MASTERTON'S EARLY SETTLERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 May 1939, Page 4

MASTERTON'S EARLY SETTLERS

AGRICULTURAL AND OTHER FARM IMPLEMENTS

Hoes, Ploughs and Threshing Plants

DEVELOPMENTS IN MACHINERY

(Specially Written for the “Wairarapa Times-Age” by

C. Bannister.)

The work of bringing in the district’s lands has been a truly colossal one. The initial task was carried out by a comparatively small population of pioneers and the vast achievements indicate their grit and the spirit that animated them. They possessed determination, energy and strength seldom paralleled in the annals of man’s conquests over Nature. In every possible way these early settlers were selfsupporting. They largely grew their own food supplies. The necessity for this was the freight on goods which was £2 per ton, equal to over 2d a lb on flour.

The hoe was the implement that was used by the first settlers to obtain a supply of wheat and vegetables. It was used mostly amongst the stumps and roots of the burnt bush lands. The wheat was sown by hand and harrowed with a branch of a tree. In 1856 Mr H. Jones, Senr., helped by Mr R. McKenzie, Senr., constructed a plough. With this implement, drawn by a hefty pair of bullocks, they ploughed many small plots of land for their neighbours. On these areas wheat was grown, also the kamo kamo and that old king of pumpkins, the old Iron Bark, which had to be split with an axe . before it could be used and it would keep for two years. When roasted in a camp oven, as our pioneer mothers cooked it, with wild pork oi - half a dozen pigeons, it made a meal that was both luscious and satisfying, especially if followed up with wholemeal girdle scones cooked on the hearth and wild honey. In 1855 my grandfather carried a swarm of bees from Wellington to Masterton on his back. These multiplied quickly and went wild. ’ PLOUGHING WITH BULLOCKS. The next plough on record was _at Mr R. Cockburn’s farm at lower Manaia. The late Mr Alex Mutrie used to manipulate it. Mr Cockburn had two draught mares. After that Mr T. W. Tankersley, Senr., of Upper Plain, procured a Ransom and Sims implement from Wellington. With this plough Mr T. W. Tankersley, Junr. and his brother, Richard, ploughed land for the settlers of the Upper Plain. It was drawn by four bullocks, the names of which were Roger, Badger, Doughboy and Spot. This team was sold to Wi Tinitara, Captain Remini’s father. I can recall Captain Remini, who was a small boy ,at that tirpe, trying 'to say. the 'names. 1 The neatest he could get to them was Rotter, Pratter, Topoy ! and Pot. Mr Harry Preston, Senr., father of Mr Harry Preston of Masterton, used to come with his team from the Taratahi and plough land for the settlers near the Fernridge. He had a team of four bullocks. He used to stay at Mr L. Evans’s farm and Mr Alfred Evans used to drive the team. Mr Preston, like most of the pioneers, was an early riser. He used to get up when the tui called —that was half an hour before daylight. The first ploughing in any quantity was done on Mr J. Harding’s section (the late Mr A. P. Whatman’s residence and Salvation Army School occupies the spot now). Mi- Harding and Mr A. W. Cave ploughed 20 acres there and sowed it in wheat. After this there were many ploughs in the district. They were mostly pulled by horses and, as the road was opened over the Hill (as it was always called) implements were obtainable from Wellington. Mr John Morris, of Mangakuta, was the best ploughman. He had a swing plough of the Barrowman make. It was nice to see his work. In after years, when ploughing matches were held, he was the.champion swing ploughman of the Wairarapa. In the early seventies, father had three ploughmen working on his farm at Opaki, Messrs John Morris, A. Mutrie, Senr. and Mr Hector Munro.

