A TREK OF TWO DAYS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21328, 22 November 1934, Page 8

A TREK OF TWO DAYS

PIONEERS OF CHEVIOT CHEESE FACTORY'S TROUBLE "My father drew 365 acres in the Spotswood district in the Cheviot ballot," said Mr J. G. McPherson. "Nine months later he and I set out from Kaiapoi in a dray loaded with stores and a tent. We took two days to make Cheviot. We had the tent because we had to wait eight weeks before a house was built on our section." Mr McPherson was 11 years old when he went with his father to the Cheviot district. To-day he is still farming in the same district. When he first arrived in Cheviot the township consisted of two blacksmiths' shops, a general store, a bakehouse, a board-ing-house, a saddler's shop and a loan agency conducted by Mr W. T. Robinson. "There was no hotel there in those days though David Scott, who ran the boarding-house, had a large cellar built. But he couldn't get a license," said Mr McPherson. School was held in the tin Methodist Church and was first conducted by the Rev. Mr Drake. Mr McPherson did not go to school till Mr W. Balch, the first headmaster, took charge. Mr Balch taught in the church for several months while the school house was being built. About 60 pupils attended the school held in the tin church. "Soon after our arrival a cheese factory was built," said Mr McPherson. "At one time it was so badly off that the farmers could not get money for their milk but had to accept cheese in

payment. Then Mr Frank A. Cook came along and called a meeting of farmers. He told us he would take over the factory, turn it into a butter factory and run a store in conjunction with it if we would support his store. We agreed to that, and Mr Cook turned out to be a real blessing to the district because he put that butter factory on a sound basis." Mr McPherson said that all the shearing in the Spotswood district was done in Stevenson's implement shed. Every year a floor was put down and three of the local men would do the shearing, turning out from 85 to 110 each a day. Mr McPherson as a young man was shearing in that shed. Nearer the township all the shearing was done in the old station shed. A .gang of shearers was employed there. The shearing rates in those days were 16s 8d to 20s a hundred, the shearers being kept. Mr McPherson remembers the old Cheviot football team in which Mr George Forbes was a leading player.