Shepherds And Dogs

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31083, 11 June 1966, Page 4

Shepherds And Dogs

Huntaway. By A. R. Mills. A. H. and A. W. Reed. 215 PPNew Zealand’s dependence on its back country shepherds and their highly intelligent sheepdogs is too often taken for granted when the substantial wool and meat incomes of our country are discussed. It is refreshing, therefore, to read a book which is a tribute to this race of men and their faithful dogs, without which a major proportion of our country could not be economically farmed. A. R. (Bob) Mills, in his book “Huntaway” vividly describes highlights of a working lifetime as shepherd and musterer on North Island stations, years which gave him a deep love and respect for the sheepdogs whose short, hard-working lives are spent in the service of our pastoral industry. After years in which he progressed to responsible head-shepherd jobs on large stations the author decided to forsake station life and

take up a travelling position with a firm selling stock-food lines. He was still able to keep close to the life he had known through his rounds of the stations—by car instead of on horseback—and his bank balance grew until eventually he could buy a farm and again indulge his love for sheepdogs, stock work, and the dog trial scene.

Mr Mills’s book has references to several South Island stations and high-country identities. An interesting section mentions the development in New Zealand of huntaway and border strains of sheepdog especially for mustering conditions in this country. A poem in the final pages of the book contains a shepherd's nostalgic tribute to the Mackenzie Country in South Canterbury—surely a region providing the sternest test of high country men and dogs and where the settlers have acknowledged their dependence on “man’s best friend” by erecting a suitable memorial to the sheepdog breed.