularity..." said Alex. In a large tent that was crowded the whole day, it was considered to be the best display in the Show. Included were record-breaking machines along with the latest innovations, such as 'instantaneous change gears' and a spokeless wheel, both fitted to Stars. 'Sold' tickets attached to the machines named the nationwide buyers. "The showmen," Alex concluded, "were sharp people who by no means neglect to advertise their wares when opportunity offers."

36

The 'instantaneous change gear' was yet another fad that arrived with fanfare, only to fizzle out. Invented by AO Collier in England in 1889, the device was a two-speed gear mechanism powered directly by the pedal crank. Change was affected by a lever attached to the handlebars, and Adams and Curties were the first to advertise 'change gear' on Stars, in March 1893.43 That month, Alex in describing that Star called it a "cunning-looking contrivance" which gave the rider command of two machines.44 Kent and Oates however seem to have not taken up the device until 1895 but by then, Adams and Curties had lost interest. Certainly, their 1894-95 catalogue did not mention the change gear, and they'd ceased advertising geared Star bikes in June 1894. They did, however, display a Humber safety with 'instantaneous change gear' at the Industrial Exhibition in Christchurch in August 1894. That month, they ceased advertising English Raleigh 'two gear' machines, which had been imported the previous year as samples. For all its benefits, cracks tended to shun the two-speed, which device was subsequently described as being too heavy and complicated, while poor construction caused too much friction.45 By about 1900, the Collier gearbox was gone.

Ben Saville ramped up his business and social connections from mid-November. He sold two specially reinforced Calliopes to EG Atkinson – son of the late Sir Harry, a former MP and Speaker of the Legislative Council – and his cousin SA Atkinson. The two men intended to cycle to Nelson, thence tour the North Island. In late November, Ben took on as partner Lambert Bowen, son of the Hon CC Bowen, former MP, Minister of Justice and life member of the Legislative Council. Lambert had trained as an engineer in Australia and it seems he was involved directly in the business, whose name was changed to Saville and Co. Simultaneously, the building was taken to pieces, their premises enlarged, alterations made and improvements introduced. Two weeks later in December, Harry A Atkinson, eldest son of the late Sir Harry, signed articles of engagement with B Saville & Co. Harry jnr had served his apprenticeship as an engineer in Auckland and Wellington and had furthered his experience in England and Scotland. Ben also applied for letters patent for an improved gear case and chain lubricator for cycles.46

Among the last attempts at resuscitating the front-driving safety was a natty wee number, the Crypto FD Safety No 3. Shortly renamed Crypto Bantam, this geared bike first appeared in November at the Stanley Show in London. The newspaper ad told it all: first in the list of attributes was "Quite Safe." Similar in outline to Ben Saville's Calliope, most of the bike and rider weight was at the front of the short wheelbase, ergo it could be jumpy with a hankering to tip forwards. Beyond which it had of course the aforementioned drawbacks of Ben's Calliope. A ladies' Bantamette model came out in 1896, but the Crypto front-driver was history within the following decade.

Fred Adams was not idle. Early in December he sailed to Napier where, in conjunction with his local agent, he set up shop for several days to display his cycles – mens and ladies – and sundries. The exhibition, open until 10pm, was crowded the day after opening, and the local press, in a complimentary and comprehensive coverage, divulged that Christchurch had no fewer than 100 lady cyclists. Fred furthered his mercantile cause by riding a spokeless machine in procession with members of the local bicycle club and the two fire brigades and the City Band to the Theatre Royal. There a performance was held, all in aid of a local flood relief fund. The agent soon announced that he would lend a machine to ladies who wished to learn to ride, and another shipment of cycles arrived from Christchurch. But Fred was gone by then, sailed home for Christmas. While he was away, the Atalanta ladies' club had held a social meeting with musical items, attended by about ninety members of the Christchurch amateur and cash clubs. Apparently in the pre-Yuletide spirit, they put aside any feelings of discord. And as a small gift to the Company, Albert Body, participating in the Austral Wheel Race in Melbourne, on his Star racer made the fastest time in the 25 mile (40km) road race. The next day, Ken Lewis on his Star won five events at the Canterbury Anniversary Day

37 races. During the year, an estimated 667 cycles were imported, and 942 made locally.47 And the Government Department of Labour, in its second annual report, now compiled occupation specific statistics. Christchurch was the sole city to have Cycle Works recorded; for the year to 31 March 1893 the industry had fifty-three male workers aged 14 to 20 – including one apprentice – and 23 adult workers, with the latter's average weekly wage at £2-3-2 ($437.)48 The average male artisan wage was about 10 shillings ($101) per day without board, pretty much unchanged from 1891. New Zealand was, as with Australia and the UK, in the midst of what was called the Long Depression. Beginning in 1873, it was not to end until 1895. There was, however, growth in productivity in New Zealand in that period.

Letters Patent drawing for A Convertible Tandem Bicycle, John Edward Beckwith, New Zealand Patent 6154, 25 April 1893

38

CHAPTER VII – 1894

Fred Adams observed New Year's Eve at sea, then hauled into Wellington with his stock in trade on New Year's Day, a Tuesday. It seems he set up shop in Willis St that same day and was open for business the next, with the usual comments and adverts in the local media. The display, open from 9am to 10pm, attracted large numbers of visitors, and Fred was likely assisted by newly-appointed local agent, SE Wright, a member of the Wellington Cycling Club. Four days later Fred sailed for Lyttelton, but announced that he would be happy to see any interested buyer before he departed. Agent Wright ran the show until Fred returned, on 18 January. Three days later, "dynamo Fred" was off to Palmerston (North) where he hooked up with his old compadre, former Christchurch crack rider RP Clarkson, a loyal Star man and schoolteacher who'd been transferred north. Together they cracked along with ease on their Stars on roads they described as "A1" to Wanganui, where the Company and its products received the customary glowing write-up.1 "Some 3000 cycles," the article said, "are in use in Canterbury." Fred demonstrated the two up-to-date machines at the Caledonian Sports ground, and an agent was soon appointed for the town. At the same time, the Company advertised in Oamaru for a "Live AGENT" wanted to sell Stars there. Any roadside witness of these two riders from Palmerston (North) may well have been provoked to consider two current hypotheses. The first was voiced by no less a personage than the British Speaker of the House of Commons. "The bicyclists of today," he exclaimed, "are debilitating and degenerating the human race by the way they stoop over their work." 2 He was of course referring to cyclist's hunch, which was an unsightly and unhealthy attitude. This opinion was reinforced by none other than Sir Benjamin Richardson MD FRS. A cyclist himself and very fond of the exercise, he postulated that "The attitude that nearly all cyclists adopt to a greater or less degree – bending themselves forward over the handles of their machines – is undoubtedly most unhealthy....The doubled-up position does much more harm than people imagine. Of course, everybody knows that it is ugly." The anterior and posterior curves are, he predicated, surely affected, as is the circulation and no doubt the lungs. Tailing close behind the infamous posterior curve – adopted to reduce the influence of atmospheric wind – came the second affliction, rider's wind. What with an unnaturally curved spine and rapidly pumping thighs, farting was a natural yet embarrassing outcome. But the cure, as postulated by Alex Wildey, was perhaps a tad more radical than he allowed – arseniate of soda (hydrodisodic arseniate, presumably drunk by the rider) was an arsenic preparation used to treat skin problems.3 Naturally it was potentially fatal if used in excess or indiscreetly.

Frederick Gough was the first of the major Christchurch makers to retire from bicycle making. At the end of January he sold his Coventry Cycle Works business to WJ Barlow and AM Price, and moved to the North Island. Ben Saville newly flush pushed out and opened a branch in Timaru. Fred Adams made good on his pledge in May to advertise Stars on all the railways North and South. There is some evidence towards this, since they were eventually taken to Court for an unpaid railways account. Undeterred by this triviality, Fred pushed on with promotion. In February the Company donated gold medals to the North Otago Cycling Club in Oamaru, the newly-formed Heretaunga Cycle Club in Hastings, and during that month, arranged a major exhibition in Oamaru. The latter local media gave the Company a good write-up, and Fred turned up there late in the month with a large selection of cycles and up to date novelties and attended to the exhibition himself.4 In another novelty, Christchurch man Walter Thompson, having become enamoured of a description he'd read, created a sailing bicycle himself, complete with mast, yard, halyards and a sail 9 feet by 9 feet.5 He was to exhibit his land yacht on the beach at New Brighton, but no report of this has been found. Oamaru had evolved into a substantial cycling centre with both amateur – Oamaru Rovers

39

Cycling Club – and cash people – North Otago Cycling Club. The latter was said in 1894 to be the strongest cash racing club in the colony. A further advantage was the banked cycle track at the local Caledonian Society show grounds. Richard Kent had had an agent in Oamaru until the end of 1892, after which he seems to have dispensed with agents entirely for several years. Local biker James Ogilvie set up shop in Oamaru in 1893 and was agent for Oates' Zealandias, Saville's Calliopes, and Humber, Raglan and Singer machines and later, for Sam Stedman of Dunedin. In late January 1894 he took on Adams and Curties' Stars, although the February exhibition was run independently of him. Fred was in Oamaru for business, and for the North Otago Club's Grand Championship Meeting on March 1. A number of Christchurch cracks travelled down by train with Kent and Oates for the meet. At the smoke concert put on by the Club that evening, Oates in his address pushed his barrow regarding tariff on imported bicycle parts.6 Fred in turn objected to such matters being introduced at smoke concerts. Those were, he chided, matters for discussion between manufacturers. Then he gave an interesting and instructive discourse on "Bikes and tyres up to date" in his "fluent and racy style." This in a report of the visit and meet by a Christchurch rider under the nom de plume 'One Of Them'. This report of almost one and a half pages of Alex's journal was flavoured by a certain censorial tone, which showed a little bias more in favour of one of the manufacturers than the other. Two days after the meet, Fred returned home. The exhibition was to run for another week, presumably attended to by agent James Ogilvie. A fortnight later Fred returned to Oamaru to deliver to the agent almost a dozen Stars, all of them fitted up and made to order for local men. He stayed for two nights and was as always happy to meet with any prospective buyers. Somewhere around this time, Ken Lewis had himself built for Mrs Lewis a "little wobbler" of a mount, "with a brown complexion and beautifully lined features." Further, Ken knew "how to turn out wheels that take the eye and at the same time take the body wherever it may want to go."7 Thus spake Alex Wildey. Perhaps that cycle was a parting gift from the Firm, for early in March Lewis, having switched allegiance, set out with Jack Boyd on Atalanta machines at Rangiora and set new times for the quarter- and half-mile (400 and 800m) records. Immediately after, Lewis accepted the position of manager with Sam Stedman in Dunedin. Watty had moved again by March, renting a house in Worcester St where he would remain for two years. It's easy to imagine he had the house to himself, or at most was sharing with brother Thomas, considering the possessions he was acquiring. The Company now had agencies in Ashburton, Blenheim, Greymouth, Hastings, Invercargill, Masterton, Napier, Oamaru, Palmerston North, Waipawa, Wanganui and Wellington. Late in March, Fred was on the road again. In Ashburton, he was interviewed by the Ashburton Guardian who said, "We had been fore-warned of the visit, and had steeled our journalistic heart accordingly to the extent of an intention to limit this young man's notice re cycles to one inch.... and though he has not yet succeeded in selling a bicycle to each of the staff, he has seduced us into an attempt to do justice to his firm's share in the present advanced state of the cycling industry in Christchurch."8 Trailed by, "There are two reasons for their success. The one is that the machines are good, and this entirely due to Mr Curties' engineering supervision....But the main cause of success is the business capacity – unequalled in the cycle trade in New Zealand – of Mr Adams....Mr Curties takes care that the machines are good, while Mr Adams...undertakes that everyone in New Zealand shall know it whether they will or not."

It may well have been during Fred's earlier visit to Oamaru that he was persuaded or inveigled by local civil engineer TC Dennison to construct a prototype of the latter's patent invention.9 Looking like something from a comic cartoon, this bicycle was propelled by foot pedals which swung to and fro not around, and simultaneously by a raised handle that was pushed backwards and forwards, in the mode of a railway jigger. This handle about the height of the rider's shoulders when seated was also used to steer, by means of a rod and a universal joint. Looking somewhat alike the old penny farthing reversed, the 60lb (27kg) contraption with its

40 almost 7 feet (2.13 metres) length was calculated by Dennison to be capable of reaching 40mph (64 kph). Watty had had the task of translating Dennison's rough sketch into reality, but even his mechanical brilliance could not achieve the projected speed – Fred in a trial run could not extract even half that rate. Dennison had unfortunately – in hindsight – christened his marvellous mongrel 'The Maori,' but Watty, undeterred, set about redesigning the behemoth, this time with a traditional diamond frame. The whole construction angle had been undertaken in secret, although there had been some leakage in the press, even as far as Australia.10 In May when the bike was finished, Alex Wildey reported that it ran splendidly, though it required a few minor alterations. But when in June the machine came out of the closet and he had a test drive, he summed it up with, "....and now that we are at liberty to say anything we please about the great revolutioniser, except to libel it, we prefer to bottle up our opinion...."11 He did, though, give the machine a comprehensive coverage, and complemented the Firm on the bicycle's finish. He did not, however, publicly comment when Ben Saville pulled his Phyllis ad from alongside the Women of the Wheel column on March 31. Nor did he comment when the very next day by mutual consent, Ben split with partner Lambert Bowen. And he certainly did not impart that Bowen left a considerable amount of money in the business; nor did he speculate that Ben may have been cash-strapped at the time. Saville and Co. had stopped regular advertising in the Timaru Herald at the beginning of March, were not to advertise in The Wheelman for many more months and in hindsight, were on a slippery slope. Fred continued his campaign south of Christchurch. In April, the Firm began to advertise in Dunedin, as if to remind cracks Lewis and Duff of what they'd forsaken. A week later, Fred himself delivered to Oamaru a large consignment of Star cycles. Soon after, Lewis left Dunedin for Oamaru, where he took charge of a branch there for Sam Stedman. Nicky Oates took a new tack in April, advertising bicycles for sale on easy terms, with "the utmost secrecy maintained." Whatever that meant. Perhaps he'd become a tad circumspect, since he'd just snared Star man AJ Body. Body had broken his collar bone in a crash in Melbourne in January, although his Star machine had been barely scratched. He'd raced as recently as March in Temuka – cycle brand unknown – with no better than a third placing. Somewhere along the line, Nicky had built him a special Zealandia racer. On that on 27 April, Body broke his own Australasian Fifty-mile (80km) road race record. Nick was quick to cash in, exulting Body and two other New Zealand champions who'd discarded another make of machine and pedalled his to victory. But of course he neglected to update this advert when Body's record was quickly overturned by HJ Pither, who continued to ride a Kent Jubilee. Fred rounded out the month by delivering eleven new Stars to Invercargill to display in a carnival there, and scored a sizeable promotion piece in the local paper. The Firm's current production was fifteen "high-class" machines a week, and Fred would be pleased to meet anyone interested in cycles at the show or the agent's shop during his few days stay in the town. Alex took delight in forwarding a comment from The Australian Cyclist on members of Melbourne Bicycle Clubs, who "must be a dirty lot of scrubbers."12 Apparently they ride in shabby and very unclean clothes with nose close to the handlebars and a dirty pipe between their teeth. "The swagger and peculiar dress," we're informed, "denotes the low-minded larrikin, and in the same manner the dirtily-clad, hump-backed, tobacco-fumed cyclist indicates the lower type." Alex then took issue with the same organ at its "blowing about Victoria holding all the records of Australasia, except one. "Who holds," he reminded them, "the Fifty- and One Hundred-mile records?" Perhaps shabby scrubbers prompted a Wheelman snippet later in May in which Fred Adams said that he "intends seeing if he can do something to purify the ranks of the racing men."13 Exactly what he meant is not known but in June, after the Company ceased pushing spokeless wheels, their new Wheelman ad campaign kicked off with the heading, "We Mean Business! Record talk finished long ago." He then listed price reductions of their English imports, and of their own Star, which was now permanently £19 ($3761 in 2019.) The

41 unstated small print was that there was a range of Star The outfit of a modern cyclist, models with choices of frame size and tyre type, courtesy of the Pall Mall Gazette, where mostly the prices were higher. The sale would via the Christchurch Press: Air be due to the cycling season having closed for winter, pump, naptha solution, air- and that they'd decided to stop flogging race and pressure gauge, odometer, record results, seeing as their in-house record-setting electric lamp, speed indicator, cracks had moved on. eye protector, sanitary saddle While Richard Kent continued referring to records cover and underclothing. Lately a without listing prices, Oates – by coincidence? – in French tradesman has added a the same Wheelman issue began his new campaign, a pocket instrument for permanent price reduction of Zealandias, down from ascertaining the gradient of hills. twenty-four quid to twenty ($4751 to $3959.) But Nick also had a range of machines etc, that ran upwards in price. Alex Wildey gave him a tiny edge here, a paragraph on how he was the first in New Zealand to drop his bicycle price. Then to maintain equilibrium, alongside that piece Alex mentioned that Adams and Curties had begun to stock a variety of sporting goods, with special attention paid to football and cricket. And they had, he said, a wind machine to stuff footballs while you wait. Sporting goods, however, appears to be a sideline that was not actively promoted. There was also more competition en route – Messrs Waller, Scott and Myhre – who were setting themselves up as The Rapid Cycles, to open in August. William Fisher Waller, an agent and the only New Zealander, was a personal friend of Oates and, along with him, had held various roles in the Pioneer Club. He was a rather pernickety fellow. As secretary for the Cyclists' Alliance, he'd declined to write an Alliance letter concerning an Alliance matter, because he'd personally disagreed with the motion that had instigated the matter. Walter Alexander Scott, an American engineer and Pioneer member, was described as a good workman who'd spent the last four years at Oates' Zealandia Works. Charles August Myhre, a clothier, was English, quiet and reserved and also had Pioneer officer roles.

