THE WOOL FROM OUT-BACK.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1040, 1 February 1911, Page 8

THE WOOL FROM OUT-BACK.

HOW IT GETS TO POET. When, the average Dominion citizen roads his country's wool account, and r-sts .£7,000,000 or ,£B,COO,ODO on tliocralit sitlo his imagination does not run him very far into details as to limv tho goldeii fkoco and its producers faro from tho coinmtncement ot operations to the failing of-the ocean liner with tho material aboard. Probably the avorasjo producer does-not think very often liow fares the wool-grower in the untamed country of the bush and out-back districts. Tho flocks may not bs very largo,on thesa ■ stations, but this class of country is contributing its quota of the yearly total, and it is a hiird-er.ra-Ed position. Mustering for shearing is not all it might bo on. lhe> bush ruh, and when shearing; is over and the wool, baled the task; generally, begins. . The roadlefsness of the back country is, of course, the primo trouble. As in tho earlier days, .when there were still fewer roads, the ri%--ers are looked to for assistance. In the days of the dawn of settlement in Hawke's Bay men used to take their woo] and.other, predneis in bullock-:drays or. ; -on' pack-horse to tho Tukituki . River, iand float: if" down to Clive. 'Earlier still;- settlers iii Southern Wairsrapa got their sheep in and their wool out by river, or around the coast. Nowadays wool?rowers in districts off tlis Main Trunk railway take their 1 wool good distances to the Wanpamii Kiv-sr to start them on their way to the ship's side. Tho way to the river is rarely by road (in the ordinary acceptation of the word "road"). : Sledges are used, -and' with.th? ■,aid. : .ofthp farni is slsdged to- tli9-baiik-x>svihe-'watercourse.: , : When.the majority .oLus see th? bales entrained <>u r>u*3. for port, .CISCO td fA worth of . wool ori a truck, wo think this' is a very fine woo)£ country, but we do not think of the but-back .-settlers' contribution, which helps to give tji? Dominion, the reputation of being so prolific. ' ' ''■■'.-■ -..-•-.