Maori were motorcycles produced from 1914 to 1919 by Zealandia Motor Works, London NW, to a design by A. R. Bannister from New Zealand.
The machines were intended to cope with the road conditions in New Zealand. They had a 292cc JAP engine with a variable gear mechanism built onto the drive-side crankcase. They were fitted with belt final-drive and Saxon spring-forks, and although they appeared to be conventional, they were very sturdy. To shield the rider from mud, the motorcycles were fitted with footboards.
Some 20 machines were built in England by two New Zealanders, Bannister and G Johns, but sadly all but one were lost when the first shipment met with disaster at sea in 1914 - the ship was torpedoed. [1] Further production was halted by the war.
The distributors were to be Johns, Bannister and Co. Ltd. of Gisborne, New Zealand. One machine made it to Gisborne, and was used for some years before disappearing forever, supposedly buried in an orchard. The story goes that this sole survivor was rescued from the sinking ship and put into a lifeboat. And then returned to England. And then sent to New Zealand. Where it was buried in an orchard. Uh huh.
But there is a photograph of it, albeit rather fuzzy, in the NZ national archives, so at least some of the story is true.
Dave Ransom in NZ was attempting to build a replica in 2013, according to an article in Stuff.co.nz.
Notes 1. The M.A. Bull book states "the boat was wrecked at Capetown, according to G. Maynard Johns, son of the owner." It also says that "George Johns won handicap races with the Maori in New Zealand."
Sources: Graces Guide, stuff.co.nz; New Zealands Motorcycle Heritage, book one 1899, by Maureen A. Bull, published 1981.
The Twin Screw Steamer Rangatira 1908-16
1916 Departed London for Hobart and New Zealand ports.
1916 March 31 While en-route to Tasmania and New Zealand, the six year old liner was stranded in dense fog in what is now known as Rangatira Bay on the North West corner of Robben Island at Table Bay, Capetown. She was abandoned as a Constructive Total Loss, but much of her 7,500 ton cargo was salvaged in the five months that it took for the ship to break up.
Notorious Robben Island has claimed 26 vessels and Rangatira grounded in a large kelp bed in 30 feet of water, at the same spot as the Tantallon Castle on the 7th of May 1901. The island had long been a prison (Nelson Mandela was later incarcerated there) and a great drunken orgy developed when convicts were sent to help with the salvage operations.
The Royal mails were recovered as the Public Records Office at Kew (London) list in their records information on payments made for mails salvaged from the vessel.
She was carrying a heavy lift crane for the port of Lyttelton's Gladstone Pier in her holds and it is also reputed that she could have been carrying twenty "Maori" motorcycles built for Johns Bannister and Company of London and intended for the New Zealand market.
www.nzmaritime.co.nz/Rangatira1909.htm (404)
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