Fifty Years Work In Shearing Shed

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31902, 1 February 1969, Page 10

Fifty Years Work In Shearing Shed

With the shearing of the lambs on the Ahuriri property at Tai Tapu last month Mr G. M. M. (George) Couch, of Rapaki, completed 50 years work in the station shed, including 46 years as a woolclasser.

Actually in 86 years the property has had only two woolclassers Mr Couch and Mr George Butcher, who was the classer for 40 years before him. Mr Couch first went to th( Ahuriri shed as a lad in 1918 He recalls that the shed lik< that at Mount Pleasant wai built from materials from ths 1906-7 Christchurch Exhibi tion. He had “a day and bit’ in the shed that season wher the gang broke up because of the influenza epidemic and two of its. members died from the trouble. For his first four years the young Couch, who was born in Rapaki, was “rouseabout ing” but since then he has been classing continuously. When he first went to the station he worked under Mi Butcher and after the gang had “done” the Mount Pleas ant and Ahuriri properties he went with Mr Butcher in the part of the gang that then went to Otahuna, sub sequently to Greenhills neat Kaikoura and to Craigieburn and Mount White. It was while they were at Craigieburn that Mr Butcher became ill and Mr W. K. McAlpine arranged for Mr Couch to substitute for him. At the end of that season Mr Couch attended a woolclassing course at the Christchurch Technical College. Apart from his long period at Ahuriri, Mr Couch has put in some 30 seasons at Otahuna and 19 seasons at Craigieburn and Spye. He has also classed at Grasmere.

; Mr Couch recalls that in I the early days a gang of about 16 used to go from ’ Rapaki to Ahuriri for the ' shearing season. The whole i of the pa used to turn out I to farewell the party which travelled by horse and cart A notable organiser of the ie gang or boss of the board 8. was Mr Johnny Watene, who ce started working there as a is boy, later shore there for ie more than 30 years and then d- as an old man became gang t” organiser. He was still going in to the shearing there when ;e he was 80 years old. id The party from Rapaki tn also included a cook and one of these was Mr Couch’s wife, ie whose mother, Mrs Riwai, was ■n also among the cooks for the it- gang at Ahuriri. is At a function last Friday evening attended by Mr and ie Mrs D. P. Graham, of Ahuriri, [r members of the Morten ig family who previously had s- the property, and people who js had worked in the Ahuriri n shed and friends, Mr Graham it presented Mr Couch with a b- silver tea service in appreciair tion of his 50 years of loyal n service. is The occasion was also Mr e- Couch’s 66th birthday. ie The presentation was an ie outcome of two earlier pre:o sentations of gold watches—ie one by Sir R. M. D. Slorten to h Mr Butcher when he comg pleted his 40 years of classing h in the shed and one by Mr Graham to Mr Couch when d he also completed his 40 it years. i- Mr Couch has many it memories of Ahuriri. He e remembers an occasion just s. after World War I when after

a spell of wet weather and a break in the shearing, the cook, a South African, whose drink had gone to his head, forgot to put the potatoes on the table. When he was questioned about his oversight he returned with the pot and threw pot and potatoes at the shearers, causing two returned servicemen in the gang to exclaim that a bomb had exploded in their midst. Mr Couch has a story of Mr R. M. D. Morten, of Ahurir.i. Mr Morten was the owner of Ahuriri, a winner of the New Zealand Trotting Cup. and at a party to celebrate one of its victories he was told someone had seen a bush of gorse on the property. Mr Morten was reputed to have an intense dislike of gorse and carried a grubber with him on his saddle when he rode around the property. On this occasion he immediately left the party in search of the gorse but all he found was a mare with a foal which was given the name Tumatakuru, which is a Maori word that might be used for gorse. Mr Couch recalls that in more recent times he had a wonderful experience as a classer in having to handle a Romney clip at Ahuriri, then a Corriedale clip at Otahuna and a halfbred and Merino clip at Craigieburn. In his early days he said that 33,000 sheep, mainly Merinos, had been shorn when they went to Craigieburn and Mount White. Now as well as classing Mr Couch runs a farm of 500 acres at Rapaki on which he carries 1000 sheep and regards as a hobby trying to breed sheep that will grow wool that will bring the best money. His flock carries what he describes as a fine three-quarterbred wool with a count between 46 and 56. For 12 years he also worked as a classer in the wool store of the New Zealand Farmers’ Co-operative Association, where his son Douglas is now a classer. There he also learnt skin grading. Mr Couch has no plans to retire from classing, but at his age he does not intend to qualify as a registered classer. But he says that it would be a sad day for him if he knew that shearing was going on at Ahuriri and he was not able to go there. In the accompanying photograph Mr and Mrs Couch are shown with the silver tea service.