Newspaper Article 1988 – Eighty years on for Tourist Motor Co.

Eighty years on for Tourist Motor Co.

Former Tourist Motor and Farming Co. Ltd staff will gather in Hastings on Sunday, April 24, for a reunion.

A former office clerk now living in Brisbane and others from Sydney and British Columbia will travel to Hastings for the event.

The only son of the founder of the company, Mr W.J. (Bill) Hyslop, who worked in both the work-shop office and at the firm’s Totara Hills Station, Tikokino, will attend the reunion.

The company’s former general manager, Mr Jack Blake, will also be among the guests.

So far 145 former staff have registered for the reunion.

In 1971-1972 when the company merged with M. J. Kelt Ltd, at a time when individual dealerships were amalgamating, it had a staff of 75. Forty worked in the Hastings branch, 15 in Napier, 16 in Waipukurau and four at the Totara Hills Station.

Organisers of the reunion say they are impressed with the amount of interest shown in the reunion which they believe is an indication of how the staff felt about the Tourist Motor and Farming Co. Ltd, their workmates and employers.

The reunion will get under way on Sunday at 4pm with an informal get together followed by a dinner at Parkwood Country Lodge, Havelock North.

The company was founded by Mr W.E.(Bill) Hyslop, who was born in Greenock, Scotland, in December 1882 and emigrated with his parents to New Zealand.

In 1908 Mr Hyslop opened premises in Queen St, Hastings, next to the newspaper office of the Hastings Standard, which later became The Hastings Tribune.

Mr W.C. Whitlock, of the Tribune’s management gave Mr Hyslop a contract to deliver papers to various depots. This was done first by motorcycle and sidecar, then by Flanders car.

It was from these beginnings the Tourist Motor and Farming Co. Ltd grew. The firm became car agencies for EMP and Flanders vehicles as well as for a selection of motorcycles.

They became North Island agents for Humber, Minerva, Bayard, Talbot and Marlborough and Hawke’s Bay agents for Hudson, Essex, Hillman, Humber and Chrysler products.

When car and truck imports were restricted during the second World War, the firm bought 2245 acres at Totara Hills Station. As a result the word farming was added to the firm’s title.

In 1937 Mr Hyslop retired from the business and Mr. J. M. (Jack) Blake was appointed the new general manager.

J.M.B., as he was affectionately called by the staff, began work at the Tourist Motor Company Ltd in the spare parts department in June, 1921. He became manager of that department 1930.

His promotion came quite some time later, because of his many absences from work playing representative rugby. He played for Hawke’s Bay, the North Island. All Blacks and New Zealand Maoris.

From the parts department he moved on to the sales department before being appointed general manager.

The company continued to expand. It bought Bowman Motors in Waipukurau in 1967, which enabled it to better serve the needs of its Central Hawke’s Bay clients.

Among the more unusual cars the company sold were the Pierce-Arrow (the late Gerherd [Gerhard] Husheer of Napier bought at least two, one of which is now in the Puketitiri museum), and the Lagonda. One Lagonda was bought by the late D. J. Nilsson and the other by the late Col. Wilder, Waipukurau.

A 1935 Hillman car, sold new to the late Mr. J. B. Pickering, a member of the staff, at a cost of £256.10s was bought back by the Tourist Motor and Farming Co. Ltd from the late Mrs Pickering’s estate. It was presented to John Todd on behalf of Todd Motors Ltd as an appreciation of business dealings between the two companies which proved mutually beneficial.

In 1971 both General Motors and Todds pressured their duplicate dealers in towns to reduce to a single company, so Baillie Motors and Farmers merged to form Baillie Farmers Motors and Tourist and M. J. Kelt combined to become Tourist Kelt Motors.

In 1912, the firm had moved to new premises on the corner of Avenue Rd and Russell St. However this was destroyed by the Napier earthquake. The site became the premises of the Hawke’s Bay Motor Company.

The premises on the corner of Queen St and Market St were bought by the Farmers Trading Co. Ltd, when the Tourist Motor and Farming Co. Ltd merged the motor and engineering portion of their company with M. J. Kelt Ltd.

Founder enjoyed a challenge

From an article by Gilbert Lloyd

It was a day in 1895 when Bill Hyslop leaped on to an old Penny Farthing and with his feet over the handlebars surged down Shakespeare Rd hill in Napier. He had no brakes and as the road was full of potholes his friends guarded the crossings so he wouldn’t collide with any wagons.

The founder of the Tourist Motor and Farming Co. Ltd. took on the challenge when friends dared him to undertake the ride.

On New Year’s Day in 1910 he rode a belt-driven motorcycle with no gears from Wellington to Napier in six hours and 40 minutes. He ran alongside the bike up the windy Rimutaka hill and carried the machine over many unbridged streams to keep the magneto dry.

It was incidents like these which ranked Mr Hyslop as an outstanding personality who was prepared to try his hand at almost anything.

In 1905 Mr Hyslop first got behind the steering wheel of a car. While turning from Emerson St on to the Marine Parade he misjudged his speed and collided with the fence round a little Norfolk pine, damaging the car radiator.

When Cornwall Park became a sportsground in 1905, Mr Hyslop gave a demonstration of grass track motorcycle racing. He formed the first grass track motorcycle racing club which became popular throughout New Zealand in the 1920s and 30s.

Motoring was cheap in 1908 when Bill Hyslop opened Tourist Motors.

Petrol sold for 1/3d (13c) a gallon, oil for 5/- (50c) a gallon, motorcycles £50 ($100) to £80 ($160). A 6hp Wolseley car sold for £275 ($550) and a 40hp for £475 ($950). Car freight from Britain was £12 ($24) with a car case costing £8 ($16).

Hawke’s Bay’s first car arrived in 1902, but with cheap imports more than 100 makers of cars were in use by 1914. Many cars were “oncers’’ with no parts available in New Zealand or elsewhere so Tourist Motor Co established a large and efficient machine shop which served the whole area for many years.

When Henry Ford produced his first model T in 1908, Tourist Motors were offered the Ford franchise from Masterton to Gisborne. However, Mr Hyslop, like many others, turned it down as the car appeared too light and flimsy for New Zealand’s rough country roads. But Mr Hyslop did not realise the Ford T was made of special steel, stronger than the heavier cars sold by the firm at that time.

Mr Hyslop served his apprenticeship with P. and D. Duncan, agriculture engineers in Christchurch. On his 19th birthday he travelled to Australia to join the Massey Harris Company where he travelled all over Victoria.

He returned to New Zealand in 1903 and opened a cycle shop for Reynolds of Wellington in Napier.

Mr Hyslop married a Miss Blake and later his three brothers-in-law joined him in the business. Jack worked as sales manager in Hastings, Maurice was in the sales department, Napier, and Bill in the machine shop.

In 1937 Bill Hyslop retired from the business and Mr J. Blake became general manager. He retained that position for the next 35 years.