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Settlers and Pioneers

15 — The Sheepmen

page 108

15
The Sheepmen

The history of Marlborough, Canterbury, and Otago is very different from that of the North Island because there were no Maori wars in the South Island to delay the progress of farming. The only spice of adventure, apart from the natural obstacles of wild rivers, was provided by the great gold-seeking rushes in the period 1860-65, first in the bleak and dreary back country of Otago, and then on the forest-covered and wet coast of Wesdand. That Golden Coast was then officially a part of Canterbury. When gold was discovered there the news did not cause much rejoicing in Canterbury. The sheepfarmers and grain growers were content with their steady and uneventful march to prosperity. There were many among them who strongly disapproved of the gold discovery and the diggers. They complained that it was all very unsettling; they did not like the invasion of the country by an army of eager treasure-hunters.

From 1864 onward there came thousands of page 109adventurers from all parts of the world, but chiefly from Australia, and many of these took the overland route through Canterbury. Many of the younger men of Canterbury, too, went off to the treasure coast. It was difficult to keep farm workers contented. Ships in Lyttelton Harbour were sometimes delayed for want of sailors; men deserted and went off over the range to try their fortune on the diggings. However, Canterbury presently found that it was profitable to have so good a market as the hungry West Coast for its mutton and beef.

The perils and adventures of the first sheepfarmers in Canterbury and Otago have been narrated by many of the station-founding families. Sir John Hall, who arrived in Canterbury in 1852, had some narrow escapes from drowning in the snow rivers in his early days as a squatter. He took up a run on the south side of the Rakaia. He tried to establish a permanent means of crossing that wide, strong river and experimented with a large Maori canoe, which he bought at Temuka, and a rope fixed across the river. This came to grief, and Hall decided that it would be better to let some one else be the first actual settler across the Rakaia, and he bought a station and sheep on the north side.

Innumerable mishaps befell those first plucky settlers in an inhospitable country. Many were recorded by Butler in his books. The story of the Mackenzie Plains is well known. The first Mac, who page 110should have been named Rob Roy in tribute to his gift for reiving flocks, was succeeded by many hardy pastoralists who acquired their sheep in a more legitimate way. Better than any book as a memorial of the truly heroic toils of the Mackenzie Country is that beautiful Memorial Church in stone, built in recent times by the Burnett family, which stands at 'Aorangi', near the township of Cave, inland from Timaru on the way to the alpine heart of the Island. This place of stone in the rough, boulders gathered close to its base, is like an ancient Norman keep. It is called St. David's, a place of worship built in memory, primarily of Andrew and Catherine Burnett, and secondarily of all pioneers of the Mackenzie Country. Its shape and its workmanship have been praised by many visitors and especially by craftsmen who marvel at its boulder work. There is a stone of history in the porch; it bears the legend: 'This porch is erected to the Glory of God and in memory of the Sheepmen, Shepherds, Bullockdrivers, Shearers and Station-hands, who pioneered the back country of this Province between the years 1855 and 1895.' Another inscription is in memory of the noble women of the pioneer families, the women 'who through Arctic winters and in the wilderness maintained their homes and kept the faith.' And there is the remembrance of Andrew and Catherine Burnett 'who took up the Mount Cook sheep run, May, 1864, and in the wilderness founded a home.' No other church in page 111New Zealand is like this square-towered sanctuary, built of the rock of the country, or holds such heart-touching memories.

Central Otago people look back regretfully to the sixties when gold was taken out of river pockets in incredible quantities. A couple of diggers would get a thousand pounds' worth of gold in a day's sluicing. The story is told by Robert Gilkison in his book, Early Days in Central Otago. In 1860 the pioneer settler of Wakatipu, W. G. Rees, built his homestead on the site now occupied by Eichardt's Hotel in Queenstown. He had a sheep run on that side of the great lake, and he found it necessary to procure a boat for crossing to the south end. That was a most difficult task in those primitive days, when the interior of Otago was quite unroaded. He had to go all the way to the Bluff to get one. He bought a whaleboat there and a pair of bullocks, and sledges to take it to the lake. After a long, rough journey he reached the lake at the place now known as Kingston, the head of the south arm. He and his mate took the bullocks in the boat across to the Queenstown side; the hard-worked pair deserved a trip as passengers by that time. The whaleboat was most useful for carrying stores up the lake and taking the wool clip away.

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That was before the great gold discoveries. By the end of 1862 there were 4,000 diggers in the Wakatipu district, mostly at the Shotover and the Arrow. Their only way of getting flour and other stores in the first few months on the fields was to buy it from Mr Rees at the homestead, and he was dependent on his boat for getting the goods up the lake. There were very often hundreds of hungry diggers waiting there for it, and they paid half-a-crown for a pannikinful. Then when the gold had to be sent away to Kingston for the town banks, Rees's whaleboat had to carry it all, until other boats were brought up from the seaport. In the first week of this work in 1862 the boat took 25,000 ounces of gold, worth nearly £100,000. On the second week's trip it carried 18,000 ounces, and the third week 16,000 ounces. Presently other boats were placed on the lake, and before long there was a small steamer. But while the first great rush lasted that useful whaleboat earned its weight in gold many times over. Meanwhile the pioneer sheepfarmers were finding that wool was not the sole money-earning product of their runs.

The largest of all the huge blocks of sheep and cattle country taken up in the South Island was the McLean brothers' run of 450,000 acres extending from Lake Hawea to below Cromwell on the east side of the Clutha River. The McLeans were men of courage and large ideas; and they needed big blocks page 113for their flocks and herds in that hard inhospitable land. They prospered as they deserved.

The first sheep-man at Lake Wanaka was Mr Wilkin, who built his homestead close to the junction of the Hawea River with the Clutha. His memory is preserved in the name of a large river flowing into the head of Wanaka.