Life in a Flax Camp.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 33, 8 February 1908, Page 10

Life in a Flax Camp.

(For The Post.) There are three routes to Lawson's flax camp. The first by steamer, thiity miles up the winding Manawatu River from Foxton, through low, level pastoral I and flax laAd, where the willows and poplars, subject to the prevailing westerly, make perpetual obeisance to the sunrise ; and which the iiood waters silt up in the winter time. Tho second approach is from Shannon, across 1b.3 old-fashioned ferry, and along the Foxton rpad, to, recross the stream higher up in a "flatty" by the Maori pah. The third road is a bridle track, a good four miles from Shannon, a dreary, God-for-saken trail in winter lime, when tho clouds hang low, and the drains are roaring torrents, over the railway lino, across tho Tokomaru stream, running dark and sullen liko a; gigantic drain, past Starvation Junction, and the silent desolate lagoons, through a wilderness of toi-toi, stark cabbage trees, and derelict tree stumps. A pleasant enough track is this in summer time when the bush is starred with clematis, and crimsoned with rata, alive with English song-birds, flirting fantails, and the chorus of bull-frogs in the marshes. Every now and then the cadent note of the tui may be heard, and the startled screech of the pukaekoe fiom its hiding place in tho flax. When you hay© passed Voss's camp and skirted the winding river, you reach Lawson's Camp, in the heart of the willows, a long row of tents like an embryo township on the .banks of the lagooni Further on is tho cook-house smuggled amidst the bush on the river b.mk. From this point in a northerly direction stretches the vast Makerua estate — not so long ago worthless waste land, but now a veritable gold mine to tho ManawaLu—^-as far as the eyo can reach a soa o£ flax crested with, the reddishbrown mass of flowering stalks, forming a di&tinct demarcation from the green leaves. Therp are about twenty flax cutters at this camp, a cosmopolitan settlement. Almost ho If of the men are Australians — cane-cutters from Queensland, drovers and miners, who can savo enough in a season lo enable them to play the man of independent means all winter in Sydney. A fair proportion belong to the "Leaderlcs«t Legion," and will bo obsessed by the "wanderlust" till death or the old age pension intervenes. Thriftless they undoubtedly arc, but honest and honourable' according to their lights, and free, as the wind. Some, howevei, have tho sixth sense — tho "gripping" sense^ — ascribed to the Scotch. Here, for instance, is Fred tlie Russian, a saving chap ,and a n'rst-class grafter. There is M'Kay — said to be of ticotob extraction — from Dunedin, who has a few hundreds in- tho bank ami a section down South. Dawsori, who lives in a tenfc by himself about a couple of chains from the main camp, has been in the British navy, through the Spanish-American war, and filibustering all over South America from Pernambuco to Callab, a silent man ordinarily, but give him a long beer and no one can get a word in edgeways. Fitzgerald, who shares a tent with a "kanaka" — all Queenslandcrs are "kanakas" — is a university man, and talks in a "haw-haw"' manner, so he is honoured with the narnu of 'Plunket." The wages men work tho orthodox eight hours, the minimum wage being nins shillings,' but the cutters can knock off when > they like. The latter generally bet off armed with their hooks and billies in the early morning, and walk to the patch Where flax is b^ing cut. The cutting-rg.to averages from five shillings to eight shillings per ton, according to the quality and weight of the leaf. A good gutter can mako anything from thirteen" shillings to a pound a 1 - day, and, allowing for wet weather, should average four • pounds a week I all tho we&soa There is one little fel- ' low who has ju&t left tho camp who made thirteen pounds in eleven days, but he was, to put it mildly, a "snorter." j When sufficient flax has been cut to make a bundle, averaging about eiglity- ■ four pounds, the cutter ties it up neatly, disparding tho "koraddy" or flowering stem which' 'is heavy and nsoless for milling, <aml carries the bundle out to 1 the skeleton tram line, where it is pushed with other bundles by (ho flytrammers to the main tram line, to be weighed, and whence it is carted to tho I river bank to be shipped in punts anrl ' towed down the river by a steam launch, to Foxton, where it is dressed in the mills there. Fly trammers are paid either by contract or day wages, and there is considerable competition for this occupation, as big money is made at it. Flaxmillers, until recently, havo allowed their cutlers to hack the plant j anyhow, but up-to-date millers now reI cognise that the blado should be cut . higher up, and not torn up by tho roots !a a formerly. If flax is cut too low it bleeds tho root, and the sun getting '. at tho Exposed stump withers up the I plant and checks its growth. No "rhu- ' barb"— the red eheath at the base — should be r.een or the bundles. The' cutters generally knock off work in the afternoon about four o'clock, and hungry and Weary, descend on the cookhouse. After tea there is cricket, if they are not 100 'tired, draughts, and cards. On Sunday's thoro is frequently a cricket match with a ' neighbouring camp, or a long sleepy day in the bunk with "Over tho Slip-rails 4 ' or ''Joo Wilson and His Mates'.' for company The life is on ardutous one, but the wages are good. There is always tho fear of fire and often floods, whon the cook-house is knee-deep in water and tho cook hands breakfast up to the men, who have taken refuge on the roof. The middle-sized, stocky individual is generally the best cutter, as tho long back and lanky legs grow cramped and weary with' stooping. Cutters are a very good claps of toilers, superior to the ordinary mill hands, who are often waelroJe of other trades. There is no moro hospitable placo than a flax camp. The men are rough but shrewd and quick lo detect meanness, fcnatery, or "side." Every pay-flay they tramp to the nearest township lo "do in" or — unfortunately not often — lo bank their wages, and pure hose the few luxuries that make life amenable. Afterwards Ihere is the weary tramp nack on Sunday morning, 1 with the brain brimful of good resolutions, and the pockets bulging with pint bottles. R. E SELBY. I

Everyone know Franks to be a hypochrondiac — never so happy as when talking about tha ailments of others and thinking about his own. There was a pretty strong conviction amongst friends that even when he t.ilked most about their health he was thinking entirely of his own, so they set a trap for him. "How are you feeling his moinThgV" Franks asked, turuing at once to the usual topic. "Not very well," said the pretender gloomily. "I'm afraid I'm sick?niug for a compound fracture of the left leg." "Dear me ! that's very serious Don't neglect it whatever you do. My health broke down through neglecting a simple thing like that. Muth'M. — If \ou marry Rob-cut, 1 sw-uiir tint I'll never «>t fool m your h'Ui,.'! Daughter — J'lertso put that U.iNvii i;i wiilinq. I d like io ,mvc \ollr piomt--; iv llobeit for a wedding pro-