ANZAGS AS TREE-CHOPPERS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 14044, 14 July 1916, Page 4

ANZAGS AS TREE-CHOPPERS

EXCITING COMPETITION. MAORIS WITH AXES. (From Captain C. : E. Bean, Australian Press Representative.) BRITISH HEADQUARTERS, . i ER.ANqE, I May,-26. ■> That- was. m "At Forest of 1 Firance,'. as. the; programme had it. The road ran down a great aisle, with' 'the.. tall elm trees reaching to the 'sky and stretching ..their long, -green * fingers i'ai above like the slender: pinnacles of a (Jothio cathedral. Down 'the long, ■ narrow f road below sagged „a , big,- grey, motor 'bus .painted grey; like a ■ battleship, , and after it a Jiuge grey motor lorry; .and. m front- a»d ' behind i them :• -an ■ odd • .procession .< ioi motor ; oars of all sizes, .bouncbigvawkiwardly from one hollow, m; the road to another. . „,Qut of the i dark interior' of the motor ?bus,. las-ivwe passed. it,r there cropped a head with a.. grey slouch .hat on.it. It came slowly round on its 10ng,. -brown, wrinkled neck, until it looked into our car . "Hey, mate," it said, "is this the track to the races?" TJien.it smiled at the landscape m general, and withdrew into; the interior like a snail into its shell. In. this 'bus was .an Australian brass band. We drew up wliere there was a collection of motor cars^ lorries,, odd riding horses, along' the- roadside, exactly as /cm might Sbe at picnic < races. We struck inland, up to one of those glades which the' French foresters leave at intervals running' from side to sido of their Avell-managedi forests. The., green moss sank like a soft* carpet beneath our feet. The little • water' gutters bubbled beneath the 7 twigs as we- trod across them. The -cowslips ..and anemones nodded as : our .boots brushed them. Hundreds of bi»ds sang. in the branches. And the sunlight came -down m shafts from the lacework patches -of, sky far above, and .lit up patches of ;iass and fallen leaves ufuad vmoss-cov-ered tree trunks, on which sat a crowd, chiefly, of Australians and New, Zealanders. As one of the? English correspondents said : "It was .'just such a forest as Shakespeare wrote about." Who -would have thought .that scene believable ffro years before? UNBELIEVING , A contest has between ; Australasians and .Canadians .m Finance to decide which could.<fell trees rin the quickest time,. It, began really with the French forest authorities, who [insisted on the well-learned forest rule that no young trees Tinder L2O metres m girth must- be felled after the middle of May,, because if you cut the young 1 tree after the : s^ipJiegins to rise it Will riot/ (grow .again. The .British .officer m control of the forest had obtained ■ an extension until, £he , end of, May, but )e had to get felled by then 'all the, young, timber that he wanted before September. He had borrowed some to help, and he noticed how they cut, ;and .the sort of they, were. He was struck . with; -an ,; idea. A- French forest officer - was*, with. him. f 'How, long do you think it will ,ta.ke a. NewiZealander to cut, down a tree.; like tha.^?" asked the Frenchman. "A. minute," was the answer. "Unbelieya'blo,"" exclaimed the Frenchman. A/Maoi'i was brought up, and the. tree was down .m VKteec. • 1 _ ...... I After that a contest was arranged, between Maoris tand-. French woodcutters. Trees had to be out m the Frencht-style, Which, it must be .is^anuch neater and more.,l economical and .about five times as laborious. • Tjie t*ees ; ; are cut off at giround level, .and . <so straightly that, the woul&aiot trip you if it were m the. middle of the road. Each team jconsisted of six. 'men, who felled 12 tall trees. The choppers u.3ed their own accustqmed ...axes.. .* tMitoris won. by four wins. ' ; . OH^IXENGEIS L^SUED. \ ! It was out of,,'thiß .that the big,.contest sprang. " The Canadians and the iAustralians challenged one "',' anptheiv This time the teams were. to. .be. of three men. / : Each team was. to cut tlyee, trees. Only service axes were .to- be used, but othenvise eichVjnan .could .cut m any style he -wished. ; The trees were, about 2ft thick, .hajrAwopd. , The' teams Started, to . practice, [\iand the forest officers' problem .was solved. : The teams ipssed r ,f6r tjrees,, and tossed for the ■order .m,. which ..they., were, to cut. I believe/ that. whW some. iquesjtion ..arose put of .this. ,toss (the...,3ifeoris , im; mediately offered fto.toss\.again^ m order to .lia-ve no advantjaige from. th« -resxiit. 