THE SOCIAL GRADE IN A SHEARING SHED.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 94, 14 January 1908, Page 2

THE SOCIAL GRADE IN A SHEARING SHED.

A rude awakening .would, await; the armoliair * Socialist' were ne.to put in a few weeks, time in a big shearing.shed. 1 There he would find two distinct classes—as distinct as theEast is from',the West—which never meet, namely the shearer" and' the shed 'hand-. The shearer is like.unto the centurion; tho shed: hand the slave who-fetches and'carries. In: liis time the shearer has usually- occupied the, lowly grade, commencing as '-'fleece-oh,"' and. ho has fetched 1 and carried, fand possibly, has been kicked arid cuffed, until by a process: of apprenticeship; in . tho half-hour spells ho; has learnt ; .' to .hold '' and >■ shear: his -, sheep; 1 Then he becomes a Shearer, and under the old pre-historic riile,; the. rule that might is l right, ho keeps his heel on the' necks ..of those of the second-grado from which he has; sprung. To the shearer the shed hand is "a' roustabout., somewhat inelegantly termed a "loppy." H<3-must not sit at the same table as the shearer, and in many instances lie does not get the same fare. A story .is told how, years ago, on a AVairarapa sheep station, a shed hand" had the temerity tu-rsk-the Chinese cook ■ for somo . "brownie. "Brownie" is a shearing-shod delicacy, as birds' nests are in . China, : and comprises a wheaten loaf into which, have been-, rliot 'u few currants."' Tho • request. of tho shed hand was treated with scorn-by the Celesti.il cbpf, whereupon the hungry' one 4 invaded the shearers 1 .table- and helped' himself. ■. This gross sicrilege was .tho last str«jw, fori the. Chinee, • and rhis feelings so overcame his, native love of'peace that he boldly grappled with the invader, and to a frantic tattoo, on that\much-astonished party's faco and; head, he screamed "Blownie! blownie 1 .11] give you blownie, you louseabout."