Well-known Auctioneer To Stop Selling

Press, Volume C, Issue 29518, 20 May 1961, Page 6

Well-known Auctioneer To Stop Selling

At the end of next month Mr R. F. J. (Bob) Powell will give up stock, auctioneering to take up a new post of manager of the stock department of Pyne, Gould, Guinness, Ltd., the firm with which he has worked continuously since the day he left the Christchurch Boys* High School on December 4, 1919.

One of the best-known auctioneers in the province, Mr Powell has probably sold as many sheep as anyone else living in New Zealand. His tally runs into the millions. He began auctioneering when he was

stationed at Fairlie between 1923 and 1926, and he first began selling at Addington market in 1926, when he moved to Culverden. His cheerful voice has been heard in saleyards from Studholme Junction and Waihao Forks in South Canterbury to Kaikoura in the north. The son of Mr F. W. Powell, who worked for the New Zealand Refrigerating Company for 41 years, Mr Powell came to Canterbury from Australia, where he was bom, at an early age. The day after he left the

Christchurch Boys' High School in 1919 he joined Pynes tvs an office boy and after serving briefly as a junior stockman he went to Fairlie in 1923 as a stock agent.

In 1926 he moved to Culverden and about two years later he was back in South Canterbury as stock agent and second auctioneer in Timaru. After a similar period had elapsed he was transferred briefly to Darfield and then came a 12year stay in ‘the Cheviot

district, and four years in Amberley. Then Mr Powell returned to the head office of the firm to be second auctioneer, and for the last 12 years he has been head auctioneer. Mr Powell has sold through two depressions and seasons of intense droughts. He has seen lambs sold for less than Is each and ewes bring only Is and at the other end of the scale in the great boom of 1950-51 he saw aged ewes making more than £7 each and two-tooth ewes selling at £9 and £lO. He has memories of

Addington market when boat loads of sheep came down from the North Island and when before the twoday markets were instituted to cope with the peak yardings of store sheep selling used to go on till as late as 9.40 p.m. and sheep were sold near the railway trucks because there was no room in the yards and were immediately reloaded again. These were the days when the stock firms did their own unloading and loading of stock on rail. At that time Addington was almost a three-day job. Work began at first light on Tuesday and went on until about 7 p.m. When stockmen rushed off to snatch some tea. They were soon back again until 3 a.m. unloading off the rail. After another hour or twos break, they were back until after the sale when they would be loading out again until possibly 3 p.m. or 4 pm. on the Thursday. 1 Mr Powell has enjoyed selling. ‘‘lt is always a job I have liked,” he says. “I find it no trouble. I can do it all day long.” With his flrm handling 35 to 40 per cent, of the store sheep yardings at Addington he has had big days.

After so long a period of selling in widely scattered areas of the province Mr Powell has a wide circle of farming acquaintances'. Farmers are a breed of their own, he says, but he has always found them easv to get on with and very fair.

In his younger days Mr Powell was a cricketer of no mean ability. At the Christchurch Boys’ High School in 1919 he topped both the batting and bowling averages and broke a record set by Sir Arthur Sim when he scored 168 against Christ’s College. In that team were two who were later New Zealand representatives and five who played for Canterbury. including Mr Powell’s late brother, Mr J. L. Powell. Mr Bob Powell himself played for Canterbury in 1923.

Succeeding Mr Powell as head auctioneer for Pynes in Christchurch will be Mr W. H. Archdall, who is at present head auctioneer for the firm in Ashburton. Mr Archdall joined Pynes in 1937, and apart from a period during the war when he was overseas in the Army he has been with the firm ever since. After he returned from the war Mr Archdall was the firm’s stock agent at Darfleld for 10 years and since 1956 he has been stationed at Ashburton.

New head auctioneer for the firm in Ashburton will be Mr A. B. McCredie, who has been second store sheep auctioneer in Christchurch.