MUSTERING ON MOERAKI STATION

Otago Witness, Issue 2850, 28 October 1908, Page 82

MUSTERING ON MOERAKI STATION

r- — By Womb a.

Some time ago, happening to be out of work, and seeing an advertisement in the Otago Daily 'limes that a packer was wanted, I interviewed the registry office man, and. was referred to the X.Z. Land Company. The gentleman in the Land Company's office asked if I wa s used to packhorees, to which the answer was yes. " Can you cook?" was the next question. Ab my culinary education had been neglected, it was necessary to confess only a limited knowledge of the art. " But surely you can fry a chop and boil a billy for tea? 1 ' the gentleman said. Anxious to get on, Ii said that I could bake dampens, make doughboys," cook bandicoots, 'possums, and " gohannas.' " Tut, tut, there are none of those horrid reptiles in New Zealand," the gentleman interrupted, "but you can go up to the station on Monday." My duty was to drive the packhorses with provisions, etc., for the must erers, and "fix camp. I arrived all right by train, and the following morning got the packhorses ready with the help of one of the regular station hands. Unfortunately the proper hack for the man in charge of the, packhorses had got injured, and I had to ride another nag. She was a bay mare, about 17 hands high, not a bad stamp of animal, but with a rather sour looking head. As I am not quite so young as I used to be, the height of my mount gave me trouble, but that was got over. As the station hand, Bill, if I remember right, came along to show me the road, we got along without any trouble. We were getting near the camp where we had to stop the first night, when "The Shiner" — my mount's name — got excited, and went on like an old churn. However, as I had ridden camels, nags of all sorts, and also had trips on traction engines, drawing logs in. the jarrah forest of West Australia, it did not matter a bit. We got to the camp, and as there were several hens about, Bill went egghunting. After taking the packs off the l^Wses I started my maiden attempt at cooking for nine or 10 men, and got along fairly, at least no one growled at the chops or the way the eggs were fried. Next day the serious business commenced. After going about 12 miles we came to a camp where Bill had to stop with half of the packhorses. and I had to go on to another camp in the ranges somewhere. After a alight lunch, the journey was resumed, and as there was no track to the next camp the head shepherd came along a bit, till he could point out a ridge of rocks in the distance. His instructions were tp make for that ridge, and then he said the horses would go straight to the camp. On arriving at the rocks there were several ridges, and old Barney — one of the packhorses, ' a very wise animal, — seemed puzzled as to which ridge he had to follow. However, he chose one, and I followed. By good luck one of the musterers who had gone ahead, saw the mistake, and put us on the right ridge, telling me that that particular ridge led to next night's camp. I got on all right with the packnorses till the ridge ended with a steep, conical-shaped hill. Barney, the wise paokhorse, did not 6eem quite sure which way to go, and stopped as if considering the question. As I did not know what to do, I gave a " cooee." An answer came back j>harp and sudden. I gave a shout, and back the answer came with startling clearness. It then struck me that I nad discovered a wonderful echo. It was tlie very best echo I had ever dropped across, and was really delightful. However, the camp had to be found homehow. Barney, after deep thought, went along the conical hill, which sloped off at a very acute angle. W<? got acros*all right, ami owing to the sagacity of the hordes found the camp, which was in a pretty deep gully. By the time the muMerers turned up the tent wae pitched and tapper ready for them. Next 1 day, havinp to pa« s the locality of the echo, going b-ack to the next camping j place, I found it as offective as eyer, but ' after testing its powers several times wo ! had to Tiart and I had to " leave it," not beinfif able to take it away in my pocket. The Shiner was bohavin? fairly well, the , country was of the " Caledonia stern and wild type," but fair sheep-country. The ', licrses found thejiext camp j^ithout much

trouble. My instructions were to leave two of them there, and a hack belonging to one of the musterers, put up a tent, and then come back along a , ridge and someone in ould meet me and tell me N the way to the night camp.. I did as requested, and started back with Barney ard another of the packhorses, but "■ he behaved very badly and wanted to go GDmewhere else instead of back the way we had come. However, after some' trouble, he was induced to go the way I wanted him to go. The man that was to. have jnet me did not turn up, but once Barney was on the ridge again he took off quite confidently down— another one, co there was nothine left to do but to follow and trust to him and providence. We found the camp all rinrht. but on the ridge above there is a really curious and interesting s formation. For the space of several acres | the rid.cc is covered with thousands of j blocks of stone, just like sills for win- ' dows and linteta for doorways, there they are and they look as if hundreds of stone masons had been employed for years making them. Many of them are perfect rubes about four feet long, others have five sides, and all appear as if the hands of man had, something to with forming them. It struck me that a geologist would be interested in the formation. I have travelled over a large portion of Australia and also New Zea- ' land, and never came' across a similar ' formation ; but if that mass of readyformed building material was near a railway station it would 1 mean a fortune to the lucky owner. After some minor troubles with the , ridgepole' and- finding wood to fight the fire, the camp - vrav ready for my lot of mueterexs when they came along hungry and tired enough. Tlie head shepherd had picked up an old post and one of the others a bit of timber of some sort, iso we were sure of a. fire to boil the billy in the morning. ' They were a decent lot of fellows, and were not a bit cross at mv culinary efforts, crude as they were. None of them seemed to have seen the peculiar formation on the ridge, or, if they had seen it, had taken no notice of it. Next day I went back to the camp where the other packhorses were, picked them up. and started for the Dasher home station, where we had stopped the first, night out. Nothing worth Telaiting happened except, when passing near where a Sfate quarry bad been worked in times gone by, the ( Shiner, toying to go sideways along a j narrow track on the side of a steep ' hill, nearly ended her life and mine too. The pack-horses had got a bit ahead, and the Shiner was in a great hurry to get j up to them. At one place where th« track had been washed away it was only j about 2ft wide, so I tried to steady her j ladyship. She resented this, and tried to 1 pass the narrow place crab fashion : result, «he slipped over the edge, and it was only a miracle tin© pair of U6 did not , make a sudden drop of about lOQft. Next , day we all igot back to the Moeraki home station with aboot 8000 or 9000 sheep. These had to be dipped, and as there were, a few hundred woolly str-agfifleora to be shorn .the manager got me to stop and | finish them. As he was busy harvesting : he did not care about losing time, so j the first day I picked up the fleeces for four shearers and penned up the sheep ; j next day I finished the 50 or 60 that J remained to be shorn. After finishing the ; week fencing, etc., and not fancying life on a New Zealand station, where v there j are no lizards, bandicoots, or niggers, I parted good friends with the manager, and returned to the flesh-pots of Dunedin none the worse for the trip.