“Wayleggo,” A High Country Film

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30724, 13 April 1965, Page 13

“Wayleggo,” A High Country Film

“Wayleggo” is a peculiarly New Zealand word, derived solely for communication between man and dog, and daily it is bellowed, shouted, and screamed across the vast network of interlocking hills and valleys of the South Island high country. Borrowing the title of Peter Newton’s book of the same name, the National Film Unit has produced a documentary of the same title depicting the arduous life of a highcountry musterer. The 23-minute feature offers film viewers a spectacular and colourful picture of a typical high country sheep station season. It was shown in Christchurch for the first time yesterday.

Filmed about 12 months ago on the 145,000-acre Mount White Station, which encom-

passes the land between the Waimakariri and Hufunui rovers on the south and north, the Packety Range on the east and the Main Divide on the west, it graphically illustrates the harsh beauty of the steep, shingle scree scarred hills, and the primitive way of life. A skimpy story follows the fortunes of the mustering gang through the season’s routine of dipping, marking calves, packing out on a team of horses and mustering the tops. The camera follows the men out to the sparse utilitarian huts, littered with beer bottles, pin-ups and carcases of mutton awaiting preparation.

Some of the most spectacular scenes are those filmed on the “high tops” where the dogs become the heroes. To achieve these shots, the camera team packed out its 1001 b of equipment, including tripods, cameras and sound equipment, on pack horses. To anybody who has never taken part in a high country muster, this section of the film would be very impressive. At times the dogs are mere specks in the distance, shouted and cursed at, but capable and loved by their masters.

The gathering of the sheep from small isolated mobs in high basins, to the long strung-out lines of white dots sidling across shingly slopes and finally converging into a huge surging mob, provides some spectacular photography and illustrates the puniness of men and animals in the vastness of the hills.

The frivolity of horse breaking, the dumping of sheep into a dip, the earmarking of cattle and the driving of sheep across rivers may seem cruel at times, but it is a necessary part of station life. One major sequence in any station’s season has been left out: shearing time. No excuse can justify the exclusion of this part of a sheep station’s operations. Wool is the primary—and in many cases the sole—income from sheep stations and blade shearing is still the major method of gathering the clip. Minor faults, such as the selfconscious speaking of the participants and the inadvertent inclusion of what appears to be a microphone lead in one sequence, do not mar the production, but the exclusion of shearing seems to make the whole purpose of the station’s work pointless. It is also a pity that the film is not longer and more comprehensive.

The film may not be released for general distribution for about two or three months.