1 It wae interesting to see 1 the 1 differencj .of style. . All,. tjiree types ; .-ot Qolonial woodsmen, cut the .trees alnipst breast highy bub the Australian, seemed to be the only one vthat too^ advantage of that understwke.with, a ,hiss,thr9ugh^ tlie 'clenched teeth , which / looks, > so' formidable when you> watch our, timbergetters. ; It was the. .Canadian, team which- started. They, cut coolly !,, and the one whom L watohed, struck his splendid condition, was, a wiry man, not thick-set; but yfell l>uilt .andf Athletic. He never turned a. hair. I think' he was .perhaps. too cool to win. ; His comraiies were not quite so .fast .'..da , he, j They cut the trees with; a' fairly „.n arrow scarf, the top cut coming 1 down:s,la?aaght to;nieet it, so.thatiihe top of, the. stump when .the tree,. ialla. is. left . ,cut off straight as., a table .top. /Their, first tree, crashed m. 14min.,. the next m. 15, (and then they, all /three tackled 'the,, last api toiighest,. .whidL.fellrin,. 21. i „ DIFFERENT. STYLES. I . ! The next team y^as, Australian. , From t-li©,;first- rapid, swing '■ one's* anixety. was Avhether .jtheyj could| ..possibly stand (the pace. They tackled the job so mupfy more » flercely- , than, the, Canadians. 1 watched,^ a. .yqung, .Tasmanian; his .whole soul . iii| it) rbrow'. M'ltinkled, .sweat ,-poutting front his face. One would hay© thoughtthat.he, was i cutting ..almost wildly ; till ona noticed, how .every cut., '.went *nome exactly on , top of .the :cub - before. " These 1 Australians-Trolley were -Western Australians mostly — made a., wide -scarf, , the. top; icut coming . down' iafc an angle, and the' lower cut- coming j up, *at. a ; similar angle, to. meet i it, I. making a>, wido-,«>i>eii angle betvreen- «the >t,wp. „ •■> The . odds would,. I .thiu'i, .Jiavei'beentitaken t by most ..of.'ihose.whiC! went there aSiibeiug m favor of 1 the .Canadian^; -and ifcvwafe a great , surpriso when the thr,ee; Aus ltralian.. ta'fiea ( were.'jaJl i down --m >31min Bsec. , -. ■ ■ ' '■■■■!■ NEW ZEALANDERS^WJ^Sr. i Tlie ,New Z.ealanders- cut.! third., 'JiheU* team ;did tnot. seem tb..be • cutting, wjth the fire of the .Australians. .» There was riot fthe.^yisible, .energy. Tneir. ••actions struck one , ..as ' easier , and -one.; doubted ijf i their great, lithe b>nowh muscles were carrying.. them so 'fast. , Yet the. time told , the .tßuth. . Their three trees^ were down . m. ,21min 40sec, . and no • one v else approached them. .- . One . - Canadian- 'team | improved .the .Canadian time 1 to '•'■ 4smin 22sec. : vEhe Maoris seemed- mostly to oul/ with a nai'TOwer scarf even thail. the Canadians; ?.•> Both upper. • and lower {Onts : sloping ,; downward -at- a -narrow. tangle. .In fairness it must, be , said* that ? the 'Maoris had practised about six weeks, the Canadians and Australians about one week ; : An Australian Won tlie log-chopping competition, and the Canadians /won with the cross-cut saw. A New, Zea- , lander won the competition for style. Tlie men were most of them sitting down watching ' the Frenchmen, workers m the forest, giving, an exhibition cut. Two of a Canadian team were sitting on a log next to me yarning m the slow, quizzical drawl of the Canadian countryman, when two of their mates sat down beside them. The man next ■to ,me turned to them , and the next instant they were , all .talking French among themselves, talking it as their .-native tongue. .Their officer, a handsome youngster, spoke it, too. It was n/6t till tjiat moment .that I realised •that most 'of 'these" Canadian woodsmen here were r French. . EXHIBITION BY FRENCH. Meanwhile the exhibition -chop- went on. The French woodsmen > were dig,ging at the roots of their trees with long ancient axes, : /more. like ? a cold chisel than a- modern axe. ;"I think- I .coulddo as welkwith at knife and fork," said one great kindly Australian, as he watched M'ith a smile. But to my mind that exhibition was the most impressive of all. For every one of those who took, part m it was either an old man or a slip of a slender hoy- ■