FROM SHEEP'S BACK TO SHIP'S HOLD.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13336, 30 January 1909, Page 4

FROM SHEEP'S BACK TO SHIP'S HOLD.

THE DUMPING STOKE. (Sr-ECIAXXT WRITTEN" TOR '"THE TRESS.") Th© store is a galvanised iron shed with its roof supported on lofty wooden pillars. In the middlo is the engineroom, which houses a big gas engine used to drivo a sot of pumps. These supply the water to the three hydraulic dumping presses ranged in front of the engine-room.

in the winter the store is cold, silent and bleak, with its whitewashed walls and bare floor. In the summer, especially after a wool sale, it is the homo of many noises and much apparent confusion, and its floor is often piled to the height of over 30 feet with wool balos.

.-he shunter has just pushed into the siding some twenty truc__ loaded with wool. A gang of four men go to the end truck and push, it opposite the shed door. Tho truck door is dropped, and a board is placed across from the shed to the Irueii. Then the gang divides. Two go to tho truck and pull the bales down with their dog hooks, placing them for the other two to wheel away. One of the two truck men takes upon himself tho task of reading off tlie numbers from the bales and calling them out to a lifth, the tally clerk, who has appeared from the store office. If tho tally clerk can rely on the truck man ho accepts, without question, what is called. Mure often he .takes the precaution of looking at each bale himself. For ho lias to deal with readers who read by first impressions largely. That this is so is shown by the frequency with which _ and S) are confused and the order of other numbers is reversed. Tho habit must have been strongly developed in tho man who called "VIRGINIA" as "vinegar.'' - and continued tho mistake for at least six bales. Tho tally clerk is. of course, familiar with the symbols of his profession. He knows tho exact distin<rtion between an eyebrow, a halfmoon, a semicircle—ar.d a 'horso shoe — all curved lines; and ho will write a number down when tho truck man calls Lord Nelson. He must also remember for each brand of wool to whom it belongs, what ship it is going in, and what port it is destined for. He must stop any wool which shows a wet stain (?/i tlie bale, but must on no account confuse tho black stain of wool-grease with that made by water. With all this ho has time to see a good deal. H© coidd 'probably tell the names of the greedy growers who put up to five hundredweight of wool in a bale—(.railage charged at per bale)—never thinking of the half ton which has to be handled when two such bales aro packed together. He can read tho state of repair of tho station gates and woolshed iv the amount of care bestowed on tho branding. He thinks of the strings of pack-horses crossing tho Upper Waiau when the pockets of wool are sent in. He is still wondering where the shearing shed is, from which came a bale marked As the wool is removed from the trucks it is stood near tho dumping presses. Theso consist of _ well, or cage, some four feet square and ten feet deep. The sides are of heavy iron girders, while the top is a massive piec,e of iron witih o- wooden lining, tor a floor the press has. a platform movable vertically by a powerful hydraulic rani. When at its lowest point tho platform is about five feet below tie floor of "tho shed. It is then ready to receive a bale of wool which is so thrown from a barrow that the end with tho brand on it shall be downwards. Another ibalo with brand uppermost is stood on top ol" th© first, and the door of _he press is closed tight, _and screwed securely home. The engineer starts the pump, and the ram -lowly forces up the platform. As the pressure increases, tihe bales spread a Little laterally, and add to the din of tho pumps a creaking noise of their own. In a few seconds they have lost their plump comeliness. Crushed to about half their original size, and bound with iron bands, they aro wrinkled, ugly, and very solid.. They fall from the press with a bump, and are wheeled out of tho way. By this tilme. the men at itihe door have emptied another truck, and the store foreman, one Bill, gives orders to load for the Maori or tne Kaipara as the case may be. The gang wihicSi emptied the truck, now comes with barrows and hooks to take away the •'dumps" which have com© from the press. Again the .tally clerk is needed, rfc says which brands go to the ship they are loading. Remembering that they load for different ports in different hatches on tho boat, ho allows only those dumps with bands painted yellow or green for Hull or Goole to go into the same truck. The unpainted, tho blue, and the red for London, Boston or tho Continent, ho puts in a truck by themselves. If the day 'bo wet or should the wool I*3 delayed in shipping it is necessary to put a tarpaulin over each truck. In that case a light dump is selected and lifted on to tho top of the others to forim. a rid__;o to shed any rain. The trucks aro hauled round to the steamer's side, and quickly unloaded with the help of her slings, and tho "dumps" are __s auickly stowed aboard. In th© sailing vessels they used to screw th© wool in with powerful wool screws. The steamer has larger nnd more convenient holds and finds this unnecessary.

Thus they jio on from morning till long after tho Maori, ablaze •with light, hast flitter! by on her -north-ward journey. It is only for some six weeks of tho year; but in those sis weeks very much of the -wealth of Canterbury passes through the Lyttelton dumping store.