Now that 'The Maori' was out of the closet, Adams and Curties placed the gadget on view in their shop, and began to promote it.14 This was, they announced, "Rowing in the road.....All athletic exercises rolled into one; every muscle of the body at work." The gearing however was rather optimistic, giving the equivalent of a 3.8m diameter rear wheel. In other words, for a single turn of the pedal crank, the rig would travel 11.58 metres. Thighs of a titan were required.

On Tuesday evening, June 19, a pleasant gathering occurred at the Firm's workplace, to celebrate Watty's impending marriage.15 Presumably there'd been a whip around amongst the staff to purchase the handsome salad bowl, butter dish and knife, and Japanese tray suitably engraved. All were presented to him amidst words of the good feelings and esteem between himself and the employees, conveyed with their hearty congratulations and best wishes. Perhaps he was a tad emotive when he replied in "feeling terms of the sentiment which actuated the gift." Three cheers for him and his bride closed the show. The next day he married Mary Elizabeth (Lizzie) Watts, with Fred Adams a witness. That same day the couple sailed on honeymoon for Australia; that and the fact they were away five weeks is an indication of Watty's financial position. Not long prior to his departure, the Company's Star Wheel Club had been converted into the Star Flounder Fishing Club, whose purpose was to assemble at New Brighton each Saturday, and fish in the shallows. Little more is known of the club, except for the Saturday after Watty's marriage, when the day's haul was a crab and two cockybullies.

Thos Boyd and Son's Atalanta Works now spread their wings and appointed agents in Ashburton and Masterton. They'd enticed crack rider AC Wilmot to defect from the Adams and Curties' stable the previous August, in which month they'd built for him in three days a racer which was immediately sent to him in Sydney, and on which he set a number of amateur

42 records, Australasian and World. In May 1894, Boyd began advertising Wilmot's endorsement, which was that Atalanta bicycles were "the best built, lightest and fastest of any machine I have ever ridden." By coincidence, these are precisely the words used by every crack, endorsee, testificator and amateur rider of any and every machine that they happened to ride at the time. The cash amateur rules as adopted in October 1892 stated clearly that any rider was disqualified who accepted "directly, or indirectly any remuneration, compensation, or expenses, whatsoever from a cycle manufacturer, agent, sports promoter, or other persons interested in the sport or trade."16 Obviously certain inducements to snare cracks were commonplace; such as, perhaps, Ken Lewis' little wobbler knocked up for his missus.

In some gossip column snippets on tyres, Alex claimed that Adams and Curties had taken out a patent for a new air tyre.17 They were to manufacture it on the premises, but no other reference or indeed a patent application has been found. Ben Saville took a new approach on the Wheelman front page of July 21. He reprinted pieces from other newspapers that extolled his establishment and machines, then he set about preparing three machines to display in the Canterbury Industrial Exhibition. Almost all the local makers applied for space to exhibit, and rumour had it that Adams and Curties had "wanted the whole ship."18 But as they were denied, they settled instead for space to show two dozen Stars, including the new diamond pattern frame of Dennison's "The Maori." Alex Wildey reported that Fred took this "pulling bike" for a run to New Brighton, and made no further comment. He did however express enthusiasm for the Pioneer Club's new venture; a hop, or light fantastic, to be run at the end of each month, beginning this month. It would entail terpsichorean exercises, sociability, refreshments, harmonics and would be informal. The cut away coat, he said, and white choker may be left at home. Nicky Oates, while also preparing for the Exhibition, was setting up a branch in Napier. It was complete with all necessary machinery, furnace and dynamo for building bicycles to order, and a full range of accessories. Whether any potential customers ever called in is unknown, since the local paper could not decide which street his shop was on. Nick was, however, somewhat thrown out by the Exhibition being opened in the Opera House on August 1, some two weeks earlier than anticipated. He returned to Christchurch too late to install all the machines he'd intended. He settled for only six Zealandias, but did subsequently enter another three, the total including two tandems. Kent and Boyd showed six cycles each, Saville three and Wilkin one. Kent's stand was presided over by "a pair of shapely, large and elegantly mounted bull's horns," – significance unexplained – and for all their rumoured grandiosity, Adams and Curties showed just seven Stars.19 Their stand though stood out, surrounded as it was by a nickel plated railing and replete with palms and flags all under a blaze of light that "reflects great credit on the showmen." The overall effect of the Exhibition according to Alex was that the wheel makers "far excel all other industries" present. The "strength, finish and artistic get up of the local cycles," he said, "could not be beaten in any part of this globe." Watty and his wife had returned in late July, and sent a chunk of wedding cake to the Wheelman. Alex, effusive as always, described the couple as being "so well known and equally liked."20 His hearty wish was that they "will find the path of life well asphalted and smooth....will look back on a race well contested, well won, during which they put up a world's record for happiness and prosperity."

The Exhibition ran for eleven days and was followed by the opening of the cycle season in September, which led to greatly increased production. Adams and Curties with entirely new models for 1894-95 had orders "sticking out at the doors;" Oates' Zealandia Works was open 7.45am to 10pm; Kent and the Boyds had more orders than they knew what to do with.21 Even Ben Saville was very busy. Orders rolled in to Waller, Scott and Myhre's new Rapid Works, they appointed agents in Temuka and Timaru, and began advertising in Blenheim and Greymouth. Fred confirmed his cash amateur position with re-election as a vice-president of

43 the Cash Club, along with election as a Club auditor. Kent's premises showed the inherent danger of workshops constructed in timber; a portable forge in the corner of his building caught alight one night. It was soon extinguished with only minor structural damage, much the same as the fire in Ben Saville's workshop two years previously. For Ben, though, there was worse yet to come. Adams and Curties' new catalogue proclaimed them to be the largest and most extensive cycle works south of the Equator. Of their seven models, one was a ladies' safety and five were available in two frame sizes: one for those up to 5ft 6inches (1.67m) height, the other for those above. Six models were available in chocolate or black enamel and lined in colours, ie pinstripes. There were three styles of handlebar and, for an extra 10 bob ($100 in 2019), one could have pneumatic handles fitted which reduced tremor and vibration reaching one's hands. For six shillings and sixpence ($69) one could have a nickel-plated rubber-bulbed Cyclorn, which made a most telling noise that was wonderfully effective as a road clearer. Early in October, they were said to have 200 machines ready for delivery. Compare that to England's £500,000 ($99,220,465) worth of cycle exports for the first quarter of 1894, or the current annual output of American bicycle factories, said to be 250,000, one company alone making 30,000.22 After all the input and craftsmanship by Watty and his team, the Company decided that Dennison's creation was beyond their manufacturing capabilities. Dennison subsequently set up a syndicate and took his design to England, where it created a great deal of interest. But like so many much-lauded creations, it simply vanished with time. On Friday October 5 in a Colony first, a 24 hour cash amateur race commenced in Dunedin.23 Organised by the Caledonian Club, the event was held under electric light on the cinder track, the grounds of which were dotted with tents, some with beds rigged up. In the morning, assistants cooked succulent chops or boiled up tea on small portable stoves for the competitors, some of whom paused to eat while others gnawed on their chops while peddling. Of the machines ridden, three were Oates' Zealandias, one a Boyd and Son, another a Rapid by Waller, Scott and Myhre, several were imports and none were Stars. Harry Soanes on his Zealandia left the track then reappeared puffing on a cigarette, which apparently drew not a little amusement. AJ Body, former crack of Adams and Curties, then Oates, was now with Waller, Scott and Myhre. He won the race on a Rapid, covering 354½ miles (570km). Soanes came second, which fact Nick gleefully advertised, carefully enunciating that he'd ridden a Zealandia. Which overlooked the minor detail that Soanes had pranged his bike about seven hours before the time was up, and finished the race on an opposition Boyd and Son Atalanta. Nick's habit, though, was to not get unnecessarily tangled in minor details. He'd recently knocked out a tandem suitable for a man and a woman, which he christened Daisy Bell, overlooking the fact that an English firm had done the same many months previously.24 Alex Wildey of the prodigious memory, who'd reported both instances, very kindly did not remind Nick.25 Waller, Scott and Myhre soon publicized Body and his win on a Rapid, upon which "faultlessly fitted and finished" machine Alex was treated to a spin. All he had to do to make it go, he declared in his colourful crypticsm, was to simply sit on the saddle and push the pedals. On October 29 at a meeting in Christchurch of the New Zealand Cyclists' Union – the governing body of cash amateur clubs – the secretary reported an interview with Body. He'd admitted that he'd infringed the rules, accepted money from a bicycle manufacturer for record breaking. WG Williams, the Union auditor, then remarked that two riders in Christchurch had cost Adams and Curties £150 ($29,881) last year. Neither those two riders nor Body's benefactor were named and although Body was the Company's only non-employee winning crack rider last year, he'd also had wins for Oates, Waller etc. Body was then suspended "during the pleasure of the Union," ie indefinitely. Williams further disclosed that Ken Lewis had received remuneration for riding; he too was suspended while enquiries were made.

On October 24, Ben Saville had his final insertion in the Timaru Herald. His Cycle Works in Timaru had a very cheap good-as-new cycle for sale, which sounded rather like the tail end of

44 a closing down sale. For the next two weeks though, his Christchurch Calliope Works was going night and day, and he planned to exhibit at the Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association's show. Adams and Curties exhibited there, as they had the previous year and apparently on a very large scale, but it's unknown if Saville or indeed any other makers did so. Also unforthcoming were the identities of the wayward pair on Wednesday November 14.26 That evening, members of the Atalanta ladies club and men of the Pioneer Club set out on a ride to New Brighton. There were fifteen couples in all, who "looked very attractive as they moved off." They all patronised the pier at their destination and indulged in "the cup that cheers" for an hour, then departed for home at 9pm. Presumably home was Cathedral Square, where they mustered in the dark for the customary roll call, during which one couple was found missing. The Pioneer secretary who, as grand marshal, ran the event, worked himself into an awful state. It was a serious affair, since a man and a woman were involved. Should a search party be despatched? But after some discussion it was resolved to let them alone, to return like Little Bo-peep's sheep. Alex Wildey had the last word, he enquired in his journal later that month if the missing couple had yet returned. There was, however, no love lost between Waller, Myhre and Co. and Oates, whose spat kicked off following the Canterbury Amateur Athletic meet in Christchurch on November 22. Local crack WJS Hayward had won the Half-mile (800m) race on a Waller, Myhre Rapid, which fact the Company touted in the Press the very next day. Three days later, Nick sourly stated in the Press that Hayward had previously won all his successes on a Zealandia, and that he'd been badly beaten in three other races at the said Athletic meet because he'd not ridden a Zealandia. "It is," said Nick, "only fair to Mr Hayward, the public, and myself to make this fact known."27 On November 25 in the midst of this harangue, Ben Saville called into his shop about 8pm. He lit a match in order to find his bicycle, was sure it was out when he threw it to the floor. But within about ninety minutes, the building rear was blazing fiercely above the roof. The fire, fed by numerous India-rubber tyres suspended from the ceiling, badly damaged the workshop and building. Passers-by broke into the shop-front and removed the bicycles and accessories and within three weeks, Ben was repairing machines in temporary premises. But although his furniture, stock and plant and equipment were all insured, his luck was running out. Nick Oates earlier that month had also had, shall we say, a little dabble with flame. Crack rider John Olive Shorland, a former Aucklander now resident in Christchurch and who had previously raced on a Boyd and Son Atalanta, had switched allegiance. Setting off on his Oates Zealandia Roadster from Christchurch at 10pm on November 8, he set a new record time to Dunedin of 24 hours 22 minutes and 21 seconds. He returned to Christchurch by train the following day and was met at the station by Nicky who, bowing to a little passion, handled the Zealandia machine in an endearing and caressing way.28 A sight, apparently, "fit for the gods." Following which he led the bike into the Hereford Hotel to show it to "Rosie." But then, as Wildey continued, "They are always saying naughty things about Mister Oates." JE Beckwith, currently en route to England to exhibit, had arranged for Waller, Scott and Myhre to manufacture his convertible tandem machine. But they'd split up mid-November, Scott soon heading off to Dunedin. Alex gave the tandem a jolly good write up complete with diagrams, but Beckman arrived in England too late to exhibit and although he apparently signed up with a large concern there to make and promote his invention, it as usual faded away entirely. Waller and Myhre subsequently manufactured their own tandem. And from November 28, they'd taken Ben's spot on the Wheelman's front page, along with appointing an agent in Greymouth. At the December National Show in England, of the machines exhibited there were 1,240 rear drive safeties, twelve front-drives, sixty-five tandems and sixty tricycles. No further breakdown was available, such as ladies' models, racers, roadsters etc. Except that Dennison's creation made by Adams and Curties was exhibited there.29 The response is unknown, and that was not the last to be heard of 'The Maori', which most likely was the second – albeit a diamond frame – prototype built by Watty.

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That month, the North Otago Cycle Club declined an offer by Adams and Curties to donate a gold medal prize for a road race, on account of the conditions attached. The Club had accepted gold medals from them the previous two Februarys, but what had changed since then is unknown. In the year to March 31 1894, Christchurch remained the only city recorded with 'cycle works'. Employed there were 54 workers aged 14 to 20 including one apprentice, and 30 adults.30 And in the final year of Alex Lowry's summary, 1080 cycles were imported, 1044 made here. Totals for the decade from 1885 were 3007 imports, 4596 made here.31 The import figure for 1894 is not, however, in accord with what Fred was to claim in January 1895.

Letters Patent for Improvements in Bicycles, Tricycles, and other forms of Cycling Machines,to be Called "The Cheiroped", (later renamed The Maori) Thomas Crawford Dennison, New Zealand Patent 6739, 20 March 1894

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CHAPTER VIII – 1895; DEATH OF A STAR

In January 1895, debate arose in Christchurch to decide on which day of the week to set the half-holiday. This was to comply with the Shop and Shop Assistants Act of 1894, and nationwide, each municipal body was free to set their own day. At the start, all the Christchurch cycle makers agreed it should be Saturday, when the afternoon would be more conducive for club runs and touring. But by January 12, it was clear there was dissent. Seven makers publicly announced they'd henceforth close at 1pm on Saturday, while Adams, Curties and Co. was the renegade. They'd been in Court the previous January for employing a boy under the age of eighteen years in their factory on a Saturday afternoon. It's not known, however, what the other makers' policies were regarding the half day prior to 1895. Christchurch generally had been shutting up shop on a Thursday afternoon, which subsequently was retained. Any shops that wished to shut on Saturday had to notify the Inspector of Factories of their intention. At the end of January, the Press ran a series on local industry. Included was an in-depth look at cycle making – albeit only the two main players – regarded generally as having been very much in a growth phase since 1890.1 Oates opened the piece, said he had twenty-five hands. They made about five classes of cycle with an average output of six bikes a week, for which he now manufactured all parts. Rough material and forgings, he said, are brought out from England but are manufactured and finished locally. He had the only milling machine in the local trade and a special furnace for case-hardening axles. He made chain wheels for himself and the trade, and remained concerned at the hindrance of import duty upon the trade. Until last June, he said, there was no duty on tyres, as they could not be made here. Some importers, however, were bringing in complete machines, but with the tyres in separate crates. Thus the tax due had been reduced by about 17s ($168 in 2019) per machine; tyres had an ad valorem duty of 20 per cent. His preference was for a 30 per cent duty on imported machines without tyres. Fred Adams tended more toward promoting his own products. But he did trot out statistics, including that in 1893 four-fifths of the cycles ridden in Christchurch and district were locally made. The trade now employed 100 hands, his Company having forty. From about 1893, he said, importation of cycles began to decrease and now, "you may practically say that importation has ceased." It may be that he was speaking only of Christchurch, since Colony importation had increased year on year and at a faster rate than locally made from 1892 to the present. In addition, and unsaid, was that Company staff numbers had declined since March 1894. The peak of fifty hands reached by November 1893 was maintained until at least March '94. But by the following September, they were down to forty. Figures are not available to calculate if hands had become more efficient, or sales had declined. Waller, Myhre on the other hand were expanding. They plugged their racing successes and that they'd appointed an agent in Invercargill. They also now advertised in Napier and, so they said, employed the largest staff in the cycle trade. No figures were supplied. Alex Wildey, having in January panned the local clubs as being dead or next door to it, now complimented the Christchurch Cash Club on their new premises, which included a large reading and billiard room. The Pioneer Club rooms were now more popular, since they'd obtained a billiard table. And the latter, he said, proposed challenging the former to a friendly game of football when the season arrives, to wipe off a lot of old scores. On February 18 the Adams and Curties men assembled at work for a presentation to one of their number about to be wed. The presentation was made by the 20 year old foreman, Fred's brother Henry, known as Harry. Harry presumably began work at the family nursery in 1886, and his tenure at the cycle shop is unknown. By subsequent events, though, he was surely foreman by dint of his abilities, not nepotism. Which begs the unanswerable question, was Watty's brother Thomas also ever employed there? The Firm then advertised in detail all the improvements from the English National Show in December. "All the masterpieces of the cycle makers' art were embodied" in the '95 Star. The public were invited to come along on Saturday 23 February and see the Stanley Show at the

47

Star Works and inspect these jiggers "at the same old spot, 70 Manchester St." Same old spot was surely a little tug by Fred upon the emotive strings of comfort, loyalty and familiarity. The Company may well have decided to capitalise on the reduced competition that Saturday. Kent, Oates and Myhre along with Lowry and Wildey and assorted Christchurch cracks were in Napier for the New Zealand Cycling Amateur championship meet. Kent advertised in the local paper that prospective customers could call upon him at his hotel, Myhre took the opportunity to promote their products in the local paper in both free and paid paragraphs. Both men and Oates were absent for the crash of the Calliope Works.

