PIONEERING DAYS.

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17435, 22 June 1928, Page 9

PIONEERING DAYS.

MR COATES' EXPERIENCES BACK TO CANTERBURY. UNCONGENIAL COMPANIONS. In my last I mentioned that I had finished at Starborough, but I And that I had not mentioned one Item in sheepshearing, and that was that one of the musterers had brought into the flock a sheep that it was thought had never been shorn and was found alone in a small bush in a very isolated locality. It was, in fact, an old wether. Some 'of the wool was dragging behind him; What the shearer did get weighed 131 b. The sheep was supposed to be about seven years old and had been isolated since a lamb, as all wethers were sold every year for boiling down. I sent a portion of the fleece to my brother in .Yorkshire. After long consideration I decided to go to Auckland on my next move, and if not successful on the golddiggings to go to the Waikato district, by way of Blenheim and Wellington. But that evening I, saw two men that had arrived from further up the country. They told me that they were returning home near Christchurch; they had been harvesting for the season. One of them, a Yorkshire man, named Shaw, told me that his' father iiad a small farm at .Mount Grey ; Downs, in Canterbury. ': He""' had ""Bought a horse, saddle and bridle as a spec. and he said I could have the use of- the outfit if I would buy the saddle and bridle. So I agreed to go with them. One of the Starborough hands was also going; he had also a pony. I soon found that I had .made a great mistake in joining such a drunken lot, as they turned out to be. At the third hotel we stopped at Shawslept in the same room that I did, and when I got up in the morning he was asleep in bed with all his clothes on, his boots and also a pair of spurs. When we got to the accommodation house.at the place that Walter Forbes and myself lost the proper track and had to sleep out on a cold frosty night, we found that the race meeting, which was held once a year at this place, was being held, so all my three mates went to the races while I took a good look round the place to see if I could get a nice snug place to sleep in for the night, as I fully expected that there would be no sleep for me in the hotel. I found a kind of stable, the manger of which had some sticks put across on which was some dry fern. So as soon as I got my tea I got up on the fern and spent the night there, but could hear a big noise going on in the hotel. My mates looked a bright lot in the morning, but they had another good drunk at the hotel at Hurunui. The bridge that had been built there after I came up country was washed away in the flood on February 1. I was very pleased when we got to Riccarton, where we parted. I took the coach for Christchurch and took passage for Wellington per the Ladybird next day, and had a very rough passage of nearly two days.