SHEEP MADE TO SWIM

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 February 1937, Page 8

SHEEP MADE TO SWIM

I SAVING TIME ON JOURNEY I j FEATHERSTON, February 14. | To see a mob of 1100 wethers swim- ! ming across the mouth of Lake Wairarapa was the interesting experience of ' a number of visitors to Lake Ferry ; last Friday. The sheep, which were | from Mr. D. Sutherland’s station, “Whatarangi,” were en route to Mr. Eric Riddiford’s station at Orongoron(.go, and were in charge of Messrs D. ! Sutherland and Malcolm McLeod and jseveral shepherds, although once the j lake had been forded, two shepherds j and their dogs were sufficient to get • them to their destination. I The sheep were made to swim J across the lake-mouth while the tide i was running into the lake, because at ! other times they would have been j swept out to sea by the current. Ali though a strong wind was blowing, the water was almost calm as the tide was flowing against the wind. There were quite a number of people staying at the Ferry Hotel and they took a great interest in the proceedings, some assisting by holding up lengths of scrim to direct the sheep into the water. So interested was the licensee, Mr. F. Brough, and several others that they got into the water while assisting with the task, but as it was quite warm the whole thing was taken as a lot of fun. Some of the shepherds used boats but others followed their dogs and (took to the water, with the result that there was a merry mix-up of men, dogs and sheep, but there were no casualties and no sheep were lost. The whole mob was over the lake in about two hours, which is said to be a record for a mob of that size.

This route used to be the regular ’.vay of getting sheep to Wellington in the early days, meaning as it does, a saving of at least five days’ travelling, and a saving in distance of just over 50 miles. To drove such a mob to Featherston for railing over ihc Rimutakas would take almost, three full days, and a further three days would be spent droving them from Petone to Orongorongo.