SCOTTISH SHEPHERDS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27410, 24 July 1954, Page 9

SCOTTISH SHEPHERDS

MACKENZIE COUNTRY

Boundary-Keepers Led Solitary Lives

HL T AND KENNEL RUINS REMAIN AS FORLORN MEMORIALS

(Specially Written for ‘The Press-)

LBy

W. VANCE]

VIII

climatV'and"'terrain ’ Maekenitie Country Scotsmen, especially Highlanders i lardy shepherds. 80 per cent, of Mackenzie Count™ 1 \ e S ° suitable ’ that until the close of last cenlm wl en ?’ ere Scotsmen began to take over. ' ’. colonial-born shepherds times a sauatter mid» •> llle alert to engage such a man. At an imnuTan sWnand Pe tnp lo the P ort of ar ™ al ° f ashore would straightaway Engage him. SU ’ table man ste PP ed

A. runholder usually had one or two shepherds to help drive his sheep to his new station. The demands of squatters of the downlands and plains who were busily building up their own flocks created a shortage of sheep for sale in South Canterbury. This forced Mackenzie Country runholders to buy further afield usually in North Canterbury or Nelson.

° ne ?U he ? rSt fl<^ s was driven . « May. 1860, from Tresillian station Darfield, to The Grampians by Harry Ford assisted by his shepherd, John McGregor, who later owned Glenmore They walked all the way, and for two da ; '' s ( y° rked waist-deep in water, try. tag to swim sheep across the flooded Rakaia river. Several times these men were nearly washed off their feet “bu™ proudly related McGregor, “we sot tao“ ng^^of 0 -™ 6 Gr ™P.ans withal pian boundaries. “I had to go over the ta? °fnrt' e t lr ? rnPian hi!ls ever ? mornU J were not away by 4 Mtftaegor ned 1 had slept *•” said

Mabank horseyards in the sixties are still in service. Settlers without enough bullocks or horses to transport logs made stockyards of piled-up matagouri scrub. Fencing went on for many years in the more rugged parts of this country, where new fences are still being erected, and where some station boundaries are not yet fenced. Today it is of no great consequence if sheep stray on to a neighbouring run, for, after each muster, the sheep are returned. But it was another matter when straying sheep could, from a neighbouring sheep, bring scab into their own flock. Scab caused sheep to lose their wool through rubbing or biting contaminated parts of the body. Shepherds kept a sharp look-out for signs of the disease amongst their sheep, and it was chiefly the fear of scab that caused the yarding of sheep at night. Heavy Fines for Scab Disease

> sheep across rivers was note W f en drivin « these DOBS. After a three-day effort to swim ®ne n^hnkf ross e . ?angitata river, «ne runholder and nis shepherd in 'h. car Tied two sheep at a hISJ 11 ® nv F on horseback. As nanflht cramp through continually crossing this P snow-fed ?hnn r 'ih hey W « e sp ® ,led tor a whih? yrork continued. hr?i«l CU Jrf e th Wer l not ended with the FroeoJ the shee P at the statiori. «sii P i!. an occasional sod or rock rilii round the homestead pad-thS/wi-T 1 ’ ’‘T* out ’ rather than in, thM-e were no fences, and new sheep keeninf 1 !!? 0 wander. The problem of „ aaplng the Sheep together was partly ? b . y yarding (folding) the fontParatively small flocks each* night, aa ,.s°chs increased, this became 80 iarger stations employed boundary keepers.

Alarmed at the spread of the disease throughout the province, the Canterbury Provincial Government appointed inspectors to enforce regulations which imposed heavy fines on runholders who did not endeavour to cure infected sheep? Runholders were required by law to declare that their flocks were free from scab. Here is a specimen of one of these declarations:— RETURN OF SHEEP INSPECTED IN THE PROVINCE OF CANTERBURY DURING THE MONTH OF MAY, 1863. Declaration:— I, Andrew Burnett, of Simon’s Pass, for John Hayhurst, do hereby solemnly declare that I have made a complete muster of all sheep in my charge and that my sheep, branded Hj, being 5000 in number, now being at Simon’s Pass, have not within three months been subjected to any dressing for the cure of scab, nor within three months been mixed with any sheep infected • with scab or catarrh, and I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same to be true.

