MACKENZIE COUNTRY.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18430, 10 July 1925, Page 10

MACKENZIE COUNTRY.

THE ORIGINAL RUNHOLDERS. (SPECIALLY W3ITTEX FOR "THE rKESS.' ) (By T. D. BrRXtTT, M.l'.)

The men who took up the Mackenzie sheep rims were not mountain sheep-farmers. AVith few exceptions, they had had little or no experience ot sheep, certainly not in mountainous ■country. They were much more at home in the management of cattle anc horses. Most of them were welleducated, some from the English public schools; a few had the advantage—or perhaps disadvantage—of a College course. England and Scotland were about evenly represented. Ireland was. absent. Yorkshire and Devonshire Had more than their fair quota,, while the Scots, previous to the year 1860, all Lowlandera, with the exception or the Erasers. And it is curious, too, to note that Otago had no hand m the originial settlement of the Mackenzie; all the runholders curao from the ■n*rth: some .from Uid-Canterbury,, some from Chrurtchurch and the Bays, hut most from Nelson. It wa* Horn Nelson that the horses cameand iiom Nelson came also the sheep iheFatte, Boiis, the Darks's the Teschemakers, the Erasers, the Hodgkinsons, andJacMurdos all came from the oldest seted corner of the South Island seeking clean fresh sheep country free from the taint of sheep scab. They were a tine lot of men-wo see that ««»«:. .. for 8f;: tine their faults—with very little that was mean or small in.their make-up. And hospitality was almost the nrst law. Their, code of honour was verysimple and is easily told: they hated with a bitter hatred the man who bought the freehold of a run, and no words could express their detestation, of one who enticed a shepherd or a bullock-driver from another s employ. Some quite classical rights wore iougnt over this matter. And in later years another law was added all unconsciously to the code: that it. was only a cad who would "run" a man for his homo, at auction. No "Class" or "Caste."

Of "class" and "caste'' there was none: all hands tuckered together, the squatter played cards with his (shepherd, and there is nothing on record to show that either side lost anything bv tho familiarity. Keunavay,. Tt-s----ehemaker, Sterieker, and Gladstone, of Rhoborough Downs, could drive bullocks with any one. It is only a smalL man newly risen who is nervous of losing, caste if ho tuckers or works with his' men. The commercial instinct wa;; totally absent too; at all events it had not developed in the 'fifties and 'sixties. The stress of fierce competition had yet to come, the country was wide and 'open, ono could ride from the Timaru roadstead to the Alps without breaking half-a-dozen by-laws innocently nor see anything to covet on the way. Loans were given and accommodation provided without giiestion on terms that would not be given to-day; half the Mackenzie flocks have been started with sheep "on terms." The only smartness indulged in was that of forestalling another in taking up frosh, country, and great were the rides to Christclmrch and secret tne methods taken to secure • that end.

Stout Hearts. As has been said, the first'runholders were hot instinctively mountain sheepfarmers ; one suspects that they., took more pride in their bullock teams' 1 than interest in their 'flocks. And what they had to learn! It must have taken the stoutest-heart, of a pioneer to face the unknown:-and be prepared to learn the alphabet of -mountain sheepcraft. Here was a wild mountainous country, unlike any other tract of land at that time - opened ' up in Australia or-.New Zealand. It was known to :bo a land of snowstorms and shut off-from the coastal country by high ranges. For wheeled traffic the. only i>atJi was up the Tengawai and Opihi riverbeds, and thence over the passes, which only the generals among the "bullockies" could negotiate. The inland plains were densely carpeted, with the bayonet-like leaves of Spaniards, through which itwas absolute, cruelty to force a horso; the river-banks were thickly fringed with tamatakauri scrub and snowgrass, while the country itself was cut in three by huge glacial-fed rivers, through which the difficulty pf forcing shoep would harass the heart of a true sheep man. Withal, it w ; as practically a treeless country; only in the Glentanner gorges could one say there was timber —and.poor quality at that. For from fifteen to twenty years the chief feature of sheep management was boundary keeping. Happy the runholder who at least had one side a natural boundary. Littlo was known of the native grasses; some of the early runholders thought country wasn't stocked unless the coarse white tussock Was being topped! Truly, those old-time pioneers had everything' . to leam.- And we in our somewhat greasy prosperity—a prosperity made possible by London's appetite and a world-wide use of wool—are apt to belittle those pioneers' efforts and ask in our sixty-five years old wisdom: ''Why did they not do better?" For the world . one cannot help doubting whether those' self-same o'-kics would have done as well.

