THE FIRST WOOL CLIP

Shannon News, 6 July 1928, Page 2

THE FIRST WOOL CLIP

Dates of our industrial beginnings are not always easy to fix with exactness. The wool-growing business, for example, began much earlier than is generally imagined, but records of the enterprise in its infancy are not‘readily available (writes J.C. in the Auckland Star). Here the recollections of a very old pioneer of New Zealand came in useful many years ago when the question was discussed. . When did the first sheep arrive in New Zealand? One answer given on the recorded authority of a man who helped to land them was that they were brought to these shores in 1836. This roused a venerable man of North Auckland, Mr W. S,, King, of Waimate North, to reply that the date was 18 years out. The fact was that the first sheep were landed at Te Puna, Bay of Islands, in 1818 by the Rev. Samuel Marsden. They were brought from Sydney and the first wool clip was exported To Sydney. Mr King said that when a little boy (ne was born at the mission station at Te Puna in 1819) he saw his father shear sheep. The year was 1824. His father was the Rev. John King, one of Marsden's missionaries, who arrived in 1814. The missionary sent 11 bags of wool- to Sydney, where the clip fetched 2s 6d per lb. It may be that a little wool was sent to Sydney before 1824, but it is difficult to ascertain at this time of day whether this was done. We know from Captain Cook's voyages that the great navigator landed several sheep at Queen Charlotte Sound, but those animals very soon died from eating some poisonous plant. No doubt that was the first time imported animals were poisoned by the leaves of the tupakihi. (Properly the fruit only is tutu, but this name is popularly applied to the wh3lc shjub.) Thus the. history of “tooted" stock goes back just over a century and a-half.