Declared before me, at Simon’s Pass, this 21st day of May, 1863.

Danger of Accident b 9yndary-keeping shepherd, cS h!u oilighJander, lived alone in a °ut by a stream, or in a dark gorge station boundary. His job on thelr own territory compelled him to walk along the d? i ry ' gen crally a creek, for about ten miles each day, sunshine or rain, winter and summer. .5° a man working alone, a minor •cement, such as a sprained ankle or a tall, could have serious consequences UR ec £ aI J y a he failed to reach his t ? efOTe nightfalL Such an acciJohn McHutcheson, first Settler in the Mackenzie Country, when his horse threw him on to some rocks and galloped away, leaving him u“ s . a J ld with a gashed head. When McHutcheson recovered from the shock, he found his clothes satubkSd fnl Jus boots half-filled with d J ? d condition, he crawled Pa ou L< ? bls b ut, ten miles away. ♦nmt? berd f b f°£ e down this isolation f°“ e , extent by building-up a code S JS Da I flr ® s - In this way a shepherd could signal to his neighbour, some miles away, information such as- " Some of your sheep have wandered across the boundary.” P reven ted neighbouring Shepherds from visiting each other to any extent, and except for the packinan who brought supplies from the station every few weeks, the boundary keeper might not see another person zor months at a time time. Solitude sometimes made a boundary keeper •o shy that he found difficulty in conversing with his fellows, so gradually he came to shun their company. A few boundary-keepers evaded others to the extent that, when the packman ®®me to his hut, the boundary keeper stayed in the hills until the packman had gone.

CERTIFICATE OF INSPECTOR. I, Philip Baker Boulton, Inspector of sheep, hereby certify that I have carefully examined 5000 sheep, branded Hj, the property of John Hayhurst, now being depastured at Simon’s Pass, and that I find such sheep to be entirely free from scab or catarrh.

Given under my hand, at Simon’s Pass, this 21st day of May, 1868. (sgd.) P. B. Boulton, Inspector of Sheep.

_ . ~ No Joking Matter Jock McKay, boundary keeper in the Godley Valley for The Mistake station, Was one of these solitary individuals •nd a joke played on him nearly had serious consequences. During his absence a shepherd called at his hut, and, hearing Jock’s returning footsteps, Jud under the bed. As soon as he came #n, Jock went to the cupboard, from Which he took food and set it on the table, then went out to fill his billy at * creek nearby. Hurriedly the visitor put the food back in the cupboard and •gain hid under the bunk. On his return Jock silently reset the table then outside for wood. When he came r B *. the table again bare, Jock grabbed his rifle and shouted: “Ghost, n v ghost ! start shooting!” The •kepherd quickly made himself known.’ This lonely life had an appeal, because some men kept boundary for as long as 30 years. In isolated valleys and near to cliff faces, ruins of their cob or stone huts are seen frequently ©n the sunless side of a river terrace. A patch of willows often indicates the •ite of a boundary keeper’s hut; straggling gooseberry bushes are the remnants of a garden; the mounds of earth were once cob dog kennels; the patch pf paving stones shows where the hut door stood; the tumbled square of clay once formed the walls. These *uins are the forlorn memorials to silent, solitary men, who played no •mall part in pioneering our pastoral industry.

As runs became more heavily •locked, more boundary keepers were employed. Henry Sewell, agent for the Canterbury Association, foresaw the difficulties that increased stocking would lead to when he wrote, in 1856, in his Journal: “There will be a mighty pother one of these days about these T’.ms and their boundaries when the country becomes fully stocked. How •re we to tell the boundary line without a single thing to mark it, and no Possibility of artificial fencing.” But Sewell had not foreseen the revolution in station life ushered in by A. J. Alport, a Lyttelton merchant, when six months later he advertised in the “Lyttelton Times” that he had a quantity of galvanised wire for sale. Wire Fencing Introduced The introduction of galvanised wire was first treated with suspicion, and the Cattle Trespass Act stipulated that wire fences must be kept of a white colour. However, it did not take station owners long to appreciate the value of fencing and by 1855 12,261 •cres of Canterbury land were fenced; in 1861 the area was 72,973 acres, increasing to 217,000 acres by 1864. Then came barbed wire, also regarded at first with suspicion. But prejudice eventually broke down after runholders cautiously tried it out, as illustrated in this letter written by Charles Tripp of Orari Gorge: “Dear Barker, Your brother was here the other day. He said you had bought some of the American with spikes in it. Can you tell me what it cost you? I think it is called barbed wire.” . In the Mackenzie Country, where timber was scarce, the lack of fencing posts was partly overcome by using old totara logs dragged by bullock teams from hillsides and valleys to the fence line. Logs hauled from Totara Point, Godley Valley, to help to build

