A Nimon's Thorneycroft bus in Havelock North in the 1920s. It was the first to have pneumatic tyres in Hawke's Bay, and possibly in New Zealand.
A Nimon's Thorneycroft bus in Havelock North in the 1920s. It was the first to have pneumatic tyres in Hawke's Bay, and possibly in New Zealand.
News that Nimon and Sons' assets were purchased by Wairarapa's Tranzit Group this week meant the well-known local bus company's 116-year history of transportation came to an end.
The beginnings of Nimon and Sons go back almost to the birth of Hastings, and its genesis was from a business ownedby William Arthur Beecroft. In 877 he became proprietor of the Railway Hotel in Heretaunga St East (now site of The Rotten Apple Backpackers). William ended up owning a vast majority of property in Queen St, from which he operated his horse carriage bus service.
John Giles Nimon (known as Jack) arrived in Dunedin during the mid-1880s from Ballarat, Australia, with another brother, who was a policeman. His family were originally Irish immigrants to Australia.
Leaving Oamaru around 1890, he went into the employment in Hawke's Bay of GP and Airini Donnelly at their farm Crissoge as a bullock driver. Jack was fluent in Māori and often served as an interpreter.
He met Edith Ridd, employed by the Donnelly's as seamstress, and married her in 1894.
Newly married Jack wanted to improve his lot in life, so entered the employment of William Beecroft in 1895, as a driver on the bus coach service between Hastings and Havelock.
Their first child John Joseph (Joe) was born in 1895, and five more children would follow over the next 10 years.
William Beecroft had purchased significant land in Havelock around 1897 which he called Lucknow Estate.
On the corner of what was then Cemetery (now Lucknow) and Middle roads he built Lucknow Lodge, a depot for his Hastings and Havelock Bus service, which he named Beecroft's Advance 'Bus.
Around 1900, Nimon family records show a sale agreement for the Havelock-Hastings bus service and Lucknow Lodge between Beecroft and Nimon. The transaction was not settled until September 1905. (Jack and wife Edith can be placed at Lucknow Lodge between 1900 and 1905. They had cows on the property, and Edith was a champion churner of dairy butter – and won prize this several years running at the A & P Show).
John Nimon had a reputation as a "well-known and trusted as a scrupulously careful driver." Nevertheless, accidents could still happen.
The route of the Hastings-Havelock Bus was to the railway station. Mixing animals and a noisy steam train could provide challenges, as it did in June 1903.
Two of his four horses became startled and began to bolt during the arrival of the 4.45pm train from Napier. One of the reins slipped from Jack's hands and trying to recover it he fell out of his driver's seat. The wheels ran over his leg as the horse and carriage (with passengers) made for freedom but coming to halt at a wire fence just past St Aubyn's Street.
Lucknow Lodge (which still survives today) in 1911. Credit: Hawke's Bay Knowledge Bank 912/998/44496
Jack received bruising to his leg and a cut to the forehead and was attended to by Dr Macdonnell who put three stitches in his head and "dressed his lacerated leg".
William Beecroft had a new driver and vehicle very promptly from his depot in Queen St, while Jack took a few days to recover.
William Beecroft sold his Advance 'Bus Service to Jack Nimon in September 1905, with the first advertisement for the new service operated by Jack appearing that month. He had two horse buses named in the nomenclature with the Indian Mutiny theme of Advance and Relief. Two more that followed were named The Support and The Empire.
His buses went each way between Hastings and Havelock five times a day daily, and three times on Saturday.
Four horses pulled the buses in the winter mud, and two in the summer in the dusty road between Hastings and Havelock.
The two oldest sons of Jack, John (Joe) and William, apparently encouraged their father to move to motorised vehicles.
Jack was not convinced, but his two sons Joe and William managed to get father to purchase around 1910 from Tourist Motors on the corner of Queen and Market streets a seven-seater vehicle to supplement the horse carriages. (Ben Hyslop, brother of Bill Hyslop, the owner of Tourist Motors had apparently taught Joe Nimon how to drive).
During 1912 or 1913, buses were bought, and the horse buses withdrawn.
Bureaucracy was alive at well in March 1916. A Hastings Borough Council inspector brought a court case against Jack and his sons Joe and Edward claiming the bus licence they took out in Havelock Town Board did not apply in Hastings. At that stage it was reported Nimon's operated two motor buses and one taxi car.
Lawyer for the Nimon's Scannell argued that the primary purpose of the buses were to serve the people of Havelock North. Jack Nimon stated he didn't really care who he paid the licence to, but the majority of people carried were from Havelock.
The judge found for Nimon's, stating their evidence was more credible.
Four months later Jack Nimon died aged 54 in July 1916, after a short illness. With two sons away at World War I, Jack's wife Edith ran the buses.
Tributes flowed for Jack, who not only ran a successful bus business, but was prominent in local affairs through the Havelock North Town Board. The Hastings Standard called him "an upright and conscientious man and was held in the highest regard and esteem."
Jack's son Joe (b.1895 – d.1973) and his son John (b.1927 – d.2003) would be the second and third generations to manage Nimon's.
Nimon's would shift their bus operation to Martin Place in 1976, and then to Whakatu in 2011.
Present managing director, Bill Nimon – a fourth-generation Nimon family member had been joined in recent years by his daughter Katie as general manager. His son, Richard, a qualified diesel mechanic will continue to operate the Nimon Mechanical workshop at Whakatu. Bill's brother Garth has also been involved with various aspects of Nimon's over the years.
For the many trips taken by the people of Hawke's Bay whether it be catching a school bus, making a soccer trip to Wairoa, going to the Mission Concert, travelling by bus to Hastings on a Friday night, or remembering the bus driver cheerfully hitching the pram for your mum of your baby brother to the front of the bus, I'm sure you will join me in thanking the Nimon family, their bus drivers and staff for their faithful service to us and other generations for 116 years.
• Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is a contract researcher and commercial business writer of Hawke's Bay history. Follow him on facebook.com/michaelfowlerhistory