Ben Saville met with ten of his creditors in the Official Assignee's office on Monday morning, 25 February.2 He had, he explained, begun with £120 ($24,974) of his own and been in business almost four years. He'd been doing large business with a fair profit until January 1894, when there'd been a falling off of trade. There'd been some improvement up till August but the fire in November had destroyed most of his premises and stock. He estimated his loss as £600 to £700 ($118,788 to $138,586) and was insured for £400 ($79,192.) But the companies refused to pay on the grounds he'd allegedly breached the conditions in the policies. His assets of stock, plant and book debts were estimated at £700, his debt to unsecured creditors was £1208 8s ($239,796) Amongst the latter were Adams, Curties and Co, £35 ($6945); former partner Lambert Bowen, £585 ($116,087); his brother FJ Saville, £150 ($29,766); and Waller, Myhre and Co. £8 ($1587). In addition he had a secured debt of £20 ($3968) to his father-in-law, Louis Laugesen. Bowen, on dissolution of the partnership, had left in his £585 on the promise he'd be repaid at £20 per quarter, which had never been met. Fred Adams, who was present, moved that the Official Assignee take further advice as to the chance of succeeding with claims against the insurance companies. The following Friday, Ben's entire stock-in-trade including 30 fire damaged bicycles was put up for auction. In March 1896 the Official Assignee paid the first dividend of nine pence in the pound (3.75 cents in the dollar). But Ben rose from the ashes; he was back in business from at least July 1895, a couple of doors along from his previous shop on Colombo. He subsequently moved premises, expanded into motorcycles and worked until retirement in 1922.

A jubilant Kent was quick to crow about the Napier Championship results. His Jubilees had taken out the One, Five, Ten and Twenty-five Mile (1.6, 8, 16 and 40km) races. Although he restricted this paid newsprint announcement to Christchurch, his page in the nation-wide Wheelman issue of March 2 was devoted to hyperbole: "The Good Old Jubilee....Never in the history of cycling have machines pushed so rapidly to the front, wholly on their merits." But Nicky Oates set the record straight for those Napier riders who subscribed to the Wheelman. He declared in a Napier paper that he was "The oldest and largest cycle manufacturer in the colony." Early in March Alex Wildey devoted a detailed column to Adams and Curties' splendid exhibition.3 Their large showroom, he said, was fully taken up and the fitting room had fully fifty machines on display. Included was a new braking system that replaced the metal spoon with a flat piece of steel to which was attached several layers of rubber. Presumably that was forced by levers against the rubber tyre as the spoon was, but would not have been as efficient as being pressed against the wheel rim. The "go and enterprise of the firm," he enthused, and referred to an invitation sent by them to all local racing men and their friends to a trial of Stars at Lancaster Park on March 13 at 6pm. On the day, quite a crowd availed themselves of the Firm's "exuberant generosity." They also provided attendants to hold the machines. Charlie Myhre of the opposition Rapid brand test rode a Star, and politely declined any comment. No mention had been made locally about a novelty at the Stanley December Show that had generated some excitement, ie the . With a bamboo frame and aluminium fittings and wooden rims, this machine was said to be 20 to 40 per cent lighter than a steel construction, a quarter less in price, and almost entirely free from vibration. So where was the "go & enterprise of the firm" who are "always open to suggestions if they see value in them?" We can't say definitively whether any Christchurch maker, let alone

48

Adams and Curties, never imported a sample or toyed with the idea of building with bamboo. But if they did, it was kept rather quiet. Barlow and Price dissolved their partnership in March, after trading for just thirteen months. They'd taken over Gough's Coventry Cycle Works and had rarely advertised in the Christchurch press. The bicycle making side of it had lapsed into repairs, alongside general engineering. Barlow continued the business alone and focussed on making invalids' chairs, although oddly "Barlow and Price Coventry Cycle Works" continued being advertised in the Oxford Observer for at least another fourteen months. Waller, Myhre and Co. continued to claim the largest staff in the trade, and appointed as their Wellington agent Luigi Cerchi, Fred Adams' old adversary.

In April, Alex could not resist a poke at the celebrated forty miles an hour (64 kph) "Maori."4 It was, he said, to be seen ridden occasionally on Christchurch streets by "one of our toil- stained citizens, much to the danger of our telegraph posts." If the young rider did not break his neck or a telegraph post, he could expect to be chucked headlong into the bottomless pit at 40 mph. The same cycle he later described as a "veritable Jack-in-the-green" after it had led the May Day procession in Christchurch.5

Adams and Curties was the only local cycle maker to negotiate a minor religious wrangle in April.6 Arthur John Cuming, journalist, commission agent and a man devoid of capital had, so he later claimed, been hassled by a local priest to run an entertainment for the parish.7 They did not wish to call it a bazaar, so he sketched out a plan which he called the "Woman and Man" carnival. The Father approved and instructed him to proceed and if successful, the whole of the profits would go to the church. Somewhere amidst that dialogue, AJ scrounged seven quid ($1391) from the priest to kick the whole affair off. He then hired the Opera House Theatre and had 10,000 handbills printed and made other preparations, at which point the priest told him the parish would not be responsible for his expenses. Cuming then decided to conduct the affair off his own bat and do the best he could; any profits would go to St Mary's parish school. A rumour then spread that AJ was in it purely for personal gain, so he had the Father write a letter that any profit was indeed for the school, and placed warnings in the press about any false statements. Then he shifted tack a little and announced that all entrance monies paid by competitors in trades competitions would go to the fund for finding winter work for unemployed workmen of Christchurch. It seems the Orange Society drew attention to the religious aspect.8 In a page one ad, they publicly denied that they were involved in any way with "Woman and Man". Cuming riposted that the reason for their notice was apparent, that he thought it "high time that Old Country strifes and opinions were allowed to die out in these colonies."9 The Oranges then agreed with him and darkly muttered about Old Country Tactics and Romish casuistry. A John Middleton continued that theme and warned Protestants that the Show was not Protestant and they should be wary of where their money was going. And even while preparations were still underway, AJ was slugged in Court for non-payment of a bill. All that aside, the Show whose main themes were commerce, industry, music and literature began brightly enough. Some 2000 visitors squeezed through the theatre on opening night and took in vari-coloured decorations, drapes, flags, mirrors, pot plants and painted backdrops; a prismatic fountain that was the centre of attraction on the ground floor; a mechanical picture that re-enacted the Tarawera eruption; and all the stands and spaces spread around the room that exhibited local industry. All of this and the building outside were lit by electric arc lamps, and each evening the crowds were entertained by an ever-changing programme of music. No surprise that Adams and Curties were to the fore in what Alex decried as an "idiotically named" show.10 Theirs was a "most tasteful" and "very fine display" of three very pretty Star machines surrounded by ferns and pictures, all before a specially painted background described as quite a work of art. No surprise again that even though the Show continued to be well patronised, it went belly- up. AJ was soon declared bankrupt by the Official Assignee, who calculated that some fifty

49 unsecured creditors were owed £593 17s ($118,017.) After the few assets were realised, the net deficiency was £218 17s ($43,486.) AJ's cut was apparently to have been 25 per cent of anything over £600 ($119,249) profit. The nett result was surely a lesson in economics and business affairs for the poorer pupils of St Mary's. Cuming was if nothing else, creative. Perhaps also, an acolyte of Fred Adams. Although he went on to patent improvements to apparatus for branding animal carcases and jointly patent various improvements in working with flax, he also came up with improved trouser clips, new bicycle frames and handlebars, and the means to prevent punctures in pneumatic tyres. Released from administration in February 1896, he had had built – by whom is unknown – his patent Swan cycles, which were displayed at the November 1897 Metropolitan Cycle Show in Christchurch. A couple of years after which, he shot through to Sydney, Australia, where he fittingly came up with schemes for an improved garbage can and method of constructing collapsible crates and boxes .11 Years later, his wife in Christchurch divorced him on the grounds he'd deserted her in 1900 and had never supported her before, then or since.

In hindsight, AJ Cuming should have heeded champion English cyclist Fred Wood. His advice to fellow racing men: "Look behind you if you know how, but never over your shoulder; instead you look under it. To look over is a truly dangerous habit, for both rider and onlooker."12 But even with the demise of Ben Saville and Barlow and Price, the cycle business continued to attract new entrants. Harry Goodman – previously with Adams and Curties – and VA Alexander, also with a long experience of bicycles, set up shop on Colombo St. As Aroha Cycle Works, they carried out repairs and manufactured in a small way and lasted three years. Kent's long-term pal HJ Pither deserted his patronage, New Zealand and the amateur ranks in May for a cash amateur spot with the Austral Cycle Agency in Sydney. He'd won four of his five races at the Championship meet in Napier in February, not that Kent capitalised widely on his name; he cited Pither only in the occasional brief ad in the Press. Kent did however continue his slugfest with nemesis Oates, the two taking opposing full pages in the Wheelman that listed all their recent respective triumphs with only Oates naming his rider. Oates had had three wins in Napier but his clerical employee crack Shorland, who the previous November had set a new Christchurch to Dunedin record, had also competed at Napier in February. Although unplaced in all five of his events, he'd pedalled off undeterred two days later and cracked the Napier to Wellington record. This led to a little enigma – a portion of the New Zealand press stated that from Pahiatua on, Shorland had ridden a "strange machine."13 No further details were forthcoming. So was this a non-Oates appliance, or some hitherto unannounced device from his factory? And did Alex Wildey practice a little loyalty by stating that in fact nothing had happened to Shorland's bike during the ride?14 Apart, that is, from having to change both his Zealandia wheels at Dannevirke due to a tyre problem. Nick, with his minor oversight relating to the 24 hour race in Dunedin the previous October, had demonstrated an inclination for alternative facts. To further muddy the field Shorland, immediately after biking to Wellington, took part albeit unsuccessfully in an Amateur Athletic Club meet, where it was reported that he rode a "strange machine" and was handicapped by riding on a grass track.15 He did, however, ride a Zealandia when, at the end of April, he set a new Invercargill to Dunedin record.

Adams and Curties had in April taken on a technical slant with their spiel. Their usual full page in the Wheelman was devoid of hype, pretty much so of text altogether. Instead it showed some very ornate cut-away technical drawings of assorted Star components. But the second two June editions of Wheelman dispensed with their ad altogether. And Alex – very kindly, unless he was reimbursed somehow – reprinted in two parts at a full page each, an article headed New Zealand Industries.16 Originally published in the Canterbury Times and subtitled No IV. Modern Cycles, it was mainly a plug devoted solely to Adams, Curties and Co. And if that weren't enough, Alex gave a separate and glowing report of their abundant

50 enterprise and progressiveness in establishing in the Drillshed a school for riding.17 Managed by Mr and Mrs FW Painter, there were private afternoon lessons given by Mrs, with afternoon tea provided. The small fee for instruction would be refunded upon purchase of a machine, doubtless from Adams and Co. Apparently the school was well-patronised, although it was not actively promoted by the Firm. The riding school they'd begun in June 1891 had been in an upstairs room on their premises. Due to expansion, that room was by November 1892 being used as a fitting shop. Fred Painter is said to have taught most Christchurch policeman to ride, and all their men save one rode Star cycles. But did said police contemplate a trade up in early July to Waller, Myhre's Rapid "mile a minute" machine which featured Belk's patent multiplying gear?18 There was just such a demo machine displayed in their shop window, and inventor JA Belk of Palmerston North, who was currently in town, asserted that a rough model had indeed reached 60mph (96kph) on a North Island road. What Belk may not have asserted was that his invention was not exactly novel. SK Martin, machinist of Oamaru, had in 1887 come up with a rather similar device, entitled Martin's Bicycle Speed Increaser. But while Martin's Increaser was intended for the old high wheeler, Belk's gear assembly was for the safety machine. Nevertheless, the proficient Patent Office Deputy Registrar pointed out the similarity, and Belk made some changes to his own patent application. Martin's mechanism per se came to nowt, so it seems. In the meantime, it was a great pity that Christchurch was presently undergoing inclement weather; the ground remained unfavourable for a test run by Belk. This apparently permanent state was surely a relief to intending boy racers who would, if dry conditions returned, have had to seriously consider installing the latest novelty, a pneumatic brake. By coincidence, Adams and Curties concurrently had in their window a machine fitted with this new brake. It was a hollow rubber bulb with an inlet and non-return valve attached to the handlebars. When squeezed, said bulb displaced air via a rubber tube to a rubber shoe that in turn squeezed upon the tyre. The marvels of technology. Having had free advertising in two successive editions of the Wheelman, Adams and Curties now set up a new paid page that featured a photo of their Humber Star Road Racer. With minimal hype, this was sat above an even larger snap of their premises frontage. Alex responded three pages later with a brief homily regarding the power of advertising, and the Firm's mastery of same. In the same edition, a man who signed himself 'A Maker' penned an acerbic letter concerning fellow bicycle makers of Christchurch who happened to be on the Canterbury Industrial Association committee.19 They had, he said, allowed themselves an undue advantage when it came to display space, position and advertising facilities regarding the industrial exhibition in 1894. Such manufacturers, he said, had caused a great deal of friction and grumbling and should be excluded from the committee. What else he said went unsaid, since Alex decided the letter contained a libel or two. There was also the ambiguity – to which committee was A Maker referring? There was the Association committee, of which Nicky Oates was a member, and there were sub-committees established to run the forthcoming exhibition. Oates and Dick Kent were members of one of the latter, whose function was to allocate space in the hall. Thus Old Nick came out ablaze in the following Wheelman edition, under his own name.20 He doubted that A Maker was a maker at all, but was "more likely some spiteful and unscrupulous importer who has some grievance of his own to air at the expense of genuine makers." No manufacturer on the committee, he continued, got any advantage and, if anything, they relinquished some privileges rather than appearing to favour themselves. A Maker's splenetic letter was nothing more than a gratuitous insult to an honourable body of businessmen. 'Another Maker' chimed in below Nick and asked if A Maker by his serious insinuation had any axe to grind, or was disappointed at not being on the committee. Ben Saville could be forgiven if he'd changed his bicycle brand name to Phoenix. By early March, he'd been back in business in the Colombo St premises he'd occupied four years ago. He would still manufacture Calliopes, do repairs and hire out machines, but didn't advertise until July 1895, when he took on a petite column plug in the Wheelman. In March the

