A LIFE'S SACRIFICE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 2 November 1907, Page 3

A LIFE'S SACRIFICE.

THE MAN WHO INVENTED TffiJ SHEARING MACHINE.

STORY OF PLUCK AND PREJUDICE.

A romantic and somewhat pithetie history is attached to the introduction of the "Wolseley," the first sheep-shear ing machine.

F. Y. Wolseley, the inventor, was a big Australian sheepfarmer of Darling Downs. He was the only brother uf Lord Wolseley, the famous British general, and, like his brother, possessed enormous pluck. He had trouble with his shearers, as all squatters used to have. He could not get them to shear with that care and nice precision which- the brother of a great soldier would instinctively desire, and it irritated him sorely. "I'll end all this," he declared. "I'l find something that will make it next to impos eible lor these men to shear badly and leave a pound of wool on every sheep. 11l make a machine." Ho worked out his resolution with almost linhnmnn precision. mechanical experience was very slender, but his will was strong, and, being himself a sheep-farmer, he had the supreme advant«e of knowing what he wanted. He worked at his machine for 13 years, pushing his way through difficulties that would have dismayed a weaker man at j the outset, and sparing no expense. Th» failures were many but the recoveries always followed; and by degrees fie Wolseley, which is now at the top of the shearing world, came forth into the light of day, a workable machine. But the sheep station had vanished. I It had been sacrificed to the realisatioi of a dream by a great man; and Wolsei ley—the man who had made modern | sheep-farming possible, was poor. _ It was in the thirteenth year of his difficulties that Mr Wolseley came across JCr Hutchinson, well-known in New Zealand farming districts as Messrs Levin and Co.'s shearing expert. Mr Hutchinson was then just emerging from ranv youth, and gave some promise of being rather more satisfactory than the ordinary run of shearers. He had been through the mill, starting as the boy •who picked up the stray wool and swept the shed floors. Mr Wolseley saw in lim the operator that he wanted for developing the real powers of his ma chine, and soon Mr Hutchinson became associated with the early history of a great invention.

The machine was put before the public in Melbourne in 1886, when a compiuiy was formel to develop the patent rights. Premises were erected in Birmingham, England, for the manufacture t>f the shearers, and agencies were estab- | lished. But great prejudices tightened I "the market, and 17 years passed before a single dividend was paid. What a .monument to the patience of shareholders! The year of 1903—the dividend year—was a time of great rejoicings. "Wolseley, the company, is now solid. It is rooted in extensive premises on nin? =acres of Birmingham, and still the extensions continue. But Wolseley, the immortal inventor, is dead.

Farmers, like huge armies, move ■slowly, and are therefore called prejudiced. They did not think it possible to remove the wool from a sheep's back by a machine, and it was hard to make them look at the .early Wolseley s. Tim the shearers themselves regarded tne machines as their natural enemies, and made little effort to prove their value. It was Mr Hutchinson who first established their capabilities. He was working in a shed at Dunlop, New South Wales, with 40 men, all of whom were Jirmiy convinced that the man was not bom who could shear 100 sheep in a day with the crotchety machine. They regarded it as an awkward toy, and cranky fad, a nuisance. But Mr Hutchinson was perfecting himself in its use, and when one day he finished his 100 sheep there was a feeling of surprise and ex•citement in the shed. The men now viewed the queer tubes with more :<:■ •spect, and soon others scored their 100 per day, as the machine itself became improved. Hutchinson's speed increased to 213 in a day. It was now objected that machines spoiled the wool, but this was easily .proved incorrect, and on the contrary, there were distinct advantages obvious.. {'The machine easily takes half a pound more wool from each sheep than do the 'hand shears, and even if the lost halfpound would be recovered in the next •clip, it is lost at all events once in the ■sheep's lifetime. As the life of a sheep is about four years, the actual annual loss would be one-eighth of a pound—•or 10001b every year in a flock of 8000 sheep. In a flock of 20,000 sheep the loss in one year equals the cost of the ■whole outfit for three stands.—Dominion.