My Account
By 1914, motorcars had become less of a curiosity on country roads and more of an inconvenience. The Rodney County Council received a petition signed by 68 people requesting the passing of a drastic law aimed at motorists in the interest of ladies and girls driving or riding on the roads. The Motor Regulation Act of 1908 gave each council the power to devise their own road rules and to erect appropriate signs. Realising motor traffic was here to stay, and after much deliberation, the councillors came up with the following:
“Any person driving a motorcar shall, on meeting a person riding, driving or having charge of a restive horse, cause such motor to stop and remain stationary so long as shall be reasonable to allow the person or the horse to pass.”
The speed limit was set at 20mph on a clear road and 4mph on corners, bends and sharp angles.
Among the first car enthusiasts in the area were the Hollidays, a family which had a long association with the Warkworth Hotel. It was reported in 1915 that Mrs Holliday had introduced to Warkworth a fine new Buick car of 30 horse power and with a self-starter and that Mr Holliday was engaged in learning to drive it. When Jessie Inglis married policeman Alf Holliday in 1901, Mr. Barton supplied his finest coach to transport the happy couple to Matakana before they continued to Auckland by sea. Fifteen years later, it became a tradition for a bride and her new husband to be taken to the wharf to meet the steamer, or to Kaipara Flats to meet the train, in a new motor car. In 1916, when Mr Holliday and his son were returning to Warkworth from Auckland, their car somersaulted off Schedewy’s Hill into a gully and burst into flames. The occupants had a lucky escape though it seemed their passion for cars was in no way diminished. The young Harry Holliday became involved in the marketing of Rugby cars and, in 1924, brought a car of that marque to Warkworth from Auckland in a record time of two-and-a-half hours.
By this time a branch of the Automobile Association had been formed in Rodney with A. Holliday as chairman and R. Phillips as secretary.
In 1929, Constable Robertson set out from Huntly in his Model T Ford to drive his family to his new post at Warkworth. The journey ended at Waiwera because of rain. The roads were mostly clay with a little metal so the journey from Waiwera to Warkworth was completed by scow, Model T and all.
Improvements to the roads were such that by 1930, the Automobile Association was urging Aucklanders to take a trip off the beaten track to the beautiful beaches near Warkworth. The area had been inspected and sign-posting was well advanced. A run to Algies Bay would take about three hours, with the last half-mile traversing a grass paddock. The Public Works Department advised motorists travelling north in 1932 that a detour was in place during bituminising operations. It was necessary to leave the road at Warkworth and continue to Matakana, over the Whangaripo hill to Mangawhai. Care was needed negotiating the hills but where the road reached a high altitude the most attractive seascapes could be viewed.