The usual method of treatment for scab was to dip infected sheep in large tanks of boiled tobacco water mixed with sulphur. As a half-woolled sheep could absorb a gallon of water, the boiling-up of these tanks was an expensive item, wood being mainly used owing to lack of coal. The disease, which never took a severe hold on Mackenzie Country flocks, was stamped out within a few years. Canterbury Province was officially declared free of scab in 1884, and before the end of the next decade the disease had disappeared in New Zealand. Dog Only Companion For weeks, sometimes months, at a time, the shepherd’s only companion might be his dog, so a close understanding grew up betwen dog and This bond may account for some of the remarkable mustering feats of the dogs. A dog belonging to Andrew Burnett used to drive sheep ten miles down the Tasman valley to Mount Cook station yards after only one command from his master. Harry Ford, of The Grampians, owned a dog, Flora, that could muster the roughest country with little help from her master. On one occasion she ran nine miles down Gray’s creek to head sheep that had broken away from the main mob. Flora returned with all the sheep. A bullock-driver, in his trips between Richmond station and Timaru had for his companion a big black and tan collie called Laddie. Once, when a Timaru butcher lost 40 merino wethers, Laddie, with his . master following some distance behind on horseback, tracked the sheep to Mount Horrible, 10 miles away, and brought them back to the Timaru paddock. On another occasion, Laddie was left to look after a mob of rams at Burkes Pass township, while his master rode over the Pass to Sawdon homestead, five miles away. Three hours later the bullock driver was surprised to see these sheep at the Sawdon station yards. Unaided, Laddie had driven them over Burke’s Pass to Sawdon. Pride and confidence would naturally make one shepherd think that his dogs were better than other dogs. This would lead to individual competitions, then to dog trials. What was probably the first dog trial m New Zealand tpok place at Haldon after the autumn muster of 1869. “James Cordy was judge, but, according to Donald McKay a Gray’s Hill shepherd, “there wasnt much for him to do. Our dogs were all too sore and stiff, and the sheep—well chosen big strong Merinos—were as wild as ” The judge's placings were:— Pull: D. McKay’s Polly (Grays Hills) 1; Emmanuel (Waitangi) 2. Huntaway. D. Ross (Haldon) 1; J. McDonald of his dogs probably saved the life of George Grimmer, a Rollesby shepherd, who was once cau»ht in a sudden snowstorm when coming off the top of the Rollesby range. A strong gust blew him off a ridge, and the fall broke one of his legs. Dragging himself down the mountain till h? came to a sheltered hollow near the Mackenzie stream, Grimmer Iky there throughout that stormy winter night. Next afternoon a search party, believing that Grimmer could not have survived the storm, was surprised to find him well, save for his injury. The dogs, snuggling round him, had kept him warm.

“Dead Man’s Creek The z loyalty of another dog is linked up with the place-name, “Dead Man s Creek ” near Sawdon homestead. In 1876, when a dead man was found there, the finders had difficulty in- approaching, for a fierce dog was standing guard. Alongside the body which had lain there for some several wekas which the dog had killed and brought back as food for hl The’ a habit of dogs sleeping close to their masters was not uncommon when before mustering huts were built or tents carried, a shepherd out mustering slept m the open. As there were no Packhorses, these shepherds carried only a couple of blankets, billy, frying-pan, knife, a little ff our - s H®? l ? tea. salt and matches. For food he killed a sheep. (To be continued)

Service Awards Presented. — The annual presentation of service awards was made at a social function, held recently by the Christchurch staff of Caltex Oil (New Zealand), Ltd. The awards are made according to the number of years that members of the staff have worked for the company. Presentations made by Mr D. Bryce, the Christchurch division manager, were made to Messrs H. Gerrie, 25 years; M. J Huria, five; E. M. Rodgers, five; and J. R. Armiger, flv*> _. 1