51 following year the Official Assignee made the first A new Adams and Curties payout of nine pence in the pound (a few cents in the advertising angle in June: "I dollar.) No further payouts are known, and Ben have suffered for years with jogged along in business until retirement in 1922. weakness, debility and Thomas Boyd and Son along with Waller, Myhre indigestion; spent hundreds of and Co. made a little further expansion into Adams pounds in medicines (all and Curties' fields in July, when they set up agents guaranteed cures); consulted no respectively in Feilding and Wanganui. In August, less than twenty-four doctors; Alex reported that two local makers, formerly sworn specially treated three months in enemies, were now on speaking terms, albeit via an hospital, and yet no relief. A telephone. This was in regard to the prospect of a friend advised me to try a "Star." cycle Manufacturers Association being formed. He'd In despair I ordered the machine editorialised in June that such an important industry – and arranged for lessons. In half- cycle making – showed no sign of co-operation or an-hour I could ride. At the end cohesion, no attempt at combining for mutual of the week I felt "life was indeed assistance and protection.21 But his call for the worth living." Cured! Hurrah for creation of such an Association, although health, independence and speedy subsequently discussed, came to nowt. locomotion! There is nothing on earth to equal the wheel."22 Somewhere in August, in a presage of forthcoming changes, Harry Adams, 21, tossed in his position as foreman . He then set up on his own account as the Sun Cycle Repairing Works on High St, where he undertook general overhauls, frame enamelling and was sometime agent for Granville and later Hudson bicycle brands. No doubt he maintained close ties with brother Fred and Company; both men still lived at home with their parents and siblings. The Industrial Exhibition that opened in Christchurch on August 29 was to be Adams and Curties' swan song.23 If they knew that at the time, it certainly didn't show. Instead they lived up to their reputation for putting on a striking and novel display, within an overall showing of local makers whose bicycles altogether were said to be one of the features of the entire exhibition. Adams and Curties' ten machines, mainly roadsters and all "strongly built and finished in elegant style", were on a "raised platform surrounded by a brilliant nickel-plated dropped railing on fluted columns." Each brass nickel-plated column was topped by the Firm's emblem, a sparkling metal star. In the centre of their stand, an provided motion to their machines, although exactly how was not disclosed. Suspended from the roof directly above their display was a long shaft to which were attached eight revolving bicycle wheels, their spokes covered with brilliantly coloured art muslin, that gave their stand an air of life and movement. All this was surmounted by a banner 20ft (6m) long with the Company's name in huge letters. A pair of pneumatic skates on their stand attracted considerable interest and, as a contrast, they showed a twenty year old wooden boneshaker. A Government instigated report on the Exhibition highlighted the current state of the bicycle industry in Christchurch.24 Eight cycle exhibitors occupied the fourth largest individual floor space – 1,163 of the total 15,659 sq. ft (108 and 1,454 sq. m.) – equal to the carriage and agricultural implement areas combined. Several large local bicycle factories, the report continued, were in full work in Christchurch, where wheel usage was almost universal, particularly among young folk. Praise was given for "various modifications and adaptation involved in the great variety of bicycles" which has "called forth an immense amount of mechanical inventions and skill" that "marks a real educational development which will react on other manual trades." Except for a few fittings, the report concluded, metal was imported in the rough and all of the work including nickel plating was done in Christchurch. Alex Wildey's Exhibition write-up was not until early October, when he blasted the Exhibition management.25 Their "cheese-paring, parsimonious, catch-penny policy," he said. What, he continued, would be long remembered as the most successful and important exhibition ever held in the Colony, was lamentably let down by exhibits that were dumped

52 down in all sorts of places without any regard to order; an official catalogue that was a perfect marvel of confusion; defective lighting that caused many exhibitors to resort to private lighting; and no press pass for himself. He did grudgingly admit that there were no such passes period, but perhaps the worst offence was his name misspelled in the catalogue. His bile dispensed, he was then fulsome in praise. First, of course, for Adams and Curties whose exhibit, he said, was at once a credit to themselves, Christchurch and the colony. But he did give equal space to Waller, Myhre and Co. and Nicky Oates, with equal sized photos of the stands of all three. Then in equal acclaim albeit in diminishing scale, he covered the other five makers. These included Frank A'Court, whose Victory Cycle Works seems to have been operating from about July, and WH Trengrove, previously with Adams and Curties, and Nicky Oates, who showed a single machine he'd made. Oates display included an exact replica of the Zealandia recently used by Hastings rider GJ Muhleison to set a new record for the Brisbane to Sydney ride of 650 miles (1046km.) Then there was the wacky machine, invented by West Coast preacher Percy Pritchett. This had the usual rear wheel pedal and chain drive, but the handlebars had been replaced with hand pedals that powered a chain- driven front wheel that, one supposes, also provided steerage. The prescient Percy had, of course, invented the all-wheel drive. Wildey wound up his piece with the observation that the Exhibition demonstrated that nearly all articles of daily use can be and are being made in the colony, and that colonial made articles are as good as, and in some cases better than, the imported. But then he had to say that, since in early September his editorial had taken a swipe at the Christchurch Press, which he described as a "veritable jay of journalism" that never seemed to tire of belittling the colony.26 The Press, he said, "persistently asservates that anything within the colony is not worthy of consideration, while the things manufactured outside the colony are absolute perfection." His rail was against colonial cringe, specifically the Press article of August 21 on bicycles that seemed, he supposed, written to the order of the American bicycle company it espoused. American wheels were apparently knocking out the English, competing with the latter even on their home ground. But nobody here, he concluded, who wanted a high-class machine would invest in a slop-made American one. Having said that, he advised in his gossip column that one of the largest local firms would soon cease manufacture, and move in a big way into imported machines.

In a surprise visit, the Adams and Curties workmen met in early October at Harry Adams' shop. There they presented him with a purseful of sovereigns, belated acknowledgment of his term as their foreman. Harry, who was said to be endowed with a similar wealth of gab as brother Fred, was apparently also skilled and obliging, and his business was flourishing. The Company meanwhile was trialing a novelty, a transparent celluloid gear case, so that the working of their Stars could be seen. At the same time, the half-holiday situation had turned clear as mud. Agreement had been reached in January for cycle makers to close on Thursday afternoon, which agreement Adams and Curties soon broke. But by mid-year, the majority had shifted to a Saturday half-day, the hiccup being that a shop attached to a factory would close on Thursday, the factory on Saturday. Alex followed up a piece he'd written in August concerning Melbourne, Australia. Women cyclists there, he'd reported, are called road hogs, yelled at by well-dressed people to get off and push, and were chased by larrikins.27 Melbourne was the "colonial sink of iniquity" to where "all that is debased, depraved and immoral in the shape of human beings" gravitates from all parts of the colonies. Now he revisited that piece, claiming that Dunedin ran pretty close to Melbourne.28 In Christchurch, he said, a cowardly ruffian who would dare molest a lady cyclist would have a particularly rough time of it. He quoted from a sermon by the Reverend Hawthorne of Atalanta, Georgia, concerning a woman who took up cycling for pleasure: "It was not the love of pleasure, but a personal devil. Satan entered into her that he might degrade and get her picture into the columns of some sensational paper, and make her the subject of obscene

53 comment in every club house and gathering of filthy sensationalists." In a further comparison and perhaps minor portent, it appeared that American bicycle makers were reducing their twelve month guarantee on new machines to two. In New Zealand, at least one maker was prepared to give twenty-four months.

On October 31 1895, the partnership of Adams, Curties and Co. was dissolved by mutual consent. The cause or causes can only be guessed at: a change of focus or business direction, differences in philosophy or opinion. They had in the course of their six year partnership manufactured almost 2000 bicycles, and now the New Zealand made Star was on its last legs. In the event, Adams received all debts and other property belonging to the late firm. He paid all its debts and liabilities, continued to run the business that was now the Adams Star Cycle Company. What is clear is that he no longer wanted or needed a partner; he now ran the place on his own. Apart from Harry Adams it's not known what other staff had or were about to leave at this time, but from changes that were about to occur in the industry, it seems logical that there'd been some attrition. There was then an odd rumour, talk of a coalition between two local wheel works, a "sort of impact of the sun and the stars" as Wildey put it. Presumably this referred to Harry's Sun Cycle and Fred's Star Cycle, but it's unknown what, if anything, eventuated, since each continued operating at their independent addresses. And it did not quite make sense, since they had only recently gone their separate ways. Fred earned some kudos from Alex in November. The Wheelman, Fred said, has done very much to encourage and develop cycling in New Zealand. It has been of the greatest service to his firm, and judicious advertisements in the colony's only cycling paper were a large part of their success. Richard Kent was also enjoying success. His Jubilee showroom had just been entirely remodelled and handsomely redecorated. Oates, however, was not about to be outdone by anyone. On November 12 he announced the issuing of a prospectus for the Oates Zealandia Cycle Company Ltd, with a nominal capital of £25,000 ($4,980,326). Amongst the provisional directors was Alex Lowry, manager of the New Zealand Clothing Factory in Christchurch. Crack rider JO Shorland was the pro tem Secretary. The company formation, Nick said, was due solely to the enormously increasing volume of business, which was rapidly growing beyond his resources. Alex Wildey in surely an act of mischief suggested that several of Oates' enemies had threatened to take up shares in Oates Zealandia Cycle Co, in order to get even with him. Fred was also not standing still. In hindsight, he'd made the decision some little while ago to cease manufacture. All Stars would now be imported from England, where they would be specially built there for New Zealand roads. The first batch was in the shop by the end of November. In the interim, the staff had worked nightly overtime to carry out alterations to the premises. Not that that was unusual. It seemed that all the Christchurch makers were reported as doing regular overtime, or at least were flooded with orders. None however appeared to have taken on the latest novelty, a whereby after pressing two springs the front wheel could be swung around to nestle against the rear.29 Nor the other curiousity, tyres made from the rough skins of sharks, apparently being trialled in America.

On Monday November 25, Watty advertised in the Press the opening of his new enterprise. W Curties and Co. (Practical Partner of late firm of Adams, Curties and Co) Manchester St, was to trade as Excelsior Cycle Works. That, however, was the trading name adopted earlier that month by WJ Barlow, formerly of Barlow and Price. He was working on Colombo St and although not advertising in the papers, he had just posted his Excelsior handle in the Wheelman. By Wednesday, Watty had renamed his business as the Swift Cycle Works. He would attend to repairs himself, and promised to conduct business on an entirely new system: First-class work at Second-class rates. Yet perhaps his trading name was the result of second- class thought – Swift was a brand of bicycle, for which Waller, Myhre and Co. were sole New Zealand agents. It would be easy to see confusion arising. Nonetheless Watty, as with Fred,

54 had clearly been in planning awhile. Upon opening, he had for sale a stock of English machines just landed. One day in early December, a Apart from advertising in the Press, he hired a regular Christchurch cycling novice half-page in the Wheelman. Alex wrote a brief piece hired an ancient machine from about how Walter had done so much to render Stars so bicycle maker A. He then popular, but contributed to the confusion by stating promptly pranged it, and for that Walter would be turning out machines under the reasons known to himself, took it Swift name. For all his loyalty towards Christchurch to maker B for repair. This makers, Alex could not resist a goad when he quoted having been effected, the machine an unsourced motto: " Encourage local industry by was parked on the pavement riding Stars made in England." outside the shop, from whence it quickly vanished. Suspecting the On Sunday December 1, about 8.30am, Watty's situation B went to A's shop brother Thomas, 14, and three companions his age where lo and behold, the aged were at the Avon River, at a place known as the Basin cycle was calmly recumbent on account of its dangerous depth. Tom, who could beside the front door. Preferring not swim, was wading, when he suddenly stepped into payment first for his effort, B deep water and sank. Twice he seized his companion seized the machine to remove it who tried to save him. Both went under until the latter to his own shop. Whereupon A resurfaced and broke away and made for shore. Tom appeared within his own then sank a third time and did not reappear. Two other doorway. A fearsome discussion young men stripped and dived in but could not find occurred, a matter of cussin' and him. In the meantime men from the Canterbury blindin' invective such as caught Engineers, who were camped nearby, and some the attention of passers-by. A residents had taken a boat out. Some twenty minutes considerable crowd, as it later and a little downstream, Tom's body was happened. Thus A seized not only recovered. Two of his pals then went to the telephone the situation, but also the rear bureau to call for the police and a doctor. But the wheel, while B refused to release operator first wanted the six pence fee, which they did his grasp of the front. There not have. Eventually they made the call from a hotel ensued a furious tug of war. nearby. Tom was brought ashore where resuscitation Something had to give and it did; was tried for over three hours. In that time, Watty had A was suddenly hurled back- been phoned and he biked from home to the scene, wards onto his butt on his surely the worst cycle ride of his life. His brother was doorstep, a portion of the bike in later taken up river by boat to the New Brighton his hands. B was ditto, except Hotel, from whence, by the Coroner's permission, he into the gutter. Each arose from was taken to Watty's house where he'd lived. his sprawl to the laughter of the Watty had now lost both his brothers – the first onlookers, each skulked away many years ago who was only four – and his mother, clasping his souvenir. Each then who'd also died young from illness. The impact on vowed vengeance one upon the him from the loss of his brother can only be guessed other, via their relevant 32 at. solicitors. Outcome unknown!

In December, Waller and Myhre announced that they'd set up a special repair department in charge of an experienced foreman. Perhaps the competition went unnoticed by Watty since, according to Nicky Oates, there were some 3000 bike riders in Canterbury. With his expanded establishment having opened on December 1, the genial Nick spared half an hour for an extended interview with a Star reporter.30 He outlined the rise and present position of the oldest established bicycle firm in the colony. Christchurch, with ten or twelve firms in operation, was the centre of the New Zealand bicycle business and he, currently with thirty employees, was pushing out an average of one new bike a day. They'd made twenty-nine in November, and had worked the past four months from 8am to 10pm. He had a decided objection to borrowing money, and always preferred to run the business on his own. And he seemed chuffed that he operated now without a single agent. Price comparisons of new

55 cycles, he pointed out, were not applicable. His £20 ($3984) Zealandias were equal to the best imported article, and guaranteed for twelve months. It was, he said, impossible to import the best English make at a less cost (to sell) than £26 ($5179). The English, he said, make three different classes of machines, and their machines in Christchurch for sale at £20 were not first-class ones. Fred quickly countered Nick's piece. Their £23 10s ($4681) Star was reduced to £20 and he was determined to carry out a house-to-house canvass, to place 500 Stars before the end of the cycling season. And alas for Watty, what had been the Adams manufacturing plant on Manchester St was now turned over entirely to cycle repairs and overhauls.

In December, Alex Wildey ran a tongue-in-cheek piece concerning a well known racing bricklayer who made frequent visits to the butcher's, and who was about to astonish the cycling world.31 His tyres were, as suspected, to made of leather, but the inner tubes would be the "homely" sausage skin, courtesy of a "brilliant" Christchurch inventor. Could this "Grand! Magnificent!" idea be improved on, asked Alex? And would the breakfast table suffer if this new fad caught on?

The Ake Ake; Letters Patent for Improved Driving Mechanism for Safety Bicycles, Laverux Nelson Dyhrberg, Walter William Curties, Albert Crum, United Kingdom Patent GB189605891A, 2 May 1896

56

CHAPTER IX – 1896

In January, Fred Adams continued promoting his Star for £20 ($3978 in 2019) for that season. Whether by accident or design, Oates' ad immediately underneath Fred's proclaimed his Zealandia as being twenty quid all year round. Fred also alluded in his advert to experts, in whose opinion world production of cycles should reach 2,000,000 this year.1 This was beneath his advert headed "The Dark Side Of Cycling;" ie breakages with "vexatious delays of repairers." The bright side, he went on to say, was that Stars were now fully interchangeable. If broken, they could be immediately put into running order by fitting a duplicate part. Was this perhaps an allusion to December's tug-o'-war bicycle? In February Fred was the subject of an interview in Wellington's Evening Post.2 It was in fact an advertisement in which he explained why English machines were superior to colonial- made. And so they should be, he said, since manufacturers there have the advantage of the best machinery, experienced workmen and an annual output of tens of thousands, which warrants employing experts who make the gauges and special tools. As to a range of models, he said that that was now buried. They now sold only two types, one for men, one women. And the prices, he said, were kept low by contracting for quantities with the manufacturers, and doing a hustling business. So much, as Wildey would say, for colonial cringe. Undeterred, Fred pushed on with his expansion. For the first five months of 1896 he commuted regularly to Wellington, where he set about establishing a branch. From June, he included Auckland in his circuit. With each visit he would take orders and on subsequent return bring with him those ordered machines. He was salesman, delivery boy and tutor, since he offered riding lessons to women and men who purchased his cycles.

Somewhere along the way, Watty began a business association with Ashburton men Laverux Nelson Dyhrberg, brickmaker, and Albert Crum, brickmaker proprietor. Exactly how, where and when is unknown, but on January 29, the three appointed Henry Hughes of Christchurch as their agent.3 Hughes was to apply for Letters Patent for their invention, entitled "Improved driving mechanism for safety bicycles." Dyhrberg was the original inventor. He'd patented his appliance in November 1895, but Watty was turning the plan into substance and no doubt helped shape the final design. Dyhrberg, who went on to invent other things, had designed his bicycle pedals to move up and down not rotate, thus actuating a mechanism that powered the rear wheel by way of a wire cord not a chain. In the altered design, the pedals each moved through an arc, still not rotating but utilising a similar mechanism to drive the wheel. Due to the ingenuity, shorter strokes of the pedals enabled greater leverage for hill climbing or combating headwinds; conversely longer or full strokes led to a higher top speed. Crum's input is unknown, but he did subsequently design some devices regarding brick making machinery. Just who, if anyone, Watty employed in his shop and how successful the business was, is unknown. But it seems that building the prototype machine and filling out paperwork in Christchurch and Ashburton took precedence. He ceased advertising in the Wheelman at the end of February and in the Press at the end of March. Curiously, Fred had dropped the Wheelman altogether in January, although he did continue concise newspaper plugs in his customary territory, which was from Southland north to Hawke's Bay and Taranaki. Nicky Oates hauled in the reins a tad. In February it was said that his Zealandia Cycle Company was to open a branch factory in Wellington, but that did not proceed. But he, Richard Kent and Thomas Boyd continued their skirmish in the Wheelman paid pages regarding records set on their respective machines. There was the niggle of one who did not resort to blow or puffing (ie brag or bluster) advertisements, another who pointed out that he did not advertise holding records that had been beaten by another maker's machine. Waller, Myhre and Co. dipped a toe into the fray by briefly pushing their own record wins, and poached riding instructor Fred Painter from Adams Star Cycles.