DOUBLE-FURROW PLOUGHS APPEAR. In 1878 my brotner, ueorge, was working a one-wheel Ransom, I was working a two-wheel Hornsby, Mr A. Mutrie a Ransom and my brother, John, a two-furrowed Murray. This was the first double-furrow plough in' the district. The following year dozens of double-furrow ploughs made their appearance. Mostly they were of Reid and Gray’s and Duncan’s make. After them came the three-furrow plough. This was mostly used for stubble ploughing. All the land had to be ploughed with a narrow furrow so as to give a good comb or harrowage to cover the grain which was handsown. Mr John Morris was also a champion wheat sower. Using both hands, he often used to sow over 25 acres a day and make a good job of it too, sowing it evenly and not missing any land. That was a big task when one considers the walking entailed over ploughed ground and the carrying of the seed container, which when full held about 301bs of wheat. It was the swing of the arms, the sway of the body and the correct timing of the leg movement that enabled the sower to achieve such a day’s work. There were no drills then. After sow-' ing, the land had to be harrowed till the seed was covered, then rolled with a home-made wooden roller. In the late 70’s and early 80’s most of the grain was stacked. Mr John Morris was the father of stacking about Masterton and it was from him that Messrs Fred Evans, John Bannister, Mundy and other good stackers learnt the art of building a stack to stand wind and rain. No doubt the farming community had a lot for which to thank Mr Morris. Some of the old timers said that Mr Andrew Taylor, the three-foot Scotchman (as he was called) was a better man at stacking than Mr Morris, “but I hae ma doots.” CUTTING THE FIRST WHEAT. Reap hooks were used by the early pioneers to cut their crops. One old lady .told me that they had a nice crop of wheat and the parrakeets started to eat it (parrakeets were present in hundreds when the first settlers came to Masterton) so they

decided to cut it. Her husband had a reaphook. They tried to borrow another but everybody was using theirs, so they started to get it down. The father used the hook, the daughter a butcher’s knife and mother a pair of scissors, while the two small boys chased the birds away and they had to keep them off till they got the wheat threshed. The wheat had to be carried in the women’s apron to the threshing sheet. After the reap hook, scythes were secured, with a supplejack tied on the handle. They acted well where there was room to swing them. Then Mr William Day procured from America a. cradle. It is a scythe was a long blade and' four fingers the same length as the blade. These were parallel with the blade and were about four inches apart. These fingers kept the cut wheat straight and when laid With the back swing, it did not take much to straighten the wheat before tying. Mr Day was . an adept at cradling. He often cut an acre before breakfast. Several other young pioneers made good cradlers, but none could do it like Mr Day. It was his ponderous body, and length of arms that gave him the necessary Swing for a good cradler. CUTTING MACHINES. I Mr T. W. Tankersley, Senr., was the first to invest in a cutting machine. It was a tilter and mower combined, and was drawn by two horses. It took two men to work it. One drove the horses and the other used a rake. With this he brought the k corn on to the platform, generally about three rakes, then he tilted the platform with his foot, at the same time using the rake to put the cut crop on to the ground ready for the tiers. This machine was a back delivery one, so the corn had to be tied before another round could be cut and the sheaves had to be put out of the way of the horses. To do this tying four or five capable men' were wanted. They used to work in sections. It was a youth’s ambition to be able to keep his section clear so as not to keep the machine idle. As more wheat was grown more settlers got filters. Then my father purchased an Osborne. Mr John Harding used to drive it. This machine was a wonder in those days. It had a reel to gather , the corn, but instead of a man to do the tilting, there was a gadget like a man’s arm, with an elbow qnd a hand with fingers spread. This used, to run rbund the platform fastened to an endless chain and put the cut grain on the ground. This arm could be regulated with the foot according to the quality of the crop. This was also a back delivery machine and had to be kept tied up. IMPROVED MACHINES. Side deliveries then began to appear on the scene. Mr A. W. Renall had one. Mr R. Renall, of Worksop Road, used to cut a lot of wheat for the Maoris of Te Ore Ore Plain. Hornsby and other makes could be noticed with their rakes revolving. As they were side delivery 7 machines, they could cut a paddock without being tied. As this was before freezing works were operating and good sheep were boiled down for their fat and hides, farmers turned their attention to growing wheat and they grew excellent crops. In. the eighties Mr John Tuck, of Hawkhurst, bought a McCormick wire binder when on a trip to America. This was set up and worked by Mr Dick Fitton, who had worked in binder factories in England. Mr Fitton also drove it. Mr Matthews, of Opaki, also had a wire binder. I think it was a Deering. The following year Mr Tuck sold his farm at Opaki and Bannister Bros bought the binder. It had an attachment on the side in place of the binder, in which two men could stand and catch the corn as it came up the elevators and tie it into sheaves. This contraption was used for oats when wanted for chaff. Two men could keep up to the machine (if they did not get flustered) in a forty bushel to the acre crop. When I was driving this machine one day, and while I was oiling up, one of the horses rubbed his winkers off and the 1 horses bolted across a gully. That was the end of that machine. FIRST TWINE BINDER. In the early eighties Mr H. Welch, Senr., bought from Mr-John Rayner, Senr., Taratahi, who was agent foi' Hornsby and Sons, the first twine binder used in the Masterton district. Mr R. Fitton was the mechanic who set it up and worked it. In the following year Bannister Bros, and Mr C. Holmwood, of Bushcroft, Mt Bruce, ordered one from the agent who had to send to England for it, also for any broken parts. As the knotter was comprised of 40 parts it was a serious thing for it to be out of action when the crop was ripe, and we also ordered some duplicates, and enough twine to last the season. That season Mr Chas. Holmwood and myself cut 310 acres of crop with that machine without breaking any part. We had plenty of horses and we worked in shifts of four hours. There were no forty hours a week in those days—day and night, too, when the moon was full and the weather clear. After that there were many other twine-bind-ers and agents came to Masterton. EARLY DAY THRESHING. The first threshing was done with a short stick and a longer one joined at the top with a greenhide keeper. It was called a flail. To use this implement looked simple, but often when a novice tried his hand, he felt the side of his head and wanted to know who hit him. The first settlers all used the flail. The first threshing machine in Masterton was owned by Chamberlain Bros. The power was derived from a merry-go-round, as described previously. The next one was owned by Mr John Harding, of Opaki. It was a portable one, which had to be shifted by horses. This plant used to do all the threshing from Mt Bruce to Featherston. It did not have an elevator for the straw. Men