How The Runs Were- Taken Up. The writer; is putting on record all the information he possesses of the Mackenzie Country runs—who first acquired the runs from the Crown, and all those • who subsequently held and worked them. Some of the run histories, unfortunately, are not as full as he would like, and he would be glad if -the descendants of the pioneers , would supply hi m w ; th anv facts or information they may possess. Of course, the plains, clowns, and frontal ranges were the first to be applied for. Men fought shv of the gorges for some years, and it'was only a matter of pot luck, or taking what is left, that forced them into applying lor this latter class of country. Half a century of odds and ends of Arctic winters lias somewhat altered their opinions. It i s now • impossible to give, the proper sequence or order of taking up the runs; in many respects the harvesting 0 f "tussock seed" is thirty years too kte ; But this is easily apparent: that '57 and 'SB noticed a rush of Mackenz> applications. One shrewdly guesses that someone spied out the land and then ■£ a m u 6l " of let I"* friends into t£?«£ i« and Lence Yorkshire and £? + L ,™ Prese ,? ta tion i s explained. [y original in the latter cS on i^ ing * name, appears hT £ 7 - »T v* Again, information on p nal , hc f se " official lists and £n, B }™ ned - tnm siderably : from ou S ei j ts v f*f s tained from what k 1^ 6 ° b " liable sources. H«„* undoubtedly rethrew trickles of i& We *? ave at ,e - asfc down to us-the o «u ?P J ,latlo , n I . comms popular versions c md ea two championed &*^» -often than not To add to the L^? er ? nt fan»uefjsearch. ■» Km^^Z

seized on an agent or friend as the original applicant. It must be understood that "sixty-five years ago Christchurch was as distant from the Mackenzie as Auckland is to-day, and if it were known that a neighbour was making a journey to Christchurch he would be asked to apply for a certain block of country. Such was the case with Birch Hill Station, tal<en up by Campbell, of Ben More, for his neighbour, George Hodgkin'son, of Lake Ohau.

Takapo. In 1557 Takapo Station was applied for by Ebenezer Hay, of Pigeon Bay, while his nenhew John, later of Barbarafield, Kakahu, took up 15,000 acres across the river on what is now known t:a the Ulenmorc Flat, Mt. Jolin Station, which included 5000 acres across the Fork River. John Hay managed Takapo Station for his uncle, and the station homestead site was selected on the peninsula for the shelter afforded by a fine clump of big tamatakauri scrub.'

Sumewheie noout 186 S. John Hay sokl out to the MacPherson's, brothers-in-law of Alfred Cox. The big snowstorm of '7O crippled them, and eventually Cox himself took the place over. I H« worked it in conjunction with Bal- : moral until 187G, when he sold to Andrew Cowan. The latter had a big uphill nght from the outset, hung; on desperately through all the lean years, saw his flock decimated repeatedly, almost annihilated once, and then just when the flood tide of prosperity was setting in for Ihe lull country, sold out to Krail Sehlaepfer. His is the I most tragic: piece of misfortune-in the i history or the Mackenzie. I John Hay partly stocked Takapo with \ sheep bought from the Levels Station, I whose, earmark was, and still is, a top land slit. When Alfred Cox sold the | place ho retained the earmark for Balmoral, and fo-da'y the latter station I lias the same, earmark after half a century as the Levels.

."Subdivision Year." In 1911, "subdivision year," Takapo Station was cut in two, E. Sehlaepfer bidding in the homestead run at auction, while V. Lake MacGregor got the 17,000 5.G.11., now known as Mt. Hay. Sehlaepfer sold out about lttU to Vivian Le Cren, still in possession. Lake MacGregor improved his run, bi'ed a good flock, and. in 1918 sold (as military.service was imminent), to. Mcllwick. Tho latter died in 1921, and the place was sold to uohn Shea. The latter- sold last May (1925) to John Scott. It is interesting to note ti'__ the present Mt. Hay was the site of pre-pakeha Maori fishing huts, as seen by James Hay the elder, in 1858.

The steamer Port Melbourne, which is now at -New Plymouth, has been an unfortunate ship in regard to- the amount of loss suffered through . pillage. _At Lyttolton, the last port visited before coming to New Plymouth, the vessel lost considerably, and the search _for goods and the thieves proved fruitless Since coming to New Plymouth the storeroom on the steamer has been, broken into, and clothing to the value of about £3O stolen. A thorough search of the ship has been made by the officers and by the police, but; no discovery has been made that would give any'clue as to the responsible person or persons. The Customs Department's seal of the storeroom was broken in order to effect an entrance.