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In March, Alex Wildey responded to a query in his "Asked and Answered" column that month.4 He The following men, each by his advised that he could provide at least a score of names own admission, was the very first of men who each claimed to have brought the first to start the cycling trade in safety bicycle into New Zealand. That seemed to set a Canterbury: Thomas Boyd, ball rolling. In April, he published a potted biography Thomas Hyde, Richard Kent of Nicky Oates entitled "The Father Of The Trade," Nicky Oates and Henry Wagstaff. complete with full page portrait.5 In the next edition, ditto of Richard Kent, who was "The Pioneer Of The Trade."6 He was trailed in May by Thomas Boyd, "The Premier Of The Trade," except the latter had a half page photo each of Boyd and his partner son John.7 We can only guess whether Alex had planned on including Boyd, or if he was provoked into doing so by the latter's indignant diatribe published immediately below his biography. Boyd had held nothing back. He decried the audacity of the Father and the Pioneer "strutting about in borrowed plumes and arrogating to themselves titles to which they have no possible shadow of claim."8 The subject of who was first here in the trade, he said, was discussed years ago. He without hesitation had been declared that man. Further, he said, although he'd lived in Rangiora 20 miles (32km) from Christchurch, in the early 1880s he'd received many repair jobs from the city from owners who said they could not get them done properly there. His implication being that Kent and Oates who were operating independently then were not capable. Conspicuous by his biographical absence though was Fred Adams, who disliked the limelight and anything related to self-advertisement.

By the end of April, prominent Ashburton merchant Hugo Friedlander had joined Curties, Dyhrberg and Crum in ownership of the Improved mechanism, now called the Ake Ake Chainless Safety Bicycle. In Ashburton on the 28th, Watty and the others signed a Power of Attorney authorising PH Cox, bank manager of Ashburton and also now a co-owner of the invention, to act on their behalf in Australia. He was to apply for Letters Patent in several Australian Colonies, and to initiate establishment of a Company there that would buy shares in the invention. Cox sailed for Sydney on May 6 with the Ake Ake prototype. It was trialled there on steep hills and an asphalt track by an amateur champion and various other noted riders, who thought it an excellent ladies' machine and superior to the safety roadster.9 The fact that one could rest one's legs at will when descending an incline or running before the wind was a strong advantage. On May 8, Watty signed a statement in Christchurch appointing William Ernest Hughes of Wellington his Agent. He was to apply for and obtain Letters Patent in favour of the invention entitled "Improvements in the driving mechanism of safety bicycles." Watty also authorised Hughes to sign his name and seal and deliver all documents the Agent thought necessary and to alter and amend any such documents as also thought necessary. All communications from the Patent Office in Wellington were to be directed to the Agent. This Improvement was in fact a modification of the joint Improvement invention, and Watty would go on to patent a further three modifications in his own name only. The following day, May 9, an advertisement in the Press advised that Mr Curties was leaving for England immediately, and the entire contents of the Curties' household were to be auctioned on May 14.10 The list of "Superior and costly furniture" was formidable: English piano in good order; handsome inlaid rose-wood suite covered in raised velvet; magnificent carved rimu sideboard 7ft high with bevelled plate glass back; assorted walnut or rose-wood furniture; superior cutlery and china tea set; beautiful ornaments of every description and oil paintings and other pictures; massive nickel-plated bedstead (best make) and rimu bedroom suite; large Singer sewing machine (latest improvements) and rugs, carpets and curtains; the usual kitchen furniture and utensils; lawn mower; a large microscope with all the latest improvements; a considerable array of other household items and, no surprise, one really first class bicycle. All of the goods were as new, to be sold without the slightest reserve.

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PART II CHAPTER X – FREDERICK AND WALTER (MAINLY)

Walter and Lizzie Curties departed New Zealand in early June 1896. Watty's plan was to find an English manufacturer for the Ake Ake , but their first stop was Melbourne. There on June 17 he and Hugo Friedlander signed an Indenture with the Ake Ake Chainless Safety Bicycle Company Ltd of Melbourne.1 The five vendors together with EO Cox of Christchurch were appointed branch directors and the Company, whose capital of £16,000 ($3,177,518 in 2019) was divided into 640 shares of £25 ($4964) each, agreed to purchase the invention and all patents and patent applications worldwide. There was to be an immediate payment to the vendors of £2000 ($397,189) cash and 480 fully paid up Company shares. The distribution amongst the vendors is unknown, but presumably Watty was compensated for his involvement. Perhaps he and Lizzie then had a leisurely diversion, since they did not depart from Sydney until August 10, when they were cabin passengers on a steamer. Curiously, upon arrival in London on September 25, the ages of both were wrong; Watty was a clerk; and his wife for the voyage was Louisa. To pique this curiosity, Watty admitted years later that he'd indulged in what he called "dramatic writing." Perhaps he meant creative writing, which he may have begun in New Zealand, then put aside in England when he set out to find a manufacturer to construct his cycle invention.

Some of the Ake Ake Chainless New Zealand shareholders met in Ashburton in July and Curties, Crum, Dyhrberg and Friedlander among others were re-elected to the board.2 The company owning the patent now contemplated establishing another company in England with a capital of £1,000,000 ($198,287,219.) To this end, it was recommended that Waldemar Friedlander of London act in conjunction with others in the matter of floating the proposed capital. Further, it was decided that the Agent-General – the Hon William Pember Reeves – be written to and informed that this was the most important New Zealand invention yet to be placed on the London market. He would be asked to do all in his power to forward the interests of the proposed Company. Satisfaction was expressed at the readiness with which influential capitalists in Melbourne and elsewhere had taken shares. Such was the opinion accorded the value of the invention.

In August the Ake Ake Chainless attracted considerable interest when shown in Dunedin, some practical tests there obtained very satisfactory results.3 Its drawback though was the inability to back-pedal, thus brake the machine. Watty however was working on that aspect. That month Waller, Myhre and Co. were said to have done by far the biggest trade in imported machines of any firm in Christchurch. Three weeks later, the partnership was dissolved. Ostensibly it was due to failure to obtain sufficient Swift cycles, however Myhre continued trading under their joint name for another seven months. Waller soon hooked up with Fred Adams as a sort of roving manager selling Stars, first in Dunedin, then Wanganui. Watty's old premises on Manchester were taken over in August by John Banfield, an engineer who soon advertised for two good cycle mechanics. It's not known what Watty had had in the way of bicycle engineering machinery and how that was disposed of. It may well be that Banfield took it over, since he offered to make machines of any style. By October, though, he was also selling American machines, perhaps to Wildey's displeasure. His opinion of American-made had been followed up in May when, in commenting upon a Wellington shop's advertisement, he'd stated that "The invasion of the Yankee bicycle into New Zealand has commenced."4 In September while Oates and Boyd maintained a little stoush as to whose brand held the most records, Richard Kent took a new tack. It was in fact a leaf from the Fred Adams' book of creative advertising. Kent hired as business manager a former journalist who, assumedly, came up with a new device, a full page in the Wheelman entitled The Kent Record.5 This touted Kent as The King of New Zealand Cycle Makers and was complete with assorted paragraphs and snippets of Kent's Pioneer Cycle Works, all purporting to be news. The

59

Record was, it confided, "Published in the Interests of Humanity and Kent's Cycles." The Ashburton Guardian demonstrated Auckland's distance from New Zealand with an extract from the Auckland Herald which told of a chainless bicycle called the Ake Ake that had reached the colony.6 It was on show in Dunedin and was expected to be in general use in England and the colonies before long. Absent from the Herald was the fact that it was a Colonial invention. The Chainless then went into hibernation in the press, except for a brief mention in December. A race was planned in Ashburton between local businessmen, one on an English machine, the other on the Ake Ake. One of the men, we're told, was in hard training to get off a good deal of superfluous fat. The results – fat disposal and race – are unknown.

Alex in a provocative wee piece in September reprinted an article from Wheeling, a leading cycle paper in London, England.7 They'd compared bicycle makers' advertising in England and America. The former claimed to be too busy to support the press, overwhelmed with orders as they were. Advertising would fetch in more orders than they could cope with. Americans however while also overwhelmed with orders, worked on the philosophy that the more business they did, the more they tried to do. To attain this, they advertised lavishly. This "hour of unparalleled and unexpected prosperity," they said, "was the right time to fix their name solidly in the public mind." And also to enlarge their export markets. Already established and expanding in England and Australia, Alex said, those enterprising Americans were more than likely to set up camp in New Zealand. Makers here, he suggested, should not throw away this golden opportunity by not advertising, by not establishing a substantial foundation. Wheeling concluded that "the present unexampled prosperity cannot last for ever." Perhaps Alex's purse also had an eye on some golden outcome that would ensue from lavish advertising.

Meanwhile in Christchurch, Fred and brother Harry were each nabbed by the Factory Inspector for allowing boys to work in their factories on an early November Saturday afternoon. Each was fined in Court £1 ($198) with £1 8s ($277) costs. In the three months to December 1896, 3390 cycles valued at £38,732 ($7,764,116) were imported into New Zealand.8 In addition, £20,641 ($4,089,678) worth of cycle materials was imported. And change continued: this time the establishment in December of the Austral Cycle Agency in England. They then purchased the Austral Cycle Company Agency of Australia, along with Thomas Boyd and Son of Christchurch and SR Stedman's entire operation in Dunedin. The Company's objective was to manufacture and deal in bicycles, carriages and vehicles of all kinds, and motor cars. Something was coming to an end, something else beginning.

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CHAPTER XI – 1897 to 1899

Watty and Lizzie's first child – a son – was born early in the New Year. They were living in a rented four-bedroom Victorian terrace house in the London borough of Lewisham. Clearly not shy of a bob, and apart from a very few official and other records, we have only Watty's point of view, his opinions regarding his home life, industry and society in general. And that material itself is rather sparse. He had, he later recalled, been lucky – undoubtedly referring to New Zealand – and this had led to his sudden success. After which, he rued, he'd sold out so easily and readily. Everything had been smoothly settled and he'd been, he said, almost borne along by good fortune. But he had, in hindsight, mistakenly believed that mere determination and patience with ability were sufficient passports to succeed in England. Merit, he discovered, does not often succeed. Opportunity was nearly everything. He'd had too much confidence in himself and instead of hoarding up what he had and working until the opportunity presented itself, he'd tried to create that opportunity. He'd set himself to do things of which he had no experience. Concurrently, he had a series of experiences that he said could not be called ordinary. With funds and the means to establish business connections, he pounded the pavement in search of a maker to construct the chainless creation. What hurt him, he said, was the way in which he was "humbugged, delayed and exorbitantly charged;" by whom he did not specify, but presumably manufacturers. And in the process he claimed he was scammed by someone he called "a scamp such as he'd never before encountered." No further details are evident except the cost, £25 ($4858.) And of the people he knew to hunt out, they either failed him (his words) or had disappeared. In one instance, a warrant for arrest was issued, for someone he did not identify. The overall effect, he concluded, was that all this must have made it look to the Company board in New Zealand that he was in collusion to rob them. But he was adamant that he "never had a penny piece beyond what was agreed to by my directors." But his inventive spark hadn't expired. Early in December 1896, he'd submitted two patent applications in the United Kingdom. One was titled "Improvements in driving mechanism for steam-propelled vehicles," which is easily accepted, since he would have had firsthand knowledge of steam machinery in New Zealand. The second, however, was "A variable speed and reversing contrivance for motor-driven vehicles." Assuming that this was for oil engines, and considering that his first hands-on experience of such vehicles would not have been until he arrived in England, ie post September 1896, one has to be impressed by his abilities. In January 1897, he'd applied for another patent, this time for a bicycle braking mechanism. And there were more to come.

There are, however, contradictions. According to an Ake Ake Board report in February 1897, the London Stamping Company was to have a test machine ready for exhibition that month.1 Further, a finished sample machine was due to arrive shortly in Ashburton from London. The Company's London attorneys had cabled the Melbourne Board and advised them to extend the patents to South African States. In addition, they'd written to advise that the Company expert – ie Watty – had patented a highly improved, lighter and more effective brake for the bike. There was also, they said, the promise of considerable support from many wealthy syndicate men in London. It was anticipated that no difficulty should be experienced in getting the capital subscribed or in selling the Company's patent rights, for which it is understood several applications have already been received. As soon as letters patent for the many countries in which the machine has been patented were duly lodged with the Bank of Australasia in London, steps would be taken to float a large English company. To keep things in context, there were currently 750,000 bikes made annually in England by workers who numbered 32,000 in Birmingham and Coventry alone.2 About 100,000 of those machines were exported. In the USA, seven steel tube mills had a combined output capacity of 82,000,000 feet (ca 25,000 km) of steel tube for bicycle frames. In February Fred Adams, perhaps with those figures in mind, ran an exhibit one evening at his premises in Wellington. That drew public admiration for his energy, taste and enterprise.

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But considering his commitment to servicing Wellington, it's unsurprising that he stepped aside from Christchurch Cycling Club officer roles. Even trade promotion in general was demoted. Although he attended a meeting in April to discuss holding a bicycle show in Christchurch in November, and signed up onto the General Committee, he took no active role. In fact, he declined to participate in the show, on the grounds of costs. To do so, he said, would mean increasing the bicycle cost to the customer. For the same reason, the Company had now also discontinued expensive advertising, thus disregarding Wildey's September advice. The money saved, he continued, was better spent in improving the Star. This was exactly what Oates had said, at the same time decrying the exhibition date as being when manufacturers were at their busiest. Nicky, however, sat the fence while Alex Lowry – who by May was a partner in Oates, Lowry and Co – joined both the General Committee and the Executive Committee of what was named the Metropolitan Cycle Show, only to resign from both in July.

Richard Kent was not content to continue to simply manufacture cycles. He had in 1896 acquired a section at Richmond on which he was creating a private park.3 He'd laid down two asphalt tennis courts and an asphalt cycle track for tuition purposes of eight laps to the mile (1.6 km) and banked four feet (1.2 m) at the corners, the whole surrounded by an esplanade laid off with handsome shrubs and ornamental trees and a seven foot (2.1 m) opaque fence to deter passers-by from taking a free peek. Next came a pavilion with a large room for meetings, a ladies' cloak-room and a tea-room. Finally, in February this year came a concrete tepid swimming bath seventy-five by twenty feet (22.8 m x 6.1 m) with eighteen dressing rooms, a roof of glass and wood, lit at night by gas.4 Yet diversification aside, he was converging on the Adams Star brand. Fred for some little time had been pushing the fact that his Stars were made by the Eadie Manufacturing Co, of England, supposedly the most up-to-date firm in the world. In July Kent began promoting the fact his machines utilised celebrated Eadie components, and some of his machines even had frames made by Eadie. A stickler for facts, Fred struck back the very next day. Stars, he announced, were the only machines made by Eadie for New Zealand. Adams Star as their sole agent here controlled all Eadie goods for the colony. Presumably Adams Inc took a cut from Kent's own piecemeal Eadie imports.

While Kent's life outside work was surely fulfilling and pleasant, Oates' was not.5 It seems he'd taken up the company of another woman about two years previously. After he and his family moved house about July 1897, he'd brought into their home his lady friend's daughter. The reason for her intermittent stay, he swore to his wife, was to teach his wife some manners. After which, he threw a jam dish off the table at her. But he contented himself in August by considerably altering their Napier shop to enable a large show room, and was absent from the Metropolitan Cycle Show in Christchurch in November. Nineteen exhibitors including one each from Wellington and Auckland displayed some forty brands of bicycles. The vast majority were imports and Kent and the Austral Cycle Agency were the only manufacturers present.

1898 opened with a second son born to Watty – now recorded as a cycle manufacturer – and wife. They'd moved to another Victorian terrace house in Lewisham, but this one had only three bedrooms. Perhaps a sign of a slow downward spiral. On the contrary, life in Christchurch New Zealand was, literally, a picnic. February was the season of staff outings, which were not confined to weekends. On a Thursday, over 400 attended the butchers' picnic, where the City Brass Band played throughout the day, various sporting events were held and a group of Maori children entertained with a haka. Not to be outdone, on the Saturday following, two trains each of twenty-three carriages transported some 3000 Islington Freezing workers and friends to Ashburton. Ditto the butchers' brass music and sports, as it was with Aulsebrook and Co's excursion on the same day. Adams Star Cycle Co's annual catered picnic was more temperate; various amusements were indulged in

62 at Stewart's Gully for which valuable prizes were awarded. In the afternoon, several employees inspected the woollen mills at . Fred was absent, kept at his shop in Wellington every evening till 9.

