OLD PACK TRAIL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20125, 20 December 1939, Page 13

OLD PACK TRAIL

WAIOURU MANOEUVRES PIONEER SHEEP RUN OVER SEVENTY YEARS AGO Where Bren gun-carriers and heavy army lorries thundered last week was more than 70 years ago the old pacnc track along which wool was taken over the Kaimanawa ranges to Napier in the days before there were rail or other transport facilities tor farmers. , . , .. Waiouru station itself on which the training camp is now situated, is one o, the pioneer sheepruns ol the district, and has encountered most ri the ups and downs of sheep-fai.n-ing, The station is 100 square miles or 64,000 thousand acres. Taken over recently by the Government for training purposes after having been used for several yeais for artillery practice camps, tne grazing rights are still retained by the latest to operate the station. Messrs. Furnie Bros., m conjunction with Mr. G. T. Phillips, who lives in the old homestead and manages the run, which has carried as many as 8000 to 10,000 sheep and 2000 head of cattle. The name Waiouru means “water of the west.” Thousands of Rabbits At one time there were rabbits by the tens of thousands on the station; to-day, by some phenomen still to be explained, there are thousands ot hares, but no rabbits. They get little worrying and during troop manoeuvres. alarmed by gunfire, scores " them were darting in between soldiers who were lying m 1 tussocks, taking cover. It they a ever as close to guns agam withou. being shot the hares of Waiouiu station will live long and continue to multiply. , , There is no gainsaying the iact that the rabbit pest has tremendously affected the fortunes of Waiouru station. Once when 10O uu acres wore laid with poison, tne toll averaged 260 rabbits to the acre, which is equivalent in cauymg capacity to thirty sheep an acre, bo bad was the rabbit pest that ioi some years the station carried no stock other than wild. Then for some extraordinary reason—oossibily an epidemic among the rabbits themselves —they- dis.appeared and their successors to-day are the hares. Where Stallions Battle

There are some wonderful wild horses roaming the hills of the property, and Mr. Phillips has been eye-witness of some tremendous battles between rival stallions. Mos. oi the hacks for the station ate drawn from these hundreds ol nomads and they show exceptional stamina, specially in this class or hill country. It is a question ot the survival of the fittest in those parts, Where the wild horses spend most of their days, and the resul is seen in their endurance wnen captured, broken-in and put to station use. Far though Waiouru is from populous parts, Mr. Phillips and ms family have in the enclosed homestead garden a showing ol' flowers that would do credit to any garden suburb enthusiast. ‘ Despite the war games on the station, Mr. Phillips pursues unconcerned the job he has followed nil his life. One afternoon saw him ploughing a piece of fiat, while scores of troops moved quietly ms, him in the first stages of a stealthy approach to a defended hill position Waiouru has been a sheep station, fighting its own daily battles with Nature through times of many wars. Some of those who have run Waiouru from its earliest times have been Messrs. Studholm, Morton Bros., F. J. Lysnar and Chapman.