UNIFORMLY GOOD SHEARING

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27434, 21 August 1954, Page 5

UNIFORMLY GOOD SHEARING

Instructors Show Their Skill

WOOL BOARD MEMBER IMPRESSED

After a week of concentrated work, ■ the first of the shearing instructors’ 1 Courses to be held in the South- Island under the Wool Board scheme broke ; up at Lincoln Colle’ge with a certain J amount of ceremony. AU the 12 men on the course passed their tests, and 1 after giving a demonstration of shearing, each man was presented with a well-designed certificate. The highlight of the ceremony was the exhibition of shearing. There was naturally a good deal of variation in the speed and skill of the men, but it I was most striking that each one of them shore exactly to the pattern required by the style evolved by Mr W. G. Bowen, the board’s instructor. Blow for blow, each followed precisely the same routine, and showed to a greater or lesser degree the easy, flowing shearing that is the mark of the new style. The men were showing their paces before Mr B. S. Trolove, of the Wool Board, Dr. M. M. Burns, director of the college, and others, and were trying for speed as well as neatness. They were all unfamiliar with the style when they began the course, but several of them were already fast. Every man made a good job, the most remarkable point being that among them they shore about 20 ram hoggets and left no second cuts at all. Raising Standard In presenting the certificates, Mr Trolove said that the reason for the courses was that farmers found themselves in recent years with more sheep, but with no increase in the number of shearers. The scheme aimed at raising the general standard of the art and science of shearing, and from the reception it had had already, he felt that the standard would be raised throughout the country. “I have been very impressed with the quality of the work I have seen today,” he said. “You all shore beautifully, and if you can teach others to shear as well as you can shear there will be no doubt about the success of the scheme.” Mr Bowen’s assistant, Mr V. Nesdale, a. young shearer who was a member of the first instructors’ course, held at Massey College earlier this month, said that the Massey College course included some young men, and some gun shearers of many years’ experience. None of them knew what to expect of the new style, but at .the end of the course they agreed unanimously that it was the easiest and best style they had ever seen. He thankjed the Lincoln College for the arrangements it had made for accommodating the men on the course, and the college staff for its interest and help. Mr Rex Taylor, of Temuka, made a presentation to Mr Bowen from the men. He had had 20 years’ experience of shearing, he said, and like the other men on the course was most gratified at the high status given the men by the college authorities and everyone connected with the course.

It was a new thing to find shearers given so high a status. He believed that the ease of the new style, and the better job it turned out, would go a long way toward creating a* better feeling between .the shearer and the farmer. Styles Changed Mr Don Gardiner, of South Otago, the youngest man on the course, who gave a present to Mr Nesdale on behalf of the men, said it had been a grand week. Every man had come on the course with his own individual style in his head, and what had surprised all of them was to find that in two days those individual styles were taker, away and a new style substituted. He admitted that some of them did not believe it could be done. Mr Bowen said he believed that, with the Wool Board and Federated Farmers behind the scheme, a good job could be done in improving shearing in New Zealand. He praised the keenness and co-operation of the men, and said that the certificates were something they could be proud of. “I have been more than impressed with what you men who have spoken have said about better understanding between sheepowners and shearers,” said Mr Trolove. “Shearers in the past have had a bad spin, though it has not always been the fault of the farmer. I believe the grower is now beginning to appreciate that shearing is a fine art.” He ended by saying that as the new instructors would be pioneering the instruction scheme in their provinces, they would help greatly if they passed on to the board any suggestions they had for improving the service.