What is not known is when Watty began to learn the fate of his chainless machine. On April 6, a letter in the Ashburton Guardian from Scotus of Ashburton claimed that the Ake Ake bicycle had failed to convince the experts at Home.6 The Company, it continued, had not been floated there, and it was a matter of common honesty to allow investors here in NZ to get a reasonable dividend out of this "bogus speculation." The promoters, it concluded, had no risk, and the Directors were being paid for effectively doing nothing. The following day, the Ashburton Guardian confirmed that the Company's Melbourne head office had been advised by England that the invention was a failure.7 A shareholders' meeting was set for April 28, to consider a proposal to wind up the Company. A stumbling-block to the uptake of Watty's chainless machine may well have been progress itself: the motor-car and -cycle were literally taking off around him. Huge sums were being invested in the development and manufacture of contraptions running on little more than fat-tyred bicycle wheels – two, three or four – with an oil engine tacked on. The , however, failed to catch on. What began as an electric tricycle in the mid 1880s had morphed a decade later into a battery-powered safety bicycle, when it was also known as a motor cycle. A primary drawback was the charged battery life of about only two hours. An oil-engined bicycle, however, with a two gallon tank of benzine could be run at 30 miles per hour for 140 miles (9 litres, 48kph and 225km) Moreover, a rider could carry a spare can of fuel. Electricity was not so widely accessible, especially in New Zealand. It was alluded to in the press that oil would soon succeed pedal power, chained or otherwise. Meanwhile in Christchurch, the industry was in its usual state of flux. Goodman and Alexander, who'd traded as Aroha Cycle Works, split up in June. In July, Oates and Lowry dug deep into their wallets and bought the New Zealand manufacturing machinery and plant of the Austral Cycle Agency Ltd and its entire stock of 347 built and part-built Atalanta bicycles.They promptly followed this with a sale of these 347, for a cash reduction of twenty per cent. The following month Tom Boyd, who'd begun the business that became Austral Cycle in New Zealand, severed all connection with that Company, and resumed trading, under his old moniker, T Boyd and Son. As it happens, in 1896 the Ake Ake prototype had been displayed in the Austral Cycle shop window in Sydney. On September 22, the Ake Ake Chainless Co. was put up for liquidation. Tenders were called for the purchase of all rights, Letters Patent, and the sample bicycle, which were all with the liquidator in Melbourne. The Ashburton Guardian in October cynically surmised that very few Ashburton shareholders would profit in the success of this great invention.8 They were proved correct – in April 1899 there was a first and final dividend of just 12s 10d per £25 share ($124 per $4775 share.) The Company was deregistered in Australia in September that year. Fred would have been able to keep indirect tabs on his old pal Watty via the media, but it seems there was no personal contact. It's doubtful he'd subscribed to the Ake Ake investment, or assisted otherwise. In October, his new Star showroom in Hobbs' Building in Christchurch was opened. The Manchester St head office and depot continued as usual, while the Wellington branch flourished.

One thing we can be sure of is that Fred Adams checked out the two Benz teuf-teuf-teuf benzine machines in Wellington. They'd arrived there in February 1898, the first motor cars in New Zealand, if not the Southern Hemisphere.9 Surely no coincidence then that he sailed into Lyttelton on November 6, two days before a Benz arrived and was driven along Manchester St.10 It attracted considerable scrutiny, and much more interest two days later when it featured at the Canterbury Metropolitan Show, where it surely also caught Nicky Oates attention.11 The Benz returned to Wellington on November 15, but its teuf-teuf echo remained in Christchurch.

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CHAPTER XII – NEW CENTURY: THE WAXING AND WANING OF STARS

In April 1900, Nicky Oates set off to examine the combustion engine. He left at home a somewhat incendiary situation. Some twenty years previously, he'd ordered his in-laws out of the house on account of his father-in-law's drinking. That left a legacy of ill-feeling with his wife. Further, about eleven years ago he'd objected to her to town with her sister, whom he considered to be a shady character. He and his wife now slept in separate rooms, they did nothing together and he jeered at her on account of her false teeth. He'd asked her for a divorce, which she refused. So he left without saying goodbye and sailed directly for England, then France. Along the way, he bought two motor cars that arrived in Christchurch in October. Fred Adams, unencumbered by domestic discord, sailed in June via Sydney for San Francisco. Thence he went overland to Chicago and New York, interrogating the auto industry en route. Then he crossed the Atlantic, and spent time in France before touring England. In Paris he bought what was variously described as a "flaring red" or "tomato boiler" custom-built Gustave Dupont Liberia car that he rebadged as a Star. He was more ambitious in outlay than Nick, ordering 1,000 English Eadie bicycles to sell and cycle sundries, along with French autos, motor-quadricycles and -tricycles. It seems he did not meet up in London with Watty, and it's unknown if he caught up with his old protagonist, Professor Bickerton, also in London. What is known is that Watty in his turn did not meet up with the Professor, who for a while was barely a handful of km's from him across town. It would be surprising if he hadn't known he was there. Bickerton had lectured around England and had had some exposure in the press for his radical ideas and theories on socialism and cosmic evolution, and Watty by now had hooked up with socialism. Bickerton, however, returned to New Zealand in early 1901. While Fred's domain continued to shift and expand, Watty's stayed a little lower than static. From round about 1899, he'd worked at Maxims in London. Which Maxims is not specified, but since he now described himself as an electrical engineer, it was presumably the Maxim Electrical and Engineering Export Company. Although he'd been quickly promoted to foreman there at £2-15s ($525 in 2019) a week, he decided the company was bordering upon bankruptcy. In fact, after a year, he lost his job. His manager – so he sourly vented – had fetched in a retinue of friends and relations, and Watty had had to give way to a nephew. He then obtained similar work at the Incandescent Lamp Company where, after about six months, he was laid off due to a pruning of factory overheads. There were, concurrently, drastic cut backs within the bicycle industry. Since the turn of the century the number of exhibits at English cycle shows had fallen, and half the exhibition spaces were now occupied by motors. In Oates' opinion, the industry in England had suffered a tremendous collapse.1 So many firms big and little had rushed into the trade in the boom times that it had become vastly overcrowded. In the best expert opinions, he said, though the slump had not been as rapid as the boom, it would yet be a couple of years before the bottom was reached.2 Nick had also returned embittered. The factory in Cornwall where he'd worked as a youth had lost most of its workers and plant, and he had a low opinion of English and French people and manufacturers there in general.

On November 24, the first ever car sale in Christchurch was made, by auction.3 Bought for £135 ($25,809) by Wardell Bros and Co. the had been imported in September by Auckland engineer Arthur Marychurch. He'd sold it and the vehicle agency to Skeates, Bockaert and Co. of Auckland. They'd in turn shipped it to Christchurch in October, where reporters were taken for a ride and the car eventually took part in a sports event at Lancaster Park. The car was in fact a Star, made by the Star Motor Company of Wolverhampton, and was the first car they'd exported. Star Motor was a sister of the Star Cycle Company, and since Fred Adams held the Star Cycle trade mark for New Zealand, subsequent Star cars imported by Skeates and Bockaert were rebadged as Stuart. Years later, this Star car was bought by Professor Bickerton, who apparently utilised the engine to power facilities at his

64 amusement park at Wainoni in Christchurch. Perhaps it powered a round-about entertainment for children.

Two days after the car auction, Nicky Oates and cyclist publican pal John Carl set off mid- morning on a motor car trip to Timaru. It was forecast to be a pleasure trip, and for the car "an excellent test of its adaptability for travelling over all sorts of road."4 And it wasn't and was. The first incident was a breakage in the engine of this plump powered perambulator on bicycle wheels in the midst of crossing a water race. After "a lot of trouble and a fine display of engineering ability, mixed with an outflow of some foreign language"5 the car was patched up and proceeded south. Further repairs were made at Nick's bicycle Branch in Ashburton, then came some framework breakage due to rough roads and riverbeds. After which, they ran out of petrolene, so borrowed some benzine, which proved unsuitable. Next, they got stuck in a swollen creek and were rescued by a lad with a horse, and some rope, whereby they were towed into town.6 More repairs were undertaken, petrolene was obtained, and after a couple of days travelling, they did finally drive into Timaru.7 Without, it seems, the accelerator mechanism, which had been removed due to accidents along the way. Nevertheless the car received considerable attention from townsfolk, and from the local press, who were taken for brief test runs on the streets. Favourable comments were offset somewhat by the defect, vibration. The engine shook the car with every explosion, and unevenness of the streets was brought out prominently by the small diameter wheels. These were shod with solid rubber tyres since Nick had no truck with pneumatic tyres on cars; he was dubious regarding their safety. The next day, he and his mate returned home by train, as did the car.

In March 1901, Watty's third son was born. The family were now in another three bedroom brick Victorian terrace house, this time with a live-in French nurse. She presumably attended to the new-born or his mother Lizzie, now mysteriously renamed Ann. But at least her age on the Census form was correct, and Watty was employed, presumably in the electrical trade.

In Christchurch in April 1901, Fred determined to retake the lead in the automotive arena. His Salvation Army red Star arrived on the 1st and was driven around town the following day and attracted considerable interest wherever it stopped. And whereas Nick's two cars were rear- engined, Fred's was up front, with a drive shaft and differential to the rear wheels, as opposed to Nick's chain drive. Within a week, Fred was off on his own road trip to test the promise of the French engineers to supply the best possible car to suit New Zealand conditions.8 Thus he, brother Harry and their buddy bicycle dealer Henry Martin packed provisions, rugs and spare petrol and set off from Christchurch on Sunday midday for Hanmer, 133km distant. Even with an all-up weight of 15cwt (762kg) the little car romped up and down hill, waded rivers and "faced every road obstruction grandly." Although the journey took twelve hours, the engine ran for only seven; oiling stops were required after the numerous river dunkings. The home run into Hanmer at top speed would have been a fascinating experience – on a shingle road in the dark at 30mph (48kph), with only two little flickering acetylene headlamps for vision. The Star was the first ever car in the hamlet. It returned to Christchurch two days later, the entire journey without breakdown or mishap. Drama was reserved for the following week, when Fred became the first ever Christchurch if not New Zealand car driver to be nobbled for breaking the law.9 He had on April 14 driven over a High Street crossing at greater than four miles an hour (6kph.) Two constables subsequently gave evidence – the mind boggles at their innate speed camera skill – that he'd driven at twelve miles an hour (18kph.) Fred did not appear in Court, and was fined 10s ($89) plus costs. Thus he preceded by a month Nick Oates' own fine for speeding, which is often erroneously determined as New Zealand's first motor offence.10 Unlike Fred, Nick naturally chose to appear and challenge the evidence, which nonetheless cost him double Fred's fine with costs. Fred's speeding offence occurred on the day that he, brother Harry and two other men took

65 the red Star on a second trip, this time across the Canterbury Plains.11 The plan was to reach the Waimakariri Gorge Bridge some 60 miles (97km) inland, without a break or stoppage on rough roads and river crossings, which they did. The return home was equally successful, albeit by a slightly different route. And having been caught for speeding, Fred took the initiative to placate the Law. Early in May, a week after being fined, the little Star was observed tootling around town of a Monday evening on a number of trips, with policemen as passengers.12 They were said to have enjoyed the sensation immensely; however, the response is unrecorded of the well-known detective who was passenger when the Star was flagged down by a uniformed copper, who took down the driver's name, presumably Fred's. Later that month Fred and Nicky clearly conspired. Similar letters from Adams Star Cycle and Oates, Lowry and Co. were tabled before the Christchurch City Council.13 Each letter requested a change in the motor car speed by-law. Cars were governed by steam traction engine rules, ie 2mph (3kph) around corners and over bridges, 4mph (6kph) along streets. Fred suggested an increase to at least 12mph (19kph.) That, in fact, became the legal speed limit later that year, which was when brother Harry was nicked for driving the red car on a Christchurch footpath at a furious rate. Pedestrians returning home from the races had had to step out of the way with "great precipitancy."14 While Nick's family ties remained strained and estranged, Fred continued to maintain and reinforce his own. Although brother Harry continued his own semi-independent cycle repair work, brother Charles moved up the Adams Star ladder. He'd begun work for Adams, Curties and Co. from perhaps as early as July 1891, when he'd left school. In May 1901, described as a cycle merchant, he set off for the UK to learn the automotive ropes. Even though he'd worked with Watty a decade ago, he did not catch up with him in England. Youngest sibling Reginald, who'd left school in August 1900 and was currently studying at Gilby's Commercial College, was in preparation for a lifetime's employ with Adams Inc, as was second-youngest brother George. He'd left school in April 1899, and was also studying at Gilby's. Both clearly at some stage had a mechanical apprenticeship with Adams Star Cycles.

In January 1902, Fred was obliged to call at their branch in Wanganui, where the manager was soon arrested. He had a gambling problem, and had been fiddling the books to feed his habit. Fred testified in Court on January 28 then returned to Christchurch where, on February 10, he and brother Harry were central to a well publicised coup. They provided two motor cars with themselves as chauffeurs that took His Excellency Governor Ranfurly on a day trip inland from Christchurch. Fred snr's old employer the Lyttelton Times chimed in with a bonus, claiming that Adams Star Cycle were perhaps the only firm in Australasia who could have provided such a service.15

In March, Watty's youngest son at just a year old was admitted to the Evelina children's' hospital with an abscess on his hip. He barely survived and for a long time could not even crawl, the outcome being one leg shorter, thus a limp. The more immediate legacy was Watty's growing domestic dissatisfaction. His wife was "too damned lazy" and had to be "almost kicked" into returning to the hospital with their son to check on his recovery. When she finally did – after skipping one appointment because it was drizzling – an x-ray showed up a dislocation, and he was given splints to wear on his leg. Watty griped at her never putting the splints on the boy, but did not say if he himself ever put them on. He was also concerned about his father, who lived on the breadline nearby and would visit two nights a week to discuss the topics of the day. And that, Watty tells us, was his only dialogue and companionship at home. His father earned a little from cobbling, but was mainly dependent on the regular few shillings a week from Watty, who had grown angry at the world for causing his father's situation, and guilty that he was unable to make his father's latter years more comfortable.

Somewhere in this period, prior to late 1902, the Adamses were beginning to loosen the ties to the family seat. Fred apparently was on his own for a short time at another address, but then

66 he was also a regular traveller to Wellington and elsewhere on business. By November, two of his sisters had shifted house to where Jessie, the oldest, apparently ran the household, while Georgina worked as a clerk, no doubt for Fred. Nicky was also employing his own family. It seems that during his UK travel, he met up with his niece Kate, and subsequently persuaded her and her husband and daughter to emigrate to Christchurch.16 They arrived in September 1902 and promptly, in collaboration with Nick, took control of his children, who were then re-enrolled at another school. This was without any consultation with his wife, who was also not told when their younger daughter was sent to hospital for an operation. What further needled Nick's wife was that she had never ridden in his motor car. He took their daughters and numerous other women friends, but never her.17 By March 1903, Fred was living with his two sisters, while brother Charles who'd returned from the UK the previous year, had been despatched to Wanganui to manage the branch. That same month, Watty was published in The Engineer, a London-based monthly magazine.18 An impassioned plea on behalf of the factory engineer, this lengthy, lucid and well-written prose decried the filthy den, the hole in the ground or corner, into which workspace the engineer was relegated, and the scrap iron a quarter of a century old supplied for use as his tools. He decried the moral cowardice of the company manager who fails to deal with changes as their necessity appears, who is too apt to put off renewals, in order to make his balance-sheet look more favourable. Only dull and unimaginative minds, Watty said, can exist in such circumstances. Every encouragement, he said, should be given by an employer to intelligent men in his service to use their brains on his behalf. It would pay him, he said, to have a trained and intelligent engineer, the best man of his class. This may also be read as euphemistic for Watty's growing distaste of class, of division, the widening gap between wealth and poverty. It was also indicative of his state of mind. He'd recently lost his job and after awaiting six weeks on the promise of a post, he'd learnt that the manager's unqualified teenage son had been given it. His inventions were being ignored and they'd shifted house yet again – sans nursemaid – to what seems downmarket. And he was ruing his constant bad luck. Family lore has it that in London, Watty and his three sons attended Socialist Sunday School, that the Socialist Party provided them with a little financial assistance, and that the youngest boy had sat on the knee of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. That may well have occurred at a Socialist church, whose meetings Lenin liked to attend. In April, Watty had published in the English Mechanic And World Of Science journal a carefully considered discourse headed "Is The Earth A Pyramid And Not A Sphere?"19 He was taking issue with an earlier article purporting to be an interview between an American reporter and a French astronomer, who declared the world to be a four-sided pyramid. Although somewhat dubious as to the article's veracity, he carefully repudiated the claim and grieved that such stuff circulated while "the utterances and life-thought of more capable men remain ignored." Here he named Professor Bickerton of Canterbury College (New Zealand) who'd "formulated a theory of the cosmos, which, it cannot be denied explains the phenomena of the heavens in a way no other theory can." He concluded with his own proposition, that the earth has a wing at each pole and flies through space. He could not, he said, be contradicted, since no one had yet been to the poles. He was grateful though – in a letter to his sister Mary in Christchurch – for the guinea ($195) he received for each article, and admitted that in mentioning Bickerton's name, he hoped that he may have been in England and made contact (Sadly, Watty was two years too late) after which, he traversed his other failure, domestic life. He confirmed his sister's observation that his wife was "lazy, slovenly and heartless." There was no go in her, he said, and any initiative had to come from himself. And always, that was met with opposition. She was worse than a two ton piece of furniture to move about and he was sick of the dinginess and squalor, the untidiness, the smell of dried urine on the floor and excrement on walls and doors and worst of all, on the tablecloth. His wife had abandoned all, her sole desire was to return to New Zealand.

