"WOOL AWAY!”

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 July 1936, Page 11

"WOOL AWAY!”

CHANGES IN SHEARING INDUSTRY

If the recently reported demands of shearers for higher rates of pay develop into a major dispute, another storm) chapter will be added to the history of an industry that never has been free of trouble for any length of time (writes Bruce Pratt, in the ‘Sydney Morning Herald”). Shearing being a skilled occupation and the lad that it has to be carried on ex--1 editiously at a certain definite time each year, place the shearer in a strong position in his fight for what lie considers to be his rights; and although the industry is on a far more satisfactory basis than it used to be, even to-day the grazier breathes a sigh of relief when the last shorn sheep has been counted out and the last white fleece packed away. More than a hundred years ago, James Atkinson wrote “An Account of Hie State of Agriculture and Grazing in New South Wales.” which is probably the first book dealing with primary industry in Australia to be published. In it he touches on the shortage of good shearers, a matter that has always been a matter of concern to sheepmen.

The author advises the settler, in his own interests, “to cause as many of his servants as possible, to be instructed in this art of shearing, which they are generally very desirous to learn. I have always made it a practice” (he goes on) “to cause any sheep that were to be killed, to be first shorn by a man who was a stranger to the art; and when any happened to die, to cause their wool to be taken off in the same manner.’’ From the same writer wc learn that “when shearing is performed by hired hands the usual price is 3/6 per score,” and further, that “the average weigh! of the most improved fleeces may be stated at about 2Llb each.” In icgard to the latter statement, it must not bu forgotten that the fleeces in those nays, and for many years later, were washed upon the sheep’s back in a convenient creek some few days belore sheaiing, which would reduce their weight materially. Wo come to the forties of the last century, and from Curr's “Squatting in Victoria” we get a rather humorous account of what, at the time, must have been a most exasperating shearing. The author considered himself “very fortunate in being able to muster three extia men lor shearing and washing, and to avail myself of their services with the humility which became a master of those times.” INSISTED ON RUM.

“These three worthies, of course, fixed the rate at which they were to be paid, which was, in addition to their rations, one pou,nd sterling per handled sheep, with four glasses of rum per day. The last requirements I thought very hard and arbitrary, as rum or spirits of any sort found no part in my stores; and I tried hard to get. it commuted to double its money value.” The shearers, however, insisted on their rum, and so the Hockowner had no choice but to mount the least dishonest of his servants and send him off to the nearest publican, who lived more than a hundred miles away, with an order for six gallons of rum. This fellow got the rum all right; but on the return journey he insisted on “shouting” all the shepherds whom be met on the way, aud replacing with water the spirits that had been used in these jollifications. Ultimately he reached the shearing shed with the rum, which, in si ite of adulteration, was potent enough to put two of the shearers completely out of action lor a day, and so upset the third that he managed to shear only 25 sheep instead of the average 60 or 70. Such was shearing in the forties! Thirty years later John Kyrie Graham, in his “Treatise on the Australian Merino,’’ writes: “There is no branch of sheep management in Australia that requires a thoiougli and effective reform so much as shearing; ... at the present day (1870)

the sole object in almost every shed would appear to get the wool off the sheep in the shortest possible time, without much regard to how it is done, provided the animal be completely denuded of his covering. To sen a set of shearers at work, one might suppose that their very existence was dependent upon the speed they should make with every sheep they catch.”

He points out that the flock master invests a. large capital in the purchase and improvement of his ttheep and run: spares no expense in “putting upon his flocks the best fleeces they arc capable of bearing, washes

them with soup and hot water by means of an expensive apparatus, and brings them to the shed in as perfect a, condition as possible;; and when there, a careless, hasty, or unskilful shearer so mangles and mutilates both sheep and wool, that a considerable portion of the squatter’s labour and expense is thrown away.” In the same book, the author condemns a now long-forgotten privilege of the fastest shearer in the shed. “The presence in your shed,” (he writes) “of a. leading man, or in shearer's vernacular ‘a ringer,' is most objectionable. This man is supposed to be privileged to call ‘Smokeoh’ or ‘Knock off.,’ etc., and he assumes a sort of leadership which leaves the superintendent himself a divided authority only; and this is plainly subversive of that discipline and good order which should supplant the bustle and haste before deprecated.''

The posiaion of "ringer” is, to-day, still keenly sought after in the sheds as a matter of shearing reputation, but the holder of that honour has no more say iu the matter of starting and stopping work than the youngest rouseabout who sweeps the shearing board. Those are questions that are settled in an Arbitration Court, hundreds of miles away. In the eighties the more progressive of the pastoralists were forecasting that change which in time, completely revolutionised the shearing world—the displacement of blades with machines—and in ISSS Dunlop Station made pastoral history by carrying out a complete shearing by the latter method.

The machines, however, met with bitter oppositaion from both a section of the graziers, as well as the men who had to use- them. The former contended that their use \yould result in a shorter growth of wool, and consequently, a smaller clip in the .season following their adoption; while the latter expressed all that contempt and abuse which the handcraftsnier. so often has for the machine. ThH op position, coupled with the mechanical imperfections of the machines, delaved their general use, and it v>as not until the dawn of the present century that their adoption was practically universal. Gurley Station, in the norih-west of New South Wales, was one of the last to make the change, i: having a complete "blade” board until 1903. Now the hand shears are onR used for shearing stud sheep, or in those cases where for economic reasons, it would not pay to instal nr.< chines. To-day, more than fifty niJlimt sheep have to be shorn annually in New South Wales alone, most of '.hem between July and December. It would not be possible to handle such an enormous number in such a short space of time unless shearing proceeded on oiled wheels. Gone is the hard-drinking, hard living, gambling shearer of the last century; gone, too. arc his blades which used to go click, click, throughout the long shearing day. The occupation lias lost some of its glamour and romance, but it has gained in stability ami eliiciciicy and in better working and living conditions for the men who follow it.