had to fork the straw on to the stack. The next one to put in an appearance was a plant belonging to Chamberlain Bros. It also was a portable one but had an elevator, also a water cart. I often used to shift this machine for them. Mr George Yule later got one and Mr C. Hare, of Upper Plain, had a smaller one. Then traction engines and Burton’s folding elevators caused a sensation. The first traction engine belonged to Mr Gapper, who gave a demonstration of stump-pulling. Mr W. B. Buick was so impressed with the capabilities of traction engines that he bought one with a threshing plant. As cropping was making great strides several others invested in threshing plants till there were seven plants operating in the district. It was nothing to see two or three plants working a short distance from one another. As an indication of the difference in the style of farming in the eighties and today, it may be mentioned that there was enough work for seven plants in the eighties, mostly in’ threshing wheat. Today there is not enough work for two plants and that is mostly in hay pressing. Mr Ernest Smith, of Lansdowne, was the first to get a power-driven chaff-cutter and bagger. In a short time there was half a dozen employed. Draught horses were used by the hundred for ploughing and for waggon work on the road. Saddlers and harness makers were kept at top speed to meet requirements and blacksmiths, what with ploughshares, shoeing and mending implements, were also very busy. One was lucky if he did not have to wait a couple of days for his turn. GRINDING WHEAT. The pioneers had to grind their own wheat in a steel hand-grinding machine of a small calibre. They had to put in so much each day, to keep up the supply of meal. If any travellers or swaggers came along- they would have to grind enough meal to pay for their keep. It was meal, not flour, these little mills turned out. It had to be sifted to eliminate the roughest and the residue was made into wholemeal bread, scones and doughboys (dumplings). A few years later some of the settlers packed their grist to Greytown to Mr Wakelin’s flour mill and brought back flour. In 1864 Mr A. W. Renall had a flour mill at the Hutt River. The river changed its course. This made the mill unworkable, so he decided to dismantle it and bring the main parts to Masterton and erect it on his section, on the banks of the Makora Creek, where he had some land cleared and whares built by Maoris for his family to live in. The axle of the big water wheel was one of the parts that he brought. The road was opened that year for cart traffic, but how they got that axle across the Rimutaka to the accompaniment of much cursing and swearing was never told. Stamina and perseverance did the trick. After getting the site ready and the fixings in their place for the big wheel they found that the axle that had cost so much time and sweat was rotten and worthless. Old pioneers were hard to stop. So Mr Renall, with his assistant, who was a hefty American named Atkinson, and a master workman .with the broad or squaring axe, went into the bush and felled a totara tree. This Atkinson squared and shaped into an axle which did duty for fifty years. This was the only flour mill in. Masterton for many years. In one season Renall’s mill had 3000 bushels of wheat stored in it ready for grinding. In the eighties Mr Gapper built a mill in Albert Street, which he sold to Chamberlain Bros. Messrs Bacon and Wrigley built a mill behind where Wallis’s Bakery stands. These three mills in the late eighties were kept going at full speed.