“NOAH'S ARK”

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 67, Issue 237, 19 July 1947, Page 4

“NOAH'S ARK”

FREIGHTER AT AUCKLAND SCENES LIKE RODEO (P.A.) AUCKLAND, This Day. Scenes like a wild west rodeo delayed the sailing of a modern “Noah’s Ark,” the freighter Wai* rata, with a mixed shipment of cattle and poultry for. the French Government at Tahiti, when an infuriated bull broke loose from a stall in the vessel's hold and severely mauled Thomas Spiers, a foreman employed by the Union Steam Ship Company.

He was bending down to insert a wooden slot in the stall, when, with a fierce roar, the bull forced the rail and flung Spiers on to the floor of the hold. With ■ the bull threatening to run amok, stockmen held grimly to ropes round the beast’s neck and returned the animal to its stall after a struggle. i Spiers suffered lacerations of the head and had to have dhree stitches above an eye. The bull’s attack w r as the highlight, of a comedy drama which has been continuing -since loading of livestock on the freighter began. The cattle, which took a dim view of the proceedings kept the shipping agency employees on their toes and these men have become known on the waterfront as “the toreadors.” One young bull, like Ferdinand who loved to sit quietly by a tree and smell flowers, sat down and refused to move. A stock expert twisted its tail, but the bull then lay down. A watersider tried tap dancing on the animal’s back, but he just looked bored. He finally lumbered into a stall under the impetus of a bucket of cold water. One animal broke a horn, in resentment at the prospective sea voyage, and a stockman searched the city for cotton wool, with which the wound was staunched with the addition of tar.