EARLY WAGONING DAYS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26772, 15 May 1948, Page 9

EARLY WAGONING DAYS

Sir,—ln the letters of Mr Mcßay and “One of Them” they have dealt pretty fully with the Central drivers througn the Maniototo district of the last 55 years, and Mr Mathewson has also added the names of many before that date. I do not think Miles McGinnes’s name was mentioned. The last I remember of him he was carting from Omakau. Alex. Mcßae and Jack Burns carted from Middlemarch to the Maniototo and Naseby. Robert Cochrane, who carted from Palmerston and Dunback with his dray ■ and five horses, was burned to death in his dray two miles from Naseby on the Lower Kyeburn road. It is supposed that he went to sleep and left the candle burning. This happened in July, 1890. He had been carting to Naseby for about 20 years. My father, who was at Gabriel’s Gully in 1862, later had a horse and dray work, ing at Bell Hill, Dunedin, filling in where the present police station is. He went to Naseby over 80 years ago, and started a coal and carrying business. He carted from Dunedin. Palmerston, and Dunback, and also carted wheat from the Hawea district to the Naseby Flourmill. In 1871 he came to Dunedin with his tilted dray and took delivery at the wharf of the furniture of the first minister at Naseby, the Rev. McCosh Smith, and 36 years later the writer carted the same gentleman’s furniture to Blackstone Hill Station. My eldest brother, Hugh, about 60 years ago, with his wagon and seven horses, carted from Dunback. He died at an early age. My other brother, Robert, drove the dray and wagon for years at Naseby, later going to the OPQ mine at Waipori, and drove the wagon from Lawrence. About 50 years ago I started driving foi my father, first the dray and then the wagon. I carted machinery from Wedderburn to Cromwell for the Lady Alexander dredge, and I also carted (I think the last load) from Palmerston to Maniototo. The Central line in the gorge was blocked about 39 years ago, and the hotelkeepers in Naseby and Ranfurly got meto fetch a load of liquor up for them. My father said the heaviest fall of snow he remembered was in July, 1908, at Naseby. The magistrate and the writer measured it two days later, and it was 4ft lin. The flour for the bakers had to be packed in on horses by the writer. Like " Sheepman,” I believe the old drivers had a good eye for the route, which is shown by the road through the Palmerston and Dunstan district being very little altered.—l am, etc., South Dunedin. M. Marshall.

Sir,—l would like to thank Mr Hugh Delaney for his kind remarks regarding my share in the early wagoning days. There are just two small corrections I would like to make. Donald McDonald was the fourth wagoner who took the first generator out to Waipori, not John Stanton, and the boiler, with which I had the mishap at Conroy’s Gully, was for the dredge Earnscleugh No. 2. Fraser’s Flat. The Golden Gate was always at Miller's Flat. This, however, has now ben corrected by your correspondent, Mr Leopold Faigan. Certainly times and work were hard in those days, but happiness was not lacking. There was a wonderful feeling of comradeship between wagoners. Many a time I have known wagoners unyoke a horse from their team and go back miles along the road to find a fellow-wagoner who was overdue at the camping ground. The Earnscleugh Flat was a particularly bad place for the wagoners. In the summer the dreadful sandstorms blocked almost completely the poor horses’ nostrils, and in the winter the severe frost froze their tails and manes, thus we always had “ silver manes and tails ” from Coal Creek to Cromwell. The horses are well deserving of honourable mention for the part they played; good, staunch animals whose good sense saved many a mishap. I would like to mention that Jack Fitzgerald met his death while taking a piece of machinery into the Waipori powerhouse. This, of course, occurred many years after I was finished with wagoning on the Lawrence-Cromwell road. In fact, when I was proprietor of the Waipori Hotel and running a mail coach between Lawrence and Waipori. The . acommodation houses and those who kept them are also deserving of mention. No wagoner was ever refused a meal no matter what the hour. / I well remember one landlady telling her servant who had demurred at the late arrival of a wagoner for his tea, that “If it wasn’t for the likes of him there would be no need for the likes of you.” These women catered for the wagoners as best they could, and showed them every kindness possible in those days of little or no conveniences in their houses.—l am, etc., Edward Pearson. Beaumont.

Sir,—May I express my sincere gratitude, and that of countless readers I feel sure, first to Mr Leopold Faigan, Miller’s Flat, for his intensely interesting and ablywritten letter on the early wagoners, and secondly to you. sir, for your generosity in allowing so much of your valuable space these days for the publishing of it. What a loss If that most fascinating chronicle had had to be curtailed even slightly! Appreciative readers will fully realise the endless hours of research that Mr Faigan spent in accumulating from varied sources and records such a wealtn of historical detail; but he may feel even partially rewarded in that we, who had not been privileged to know Central Otago in the early days, do, with him, pay sincere tribute to those grand old men of the good old days—the “ bullockies and the capable, hardy wagoners to whom we all owe an Irreparable debt. Could this valuable Information not have been included in the centennial publications dealing with Central Otago?—l atn, etc., Thank You.

