SHEARING RECORDS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 92, 10 February 1947, Page 5

SHEARING RECORDS

CLAIMS OF NEW ZEALAND With shearing in full swing throughout Taranaki and the King Country, talk at “smoko” turns naturally to deeds of giants of the blade and machine, and the question is argued who is the world’s fastest shearer? A claim to the world’s shearing record was made last summer by Mr W. Hape, a Dannevirke Maori, who shore 422 Romney lambs in a New Zealand standard day of nine hours.

This was a notable performance, for the weather at the time was very sultry and trying. Working under such conditions from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m., exacting test. Nevertheless it is except for the usual spells, proved an doubtful if this huge tally will be officially recognised as a world’s record, for the Teason that it is generally considered shearing records are established with ewes. Mr Hape’s sheep w-ere lambs, usually a more difficult shearing subject than ewes that have been through the operation before. A point emphasised in all shearing records is that the tally must be completed with the shearer using one handpiece throughout the day and catching his own sheep. Mr Hape, having previously intimated his intention of attempting to break new record figures, his tally was officially checked by Mr G. Holden, Raumati, Southern Hawke’s Bay, in whose shed the shearing was done, and an independent witness. Mr Hape, put through the splendid tally of 1268 sheep and lambs, an average of 317 each. After Mr Hape’s, the best output was 343 ewes and lambs, the remaining two of the gang shearing 256 and 247 respectively. Previous Records

Prior to Mr Hape’s claimed record the world’s record v/as held by another shearer from the same district, Mr P. de Malmanche, who in 1933 was credited with 412 sheep. It is stated, however, that Mr de Malmanche worked a 10-hour day. Working on a nine-hour basis, Mr de Malmanche, in an attempt ten years later, tallied 403 sheep. They were shorn in December, 1943, in Mr W. Lambie’s shed at Pihama.

Some tallies greater than the recognised world’s record have been put up in New Zealand, but they have not been accepted because the shearers had not caught their own sheep. For instance, Mr Sonny White,a Urewera .Maori, shore* 433 Romney ewes on Mr Eh Stafford’s Sherbrooke station, Peheri, Poverty Bay, but had his sheep caught for him. Similarly, the achievement of Mr Henry Tuwhangi was disregarded when he shore 417 sheep in nine hours at Putaruru in January, 1946. Australian Figures

The Australian record is held by Mr Jack Howe, at Alice Downs, Queensland, who put through 321 sheep in an eight-hour day. Australian shearers work a 44-hour week with an eight-hour day and four hours on Saturdays. They start at 7.30 a.m., work two hours and then have a half-hour “smoko” before continuing until noon. Back on the board at 1 o’clock, they are hard at it for two hours, and then have another half-hour break to refresh themselves for the final two hour burst, which ends the day at 5.30 p.m. The rate of pay in Australia today is 36s a hundred, with rams counting as two sheep. Allan Hayes, a Tasmanian shearer, nearly equalled Mr Howe’s record this season when he worked through 318 well-grown Corriedale lambs in eight hours. The first New Zealander to establish a world’s record was Mr Bill Higgins, when in 1921, at Moore’s station, near Maxwelltown, he made a tally of 372 sheep in eight hours 25 minutes. The following year he shore 388 in eight and three-quarter hours in Mr Bradley’s shed, Moumahaka, Waverley. In the same shed in 1923 Mr Higgins put up his biggest tally of 406 Romney-Lin-coln-cross ewes, shorn in nine hours. This stood as a world’s shearing machine record until Mr de Malmanche went three better in 1943. About 1922 Mr Higgins shore 23 sheep in 20 minutes and one sheep in 28 seconds, performances that have never been equalled.