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Then he cited their older sister Margaret, who was "beyond hope." She was, he said, too much like his own wife to expect else. But worse was Margaret's husband Fred Winstanley, a fool who had had too easy a start in life, knew nothing of the struggle for existence, who landed effortless in a good situation in which he rose by seniority and not ability, who got easily what he held and valued it cheaply. Fred had then blown it, lost the lot including any semblance of family stability, by way of a scam that cost him six months hard labour in Lyttelton gaol. The outcome was poverty for the family, alcoholism for Fred. Watty was however optimistic concerning his latest patent, provided he could find the right firm to take it on.

Fred Adams returned to England in June and Adams Star were shortly ready to give prompt attention to orders for the latest English or French motor–bicycles, – cars, – cabs, – 'busses and light delivery vans. In his absence in July, Harry laid an inscribed foundation stone for their large new three storey garage building in Christchurch.20 The Adams Star Cycle Company was said to have been the largest and most successful motor dealer in New Zealand at that time.21

By January 1904, Watty and family had moved again, to just three rooms in a five-storey tenement in one of London's poorest areas. But he was back at work, and one day showed his father around the factory. A few days later, he got a pencil note from him asking him to call. He did so, and found his father ill with bronchitis, breathing heavily but up and about without pain and cheerful. He left him with a sovereign ($179) and promised to call again. Next day came another note from his father, asking him to come at once. He did, since his father had told his landlady that he had a few little secrets to tell, but he died just ten minutes before Watty could reach him. He was grateful to his employer with whom he was on good terms, and from whom he borrowed money to pay for his father's funeral. Of his sons' response to the loss of their poor old grandpa, he said only that they had the Curties' failing, coldness and indifference. "Their mother," he said of his wife, "has not more heart than thought. She made them feel that they were going on a picnic rather than to see the last of their poor old grandpa. Their unsubdued chatter, and her inconsiderate jests with them in the house at this mournful time shows what the womans nature is."

From early 1904, Adams Star had changed their French car manufacturer to Lacoste et Battmann.22 As with the earlier Star, this new model was built specifically to suit New Zealand conditions, ie raised ground clearance and larger wheels to ease river crossings. And Fred was a little adroit with the name, which became Etoile or L'Etoile (French Star or The Star.) The showroom price was also altered. Whereas a Star in 1902 was £400 ($72,827) cash on delivery, the L'Etoile in 1904 was £275 ($50,319) By now, the Eadie Star bicycle had gone into hibernation. It had throughout 1903 metamorphosed into an Eadie Venus, which itself then faded away. Although Adams Star were still selling Eadie bicycle components, Fred had contracted in Coventry to sell another brand. In addition, he secured the sole New Zealand agency for Humber, who made bicycles, motor bicycles and cars. That they were manufacturers to the King and Prince of Wales was heavily plugged by Fred, who espoused their bicycles as being the best in the world, "purchased and used by the most intelligent and prosperous classes of the world."23

In May, Watty was optimistic regarding his work. Although it was permanent with prospects, he'd recently handed in his notice to take up an offer elsewhere, whereupon he was offered another 10/- ($91) a week to stay, which he accepted, hopeful that he and his assistant engineer could together work up an invention or two. He was also in a platonic relationship with a woman he'd met at a previous workplace, to whom he was grateful for her interest in him and her kindness. She would, he thought, make an ideal wife and mother for his boys. In contrast, his marriage was collapsing. His wife wanted a separation, she wanted to take their youngest with her and while Watty would be happy to see her go, he refused to separate his

68 boys. Moreover, he was irate at her absence of control of their sons. They did as they liked and went wherever they liked and stayed out as long as they liked. Twice after working late at night he'd had to scour the streets at midnight and call on the police to find them. And while he was self-described as quick tempered but not pugnacious, he admitted to losing his temper and striking his wife. Never more than a blow, he claimed, with no damage done. He did, though, once cause her nose to bleed, whereupon she ran out onto the landing of their building screaming “He’s killed me! He’s killed me!"

A week after Watty began to relate all the above in a letter to sister Mary in Christchurch, the Oatses appeared in the Supreme Court in that same city. Mrs Oates was petitioning for a judicial separation.24 In a case of he-said-she-said Nick, she deposed, would use offensive language at her and grab her by the throat and wrists or push her out through the door and shut it in her face. He had not taken her out anywhere in the past five years, not even for a walk, and he would not speak to her for weeks at a time. Their children corroborated in Court their mother's testimony regarding assaults, whereas Nick claimed she was an unreasonable woman, untidy in their house. He had never struck her, merely grasped her shoulder or held her by the wrist, and she had set their eldest son to spy on him. The judge declared it to be rather a farce that had come before the Court. Although he did not believe a great deal that had been said about the respondent, he thought there was clear proof that a decree for separation was needed, which he duly set in motion.

Fred Adams' mother Annie died on May 29. Within six months, his father had shifted house, and the large newly-painted family homestead was put up as a rental. In that time, Adams Star Cycle Co. opened substantial new premises on High St in Christchurch, and the Wellington shop was refurbished. In England, Watty's marital situation was in stalemate, and he was concerned for their sons. They should, he told his sister Mary, be under sole charge of his wife Lizzie, rather than be raised in the current divided and demoralizing control. They were, he said, grown confused and become coarse, selfish, unmannerly, unkempt, dirty and untidy. Perhaps he found a little respite and promise in his "practical commonsense young lady" who would make an ideal wife and mother, but who remained unnamed and in the background. He may also have become encouraged by his latest invention, an Improved Label Fastener knocked up with fellow engineer Edwin Smith. It was, in fact, simply a piece of wire bent into a double hook, with notches to stop a cardboard label from sliding off. They peddled it to relevant manufacturers, but it seems it never latched on..

1905 opened with Fred selling his Star red car, now painted green and thoroughly overhauled. In February, Adams Star Cycle opened their Palmerston (North) branch, managed by Charles Adams who'd shifted from Wanganui. Both these branches and Wellington were selling the Company's entire range including motor cars and bikes. Charles would spend the rest of his life in Palmerston North and, as with brother George, who remained a mechanic in Wanganui, live many years in a hotel. Sister Georgina was still a clerk, and their father Frederick also had a clerical role in the Adams Inc office. In May 1905, Oates and Lowry ceased advertising new motor vehicles. They'd been promoting American Rambler cars for some time, and had the agency for Rolls Royce, amongst other brands. But although Nick had always been competitive with bicycles, he'd never gone head to head with Fred over motors, particularly in Christchurch. Then in November, his partnership with Lowry was dissolved. Nick continued the business solo, and Alexander Lowry went into real estate. That same month, Watty's wife sailed out of his life. She went steerage on her own from Liverpool to Sydney thence New Zealand, where she vanished. It's safe to say that by 1905, the Adams family dynamics had crystallized, with Fred assuming the titular role. By September, he and Harry were living with sisters Jessie and Georgina, and no doubt Reginald was also with them.

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The final – and glowing – advertisement for the De Dion Etoile car – a snip at £275 ($47,151) – appeared in the Lyttelton Times in May 1906. Fred had pulled the plug on French motor cars. Apart from the Minerva brand, made in Belgium, he migrated to English manufacturers. The Star name was now used only for bicycles. And in October, in a further diminution, Adams Star Cycle was rebadged and incorporated as Adams Ltd. Although still selling bicycles, the new name reflected the rapidly changing shift and scope of their business. The final extant letter from Watty to his sister Mary is dated December 1906, when his circumstances were further reduced. He and his sons now boarded with a family in Peckham in a stopgap measure along the path of misfortune. He bemoaned his continuing rotten luck with employers. His present one had gone bankrupt, the business was up for sale and his future there uncertain. An x-ray of his youngest son's leg showed the thigh had been destroyed by the abscess, he was now a cripple for life. And the robust girl upon whom he'd pinned his hopes was dead of consumption and buried. She'd gone downhill in the space of four months. It seems he now barely coped with shock, disappointment and being a solo father. However, Watty being Watty discovered a cure for pulmonary consumption. He'd caught the disease, tried his own unspecified cure, and was currently in correspondence with a sister of George Bernard Shaw the playwright. She was consumptive and spent winters on the Continent, and was willing to try his remedy. The foregoing remains unverified, but Shaw's sister Lucinda did have tuberculosis in 1898, while their other sister had died of the disease in 1876. By December 1906, Star bicycle production for Adams Ltd had been farmed out. It seems Triumph Cycles of Coventry made the budget model, BSA Co. of Birmingham the mid-range, and Eadie Manufacturing the top line Star. In a sign of the rapidly changing times, BSA bought Eadie the following year. Fred's influence, if not hand directly, still controlled the advertising, with clearly defined market segments. The Beeston Humber name was "an absolute guarantee of perfection" and their cycles "have always been recognised as the best on the market." Swift cycles, at a couple of quid less, occupied "a position in the cycle trade absolutely unrivalled and unequalled." Cheaper still were the three models of Stars "that have been sold to the public now for 17 years" and that "have given the public the greatest of satisfaction" running daily as they had been for over 16 years.25 The Stars, as with the Company, were enduring, steadfast and faithful, or so the Adams advert implied.

In June 1908, Adams Ltd opened their new large garage premises in Wanganui. This was said to be an expression of their confidence in the district's business, and in the growth of the motor industry nation-wide. George Adams had but a minor role, as a mechanic, though in later years he was recorded as a clerk. Two months later, tenders were called for the construction of Adams' large new garage on Tuam St, Christchurch.

In February 1909, Fred's sister Agnes was recuperating under the supervision of a nurse in a cottage at the Christchurch seaside suburb of Redcliffs. She'd suffered a nervous breakdown and was presently of the belief that spirits were coming to take her away. On the morning of the 5th, she was found to have chewed wax matches. An emetic was administered but while the nurse was absent phoning for a doctor, Agnes ran out and across the road into the estuary, where she drowned.26 The effect on this tight-knit family cannot be imagined. Just the previous weekend, a city- wide week's collection had begun, to raise funds for the children's ward at Christchurch hospital. Adams Ltd had lent a car to pick up the collection boxes, and Harry had rounded up 13s 6d ($114) from the firm's staff. At the same time, the Company was shifting into its brand new motor garage on Tuam St, which uncharacteristically opened its doors in silence. There was simply a sentence buried in an advert for second-hand Talbot motor cars, at the base of a page length column of news: "Our new garage is now open in Tuam Street...." Three days prior, they'd begun advertising the original bicycle premises on Colombo St as being available to let. That business had shifted to their other premises, on High St. Adams Ltd was both consolidating and expanding.

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In February, the Christchurch City Council considered a proposal by the Minister of Internal Affairs concerning changes to the Motor Registration Act. Each registering authority would be assigned perhaps two alphabet letters and not more than, say, 500 numerals. Council was asked what letters and numerals were currently in use; at that time there were already 675 cars registered in Christchurch.27

In April, Watty, by now in yet another terraced house, had the provisional specification of his last accepted patent published by the British Patent Office.28 Titled simply "Improvements in Clocks and Watches," it was a new form of dial which indicated not only local time in the ordinary manner, but also real local time in any part of the world at any given moment. The trick was in the dial, which centre was mostly cut away and in its place, a map of the world printed on a disc that was independently driven by the normal mechanism and which completed one revolution each 24 hours. There was of course a little more to it, but it seems to have never been taken up by any manufacturer, although it was cited in another patent application decades later. By late February 1910, Watty and his boys were lodged with Marion Dawson in another terrace house in Camberwell, London. He was unemployed though he did pay rent for the first five or six weeks, and was working on another patent; details unknown. According to Marion, he'd been in a very bad state of health, had grown very depressed and had threatened suicide. Towards the end of May, he'd asked her if she thought life was worth living. On Friday June 3 and in a "very bad state of mind," he went outside about 8 or 9 in the evening. His boys were playing in front of the house and as he walked away, he turned to look at them several times, "as if he would speak with them." Watty was found at 5.30 on Saturday morning on the track between Lordship Lane and Honor Oak Railway Stations. According to a witness at the inquest, he could not have got there by accident. He had to have deliberately laid there on his stomach with his neck on the metals, where he'd been decapitated, surely by the light engine from Crystal Palace that had run about one in the morning.29 A note was found on him that told of a letter to be found at his lodgings, locked in a box, the key of which was in his coat hanging behind the bedroom door. All his thoughts, he wrote, must have been born with him. The world had merely touched them up. In another note he asked his landlady to forgive him for the trouble he caused her. If others, he said, had been as considerate to him as she had been, all this might have been avoided. And asked that she keep whatever of his belongings that would pay for the money he owed her.

In November 1910, after after more than thirty years in business, Nicky Oates retired. All of his machines, stock-in-trade, bicycles, motors and motor cycles, accessories and appliances were put up for auction, his premises leased out from December 1. In retirement, he occupied his time with a home workshop, a glasshouse and garden, fowls, fruit trees and roses. In another small mark on history, it was his motion at a meeting in September 1903 that led to the formation of the Canterbury Automobile Association. He died in Christchurch in 1938, still living apart from his wife.

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EPILOGUE

In July 1910, Fred Adams bought two adjoining lots on Hackthorne Road in Cashmere, which was then a village that overlooked Christchurch. No mortgage was registered and by October 1911 he, both sisters and at least two brothers were living on the other side of Hackthorne, presumably renting. His hand by supervision if not directly came to be seen on his plot. The one acre 25 perches (4682 sq m) commanded "a magnificent view, embracing the whole horizon from Heathcote in the north-east to the Southern Alps in the south-west."1 And over the following three years the property was fenced; ringed by a shelter-belt of pines; a house area levelled and paths laid out that included a driveway; an orchard area set out and enclosed by a macrocarpa hedge; a lawn established along with rock terraces; garden plots planted with a profusion of flowers and flowering shrubs; and rock walls built that were covered with roses and creepers. Three years later, however, the section was put on the market as is without buildings, and although subsequently subdivided, it finally sold several years after that as one piece. Fred had outlaid considerable time, effort and expense on this entire development, and the question remains, Why did he abandon the project?

Watty's three sons arrived unaccompanied in Wellington in January 1911, their passages paid by Aunt Mary. They made their way to Christchurch where unfortunately, rather sadly, they were placed with three separate caregivers in different towns. In October 1916 when the two older boys enlisted together to serve in the War, both stated their parents as deceased. Whether or not this was true of their mother or simply guesswork is unknown. What is true, is that as with so many other men, both were too young to serve. The cost of that lie was the life of the younger, shot on the frontline in Belgium.

On April 8 1911, Nicky Oates' daughter Ellen 'Nellie' Louisa fell from a moving train north of Otaki, and was instantly killed. She'd been travelling north from Wellington with her mother and following a nervous breakdown, had been under medical care for two or three years. Described later as being her usual self – melancholic and depressed – she had fallen unseen from the platform between two carriages. At the inquest, Railways personnel testified that it was impossible to fall from the platform by accident.2

In 1912, Adams Ltd was described as the largest motor, motor cycle and bicycle business in the Dominion, and the only one of its kind in Australasia.3

In July 1913, Fred bought a sea-front residence at Clifton Bay, Sumner. On the market for at least five months, the one rood 16 perch (1417 sq m) property was being sacrificed – according to the agent – at the asking price of £1250 ($206, 252 in 2019.) The rear portion of the two-storied twelve room dwelling – a boarding house known as Te Tahuna – was said to have been a remnant of the original building, Day's Hotel, built in the late 1850s. Again, no mortgage was required. Although not in line of sight, the property was perhaps only two kilometres from where sister Agnes had spent her last days, where she'd drowned. It's easy to imagine some emotional draw for Fred and family to shift from inland Cashmere to seaside Clifton. Demolition of Te Tahuna had been underway by June 1914, and the following year, a kitset house from England was erected on the site. This house, destroyed by arson in 2016, retains his influence in the large garden, its extant Palms, Pohutokawa and Puriri, Oak and Norfolk Island Pine. At the house rear had been his photography studio, a hobby along with shooting, angling and golf. Fred too belonged to the Canterbury Automobile Association, at one time serving on the Council. It is ironic that his first car – the reliable and strong red Star – vanished with time, while Nick's 1899 Benz – replete with rattle, shudder and breakage – was still alive and running in Christchurch in 1935. After fifteen years of moving house, Fred lived out his years at Clifton Bay with his two

72 sisters and brother William. He died there in 1929, leaving an estate valued at £103,719 1s 5p ($10,457,228 in 2019.)