Sir,—As one of the old identities, I wish to reply to Mr Kempthome. My father was one of the old wagoners, Matthew Shirley. He took goods to the Dunstan by wagon in the years 1861 and 1862, The freight at that time was £IOO per ton, and flour was sold at Is per pound Another wagoner who went with him was Sam Sheppard. , , My father was the first man to take a wagon overland to Invercargill from Dunedin, some time in 1862. As the writer was born in 1863 in Invercargill, the dates are correct. —I am. etc., Frank Shirley. Dunedin.

Sir,—The tribute paid by your correspondent to F?ank Meade was well deserved. It was a pretty sight to watch this fine horseman’s team in action. When he spoke to his team each horse filled his collar and lifted in a united effort, and that is why he was so successful in moving heavy loads. Always alert, Frank was ready for any emergency. Once when crossing the bridge near the Lawrence saleyards with a load of heavy machinery he heard the bridge timbers crack. He called to his horses, and with a split-second response the wagon was rushed across before it had time to crash through the bridge. At that time Frank removed a dredge from Waikaka to Wetherstones. and his loadings averaged nine tons per load for 10 horses, a fine feat of horsemanship. Yes, it may be justly claimed for Frank Meade that he was the ” greatest Roman of them all.” I have in my possession a photograph taken on Reidy Creek Hill some 25 years ago, showing Billy and Charlie Brenssell's team hauling a 8000 kw generator weighing 10 tons to the power station at Waipori Falls. There were 16' horses in the team, yoked four abreast in a speciallyconstructed wagon. This was also a fine feat of horsemanship, as the LawrenceWaipori road is notorious foe. its steep grades and acute bends, while rts narrowness left little to come and go on. The late James Russell, who drove between Waiporl and Lawrence, used to recall how on their return to Lawrence after traversing what was then one of the worst roads in the country, he and his fellow-wagoners after a late tea, had to load their wagons in readiness for the trip back to Waipori first thing next morning. Their wages were a mere pittance, not much more than a present-day labourer would earn in a day, and for that they had to work long hours for six days in the week and attend to their horses on Sundays Those who grumble at present-day wages and conditions should have been working in the eighties and nineties to justify their complaints.—l am, etc., Wairi.

Sir, —The name of John Feehly has not been mentioned so far. ,■ He drove a team in the days when the farmers of Crown Terrace sent their early crop of wheat to the flourmills scattered about Central Otago even as far as Oturehua, so I think the following story is worth telling, if only to prove that a good deed well done is its own reward, and an honest man, like the elephant, never forgets a good deed bestowed on himself There was a baker in Central who, through helping lame prospectors over the stile and speculating in dud mining ventures found the big bad wolf at. his door Things were so bad that he could not buy a bag of flour without paying cash,. but unfortunately it was as scarce as roses on the top of Mount Cook. He approached Feehly and asked him if he would trust him with a ton of flour, and a man who could never say no to a friend down on his luck Whether Croesus was in one of the flour bags or not I don’t know, but the baker seemed to acquire the Midas touch, and after the deal everything he touched jingled with a clear metallic ring. “ Dud mines that slept as sound as Little Nell in “ the Old Curiosity Shop.” awoke, and shone with a golden ray, and dredges started to tickle the bottom ribs of the rapid rivers and rob them of their wealth. Eventually the baker worked up one of the best businesses in Central Otago. One day he called Feehly into his office, paid him for the flour, and made him a present of a lovely gold watch Many years have come in with bells and gone away loaded with memories for the old folk' since then Feehly and the baker have answered to the final call, but the watch is still counting the seconds as they pass by.—l am, etc., C. Fahey. Waitaki.

Sir,—Having read with interest Mr Faigan’s letter cm the above I think there are two names worthy of mention which no doubt have been overlooked. I refer to Messrs George Gilchrist and Hugh Craig, both of whom drove on the road at the time erf the dredging boom and were associated with many of those mentioned by Mr Faigan. Hugh Craig was the last, I believe, to, operate a wagon between Lawrence and Roxburgh. Both of these gentlemen are still hale and hearty, and will, I am sure, enjoy reading the incidents and names of their oldtime friends of the road.—l am, etc., Roxburgh. Old-timer.