Henry Thomas (Harry) Adams had married in Christchurch in 1911, the first of the siblings to do so. Brothers Charles and Reginald would marry in consecutive months in 1915 and they were the last of the family to do so. And from that entire Adams generation, married or otherwise, there was no known issue; that entire Pacific conjunction of the Adams and Neilson families was destined to vanish. Was there some defect that rendered them childless? Were they warned to never children? Buried in the Adams DNA was a scrambled conflicting instruction, that of height, which of the siblings varied from above average to deeply truncated. Gossip extant has them as dwarfs, physically deformed, mentally handicapped, two of them never appearing in public, unable to care for themselves, sent to hide in a hillside cave at the rear of the Clifton Bay house whenever visitors called.4 While Fred jnr and youngest brother Reginald were above average height, Harry, George and one sister at the least were all remarkably short. But any lack of familial height was more than matched by their stature, their standing in the community, albeit in the background. They are recorded as being civic minded, generous and loyal towards and appreciative of Company and personal employees. It's rather telling that the primary beneficiaries of their largesse were various branches of the New Zealand Crippled Children's Society, children's homes and orphanages, and the Salvation Army.

The final advertisements found for Star bicycles at Adams Ltd appeared firstly in March 1919, for newly-arrived Stars, made in Canada. The second, in December, was for English- built ladies' and men's Stars. Perhaps Adams Ltd continued to sell new Stars, perhaps not. What is fact is that Adams Ltd by then was nation-wide, one of New Zealand's largest motor vehicle dealers. And bicycles if they figured at all were a tiny portion of Company proceedings.

This is almost certainly the Adams family, Fred the tallest standing. The car, a Swift 9/10, is probably a 1906 or 1907 model and the photo may be post-1909, when Agnes Florence died. The man next to the driver could be George Uvedale Adams. (Author's collection)

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ABBREVIATIONS: AJHR – Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives TNZW – The New Zealand Wheelman TRCTJ – The Referee & Cycle Trade Journal

NOTES: 1) Currency conversion is courtesy of the New Zealand Reserve Bank website, Category General (CPI) rbnz.govt.nz/monetary-policy/inflation-calculator 2) The New Zealand Wheelman issues 22 October 1892 – 12 September 1896 incl. held in the author's collection

URLs: AJHR: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/assets/homepage_parliamentary- b33b71879381ecbcd231a356863626aa17ed8ddec2b78998eca55c6b6dd33989.jpg

Australian Newspapers: http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

Bicycle Brass Band: https://pgsmuseum.wordpress.com/2014/07/31/bike/

Grew, WF, The Cycle Industry; Its Origin, History and Latest Developments. London: Pitman, 1921: https://archive.org/details/cycleindustryits00grewrich/page/n5/mode/2up

Meredith, Alan. "The Obscure Etoile in Australia." Brass Notes. (Veteran Car Club of Australia) August 2016, 6: https://docplayer.net/docview/56/38161115/#file=/storage/56/38161115/38161115.pdf

Papers Past: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/assets/homepage_newspapers- 7e7d607bbba3e2dbe5c4d2db3894d9a92b0aff341804c901659acec3e2e8246f.jpg

Patents, Great Britain: https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?DB=EPODOC&II=1&ND=3&adj acent=true&locale=en_EP&FT=D&date=18960502&CC=GB&NR=189605891A&KC=A

Patents, New Zealand: https://www.iponz.govt.nz/about-ip/patents/search/

Sharp, A, Bicycles and Tricycles: An Elementary Treatise On Their Design And Construction. London, New York and Bombay: Longmans, Green, And Co, 1896: https://archive.org/details/bicyclestricycle00shar

The New Zealand Wheelman: https://canterburystories.nz/collections/publications/new-zealand-wheelman

The Referee & Cycle Trade Journal: https://archive.org/services/img/refereecycletr111893chic

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REFERENCES:

PROLOGUE 1 – AJHR 1887- H.1, NZ Patent 2056 IPO

PART 1 CHAPTER I 1 – Star, 29 June 1969, 2 2 – Star, 17 December 1869, 2 3 – Star, 22 November 1871, 3 4 – Press, 2 March 1881, 2 5 – The Clinton Republican, 26 November 1885 6 – Press, 22 July 1889, 4

CHAPTER II 1 – Lyttelton Times, 25 July 1889, 1 2 – Press, 6 July 1888, 4 3 – Lyttelton Times, 23 August 1889, 1 4 - Lyttelton Times, 22 November 1889, 1 5 – Southland Times, 22 February 1882, 3 6 – Lyttelton Times, 8 November 1889, 2 7 – Lyttelton Times, 12 November 1889, 7

CHAPTER III 1 – Press, 28 May 1884, 3 2 – The Marvellous Media Mélange of Annie B, Geoff Mentzer https://canterburygenealogy.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/annie-b.pdf 3 – Star, 24 April 1890, 3 4 – Press, 4 October 1890, 2 5 – Press, 29 September 1883, 2 6 – Press, 5 February 1890, 7 7 – Star, 1 May 1890, 2 8 – ibid. 9 – Ashburton Guardian, 28 March 1894, 2 10 – The New Zealand Wheelman, 2 November 1895, 10 11 – Ashburton Guardian, 28 March 1894, 2 12 – Press, 8 Sep 1887, 6; Star, 8 September 1887, 3 13 – Otago Daily Times, 4 February 1890, 2 14 – ibid. 15 – Star, 14 January 1891, 2 16 – Lyttelton Times, 23 August 1889, 1 17 – Press, 7 October 1890, 2, 5 18 – The New Zealand Wheelman, 11 July 1895, 11 19 – Star, 12 December 1890, 3 20 – Star, 28 Sep 1887, 3; Press, 5 October 1887, 4 21 – Press, 27 December 1890, 6 22 – Star, 26 December 1890, 3 23 – Star, 12 December 1889, 3 24 – Press, 12 December 1889, 3 25 – Press, 17 December 1890, 5

CHAPTER IV 1 – Press, 13 January 1891, 2 2 – Press, 26 January 1891, 1

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3 – Star, 13 December 1890, 3 4 – Press, 21 February 1891, 5 – Evening Post, 10 October 1883, 1 6 – Star, 23 October 1889, 2 7 – Star, 10 March 1891, 2 8 – Press, 13 March 1891, 3 9 – Star, 7 April 1891, 2 10 – Press, 11 April 1891, 7 11 – Star, 2 March 1891, 2 12 – Press, 26 July 1887, 2 13 – Star, 24 February 1890, 3 14 – Press, 22 September 1891, 1 15 – Press, 23 April 1891, 3 16 – Press, 27 May 1891, 5 17 – Star, 6 July 1891, 4 18 – Star, 4 Sep 1891, 1 19 – Star, 5 October 1891, 1 20 – Press, 11 December 1891, 6 21 – Press, 31 December 1891, 5 22 – TNZW, 5 October 1895, 16

CHAPTER V 1 – Otago Witness, 14 April 1892, 31 2 – Otago Witness, 4 February 1892, 29 3 – Press, 21 May 1892, 3 4 – Lyttelton Times, 1 August 1892, 4 5 – Press, 19 August 1892, 4 6 – Star, 9 September 1892, 3 7 – Star, 10 October 1892, 3 8 – Star, 11 October 1892, 4; Press, 11 October 1892, 4 9 – Press, 27 October 1892, 6 10 – North Otago Times, 14 October 1892, 1 11 – Oamaru Mail, 31 December 1892, 4 12 – Star, 31 October 1892, 3 13 – TNZW, 22 October 1892, 5 14 – TNZW, 22 October 1892, 10 15 – TNZW, 5 November 1892, 12 16 – Sharp, A, Bicycles and Tricycles: An Elementary Treatise On Their Design And Construction. London, New York and Bombay: Longmans, Green, And Co, 1896, p155 17 – TNZW, 19 November 1892, 11 18 – TNZW, 24 December 1892, 5 19 – The Star, 30 December 1892, 4 20 – TNZW, 5 October 1895, 16

CHAPTER VI 1 – TNZW, 14 January 1893, 12 2 – New Zealand Times, 6 February 1893, 2 3 – TNZW, 11 February 1893, 13 4 – Press, 9 February 1893, 4 5 – TNZW, 25 March 1893, 12 6 – Otago Witness, 9 March 1893, 32 7 – The Australian, 18 March 1893, 495 8 – TNZW, 25 March 1893, 9 9 – TNZW, 25 March 1893, 13

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10 – TNZW, 22 April 1893, 12 11 – TNZW, 25 February 1893, 14 12 – Evening Star, 11 July 1910, 5 13 – The Star, 9 May 1893, 3 14 – TNZW, 13 May 1893, 12 15 – TRCTJ, 2 June 1893, Volume 11, Number 4, 23 16 – TRCTJ, 27 October 1893, Volume 11, Number 26, 10 17 – Press, 26 May 1893, 6 18 – TNZW, 10 June 1893, 10 19 – TNZW, 24 June 1893, 10 20 – TNZW, 10 June 1893, 10 21 – TNZW, 24 June 1893, 10 22 – ibid. 23 – TNZW, 8 July 1893, 10 24 – The New Zealand Gazette, 6 July 1893, Number 55, 1087 25 – The New Zealand Gazette, 19 July 1893, Number 56, 1156 26 – Hawke's Bay Herald, 29 July 1893, 2 27 – TNZW, 22 July 1893, 7 28 – Otago Witness, 10 August 1893, 33 29 – New Zealand Patent Number 6346, 9 August 1893 30 – TNZW, 12 August 1893, 2 31 – ibid 32 – The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 August 1893, 8 33 – Lyttelton Times, 22 August 1893, 6 34 – TNZW, 3 March 1894, 10 35 – Otago Witness, 7 September 1893, 33 36 – TNZW, 30 September 1893, 11 37 – Southland Times, 27 September 1893, 3 38 – New Zealand Patent Number 6154, 25 April 1893 39 – TNZW, 28 October 1893, 7 40 – TNZW, 25 September 1893, 1 41 – TNZW, 20 November 1893, 14 42 – TNZW, 20 November 1893, 15 43 – Lyttelton Times, 4 March 1893, 5 44 – TNZW, 25 March 1893, 10 45 – Grew, WF, The Cycle Industry; Its Origin, History and Latest Developments. London: Pitman, 1921, p59 46 – New Zealand Patent Number 6542, 9 November 1893 47 – TNZW, 5 October 1895, 16 48 – AJHR, 1893, I, H-10, 34

CHAPTER VII 1 – Wanganui Chronicle, 22 January 1894, 2 2 – Oamaru Mail, 11 January 1894, 4 3 – TNZW, 30 January 1894, 14 4 – Oamaru Mail, 1 February 1894, 1 5 – TNZW, 15 February 1894, 10 6 – TNZW, 31 March 1894, 5 7 – TNZW, 3 March 1894, 12 8 – Ashburton Guardian, 28 March 1894, 2 9 – New Zealand Patent Number 6739, 20 March 1894 10 – North Melbourne Advertiser, 20 April 1894, 4 11 – TNZW, 23 June 1894, 7 12 – TNZW, 8 May 1894, 9

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13 – TNZW, 22 May 1894, 11 14 – Lyttelton Times, 18 June 1894, 5 15 – Press, 6 July 1894, 6 16 – TNZW, 2 October 1892, 9 17 – TNZW, 7 July 1894, 12 18 – TNZW, 21 July 1894, 10 19 – TNZW, 4 August 1894, 6 20 – TNZW, 4 August 1894, 10 21 – TNZW, 8 September 1894, 12 22 – TNZW, 7 July 1894, 12 23 – TNZW, 18 October 1894, 11 24 – TNZW, 8 November 1894, 14 25 – TNZW, 30 January 1894, 11 26 – TNZW, 28 November 1894, 10 27 – Press, 26 November 1894, 5 28 – TNZW, 28 November 1894, 5 29 – TNZW, 26 January 1895, 11 30 – AJHR, 1894, I, H06, 41 31 – TNZW, 5 October 1895, 16

CHAPTER VIII 1 – Press, 31 January 1895, 5 2 – The Star, 25 February 1895, 3 3 – TNZW, 2 March 1895, 15 4 – TNZW, 11 April 1895, 11 5 – TNZW, 11 May 1895, 14 6 – The Star, 16 April 1895, 4 7 – The Star, 3 May 1895, 2 8 – The Star, 16 April 1895, 1 9 – The Star, 17 April 1895, 3 10 – TNZW, 11 May 1895, 13 11 – Daily Telegraph, Sydney, NSW, 3 July 1902, 9 12 – TNZW, 11 May 1895, 13 13 – Hawke's Bay Herald, 28 February 1895, 4 14 – TNZW, 2 March 1895, 14 15 – The Star, 12 March 1895, 4 16 – TNZW, 15 June 1895, 8; 29 June 1895, 8 17 – TNZW, 15 June 1895, 10 18 – Press, 8 July 1895, 6 19 – TNZW, 11 July 1895, 12 20 – TNZW, 24 July 1895, 7 21 – TNZW, 1 June 1895, 9 22 – Press, 22 June 1895, 7 23 – Star, 9 September 1895, 4 24 – AJHR, 1895, I, H-30 25 – TNZW, 5 October 1895, 9 26 – TNZW, 7 September 1895, 9 27 – TNZW, 10 August 1895, 6 28 – TNZW, 16 October 1895, 4 29 – TNZW, 2 November 1895, 12 30 – The Star, 6 December 1895, 4 31 – TNZW, 14 December 1895, 10 32 – TNZW, 14 December 1895, 7

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CHAPTER IX 1 – Press, 4 January 1896, 7 2 – Evening Post, 5 February 1896, 4 3 – New Zealand Patent Number 8235, 29 January 1896 4 – TNZW, 14 March 1896, 8 5 – TNZW, 11 April 1896, 11 6 – TNZW, 30 April 1896, 12 7 – TNZW, 14 May 1896, 11 8 – ibid. 9 – Ashburton Guardian, 11 July 1896, 3 10 – Press, 9 May 1896, 12

PART II CHAPTER X 1 – New Zealand Patent Number 8235, 29 January 1896 2 – Ashburton Guardian, 11 July 1896, 3 3 – Otago Daily Times, 14 August 1896, 4 4 – TNZW, 14 May 1896, 10 5 – TNZW, 12 September 1896, 4 6 – Ashburton Guardian, 2 September 1896, 2 7 – TNZW, 12 September 1896, 11 8 – Otago Witness, 25 February 1897, 37

CHAPTER XI 1 – Ashburton Guardian, 15 February 1897, 2 2 – Press, 25 January 1897, 6 3 – TNZW, 26 October 1896, 11, 15 4 – The Star, 25 January 1897, 3 5 – Press, 24 May 1904, 4 6 – Ashburton Guardian, 6 April 1898, 2 7 – Ashburton Guardian, 7 April 1898, 2 8 – Ashburton Guardian, 15 October 1898, 2 9 – Evening Post, 19 February 1898, 4 10 – Lyttelton Times, 9 November 1898, 3 11 – Lyttelton Times, 11 November 1898, 4

CHAPTER XII 1 – The Star, 27 October 1900, 5 2 – Press, 29 October 1900, 2 3 – Lyttelton Times, 26 November 1900, 5 4 – Timaru Herald, 24 November 1900, 2 5 – Ashburton Guardian, 27 November 1900, 2 6 – Temuka Leader, 29 November 1900, 3 7 – Timaru Herald, 30 November 1900, 3 8 – Lyttelton Times, 10 April 1901, 2 9 – Lyttelton Times, 29 April 1901, 3 10 – The Star, 15 May 1901, 3 11 – Press, 16 April 1901, 4 12 – The Star, 7 May 1901, 1 13 – Press, 28 May 1901, 5 14 – The Star, 20 November 1901, 3 15 – Lyttelton Times, 12 February 1902, 7 16 – Lyttelton Times, 24 May 1904, 5 17 – Otago Witness, 25 May 1904, 45

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18 – The Engineer, 27 March 1903, 322 (Author's collection) 19 – English Mechanic and World of Science, No. 1985, 10 April 1903, 191 (Author's collection) 20 – Lyttelton Times, 14 August 1903, 4 21 – Meredith, Alan. 2016. "The Obscure Etoile in Australia." Brass Notes. (Veteran Car Club of Australia) August: 6 22 – ibid. 23 – Evening Post, 5 March 1904, 3 24 – Lyttelton Times, 24 May 1904, 5 25 – Press, 22 December 1906, 4 26 – Evening Post, 6 February 1909, 9 27 – Lyttelton Times, 23 February 1909, 5 28 – Great Britain Patent GB190908070A, 1909 29 – South London Observer, Camberwell and Peckham, 11 June 1910 (Author's collection)

EPILOGUE 1 – Lyttelton Times, 4 October 1913, 20 2 – Manawatu Standard, 10 April 1911, 5 3 – The New Zealand Motor and Cycle Journal, 25 July 1912, 77 (Author's collection) 4 – interviews with Sesyll England, 24 June 2017 and August 2017