A Tribute To Bullocks

By Lial Bredin

Contents

Story 1 Pikau and Hiki

Story 2 The First Team

Story 3 Farming and Bullocks

Story 4 Transport by Bullocks

Story 5 In the Army Now

Story 6 The Generals

Story 7 Busy Bullock Teams

Story 8 The Relationship of Driver and Beast

Story 9 A Lady Bullocky

Story 10 A Bullocky Talks

Story 11 Tales of Animal Interest Information was provided by the following Alwys Owen F. E. Manning Alfred Blueth J. S. Tulloch Arthur Cannon Judith Brian Scanlon Marine Dept Charles Hursthouse Rutherford and Skinner Pikau and Hiki

When the 148 passengers of the William Byran took their luggage and belongings down to the lighters for loading on board they used vehicles. Carts and wagons on wheels and pulled by horses.

But when the Wiliam Byran anchored off Moturoa and landed the emigrants and their luggage on shore it was a different story. The boats were rowed through the surf and the bows grated on the sand. People were helped through the water and up onto the shore. Their many goods and packages were stacked on the sand above high water mark.

The proposed sight for the town was two miles away on the other side of the Huatoki stream. It was nearly sunset and arrangements had to be made for everyone to sleep under cover. Tents for forty people were erected and Dicky Barret had arranged for the local Maoris to build three large whares. These were able to house the rest of the passengers. Mattresses touched mattresses and luggage was stacked in front. It was less room than they had on the ship.

The local Maoris had cooked a meal of potatoes and vegetables. It was the wrong time of the year for killing pigs and pork was not available.

When would the horses and carts arrive to shift their goods. Then they were told. There were no four legged beasts of burden in New Zealand. Before the Maoris came there were only birds in the bush. The Maoris brought dogs, rats and fleas. Visiting ships over the years had left pigs and these had multiplied. Potatoes had arrived in the same way.

George Cutfield, the company agent and Frederick Carrington, the company surveyor walked across to the town sight on the other side of the river.

The first job had to be the building of a bridge across the river. In the meantime the settlers could move their luggage down handy for when the bridge was finished.

There were no carts or sledges and no animals to pull them it seemed that every thing would have to be done with human muscle.

But how do the Maori move things? They obviously had found and moved timber for the whares.

F. E. Manning in his book ‘Old New Zealand,’ tells of an incident which involved the Maori way of moving things and how it as restricted by their culture.

I went on an excursion with some natives. We had two canoes and one of them left a short time before the other. I was in the second canoe and just as we were setting off it was discovered that of the twenty stout fellows with me no one had a back. No one could load the provisions into the canoe. They were rangatira and if they touched the provisions they would become tapu. And nobody else could touch them. All the lads, women and slaves who could have loaded the provisions were in the first canoe. There were several heavy baskets of potatoes, some dried shark and a large pig. We needed to keep going but if there was no food we could touch then we might as well give up and go back home. But we had a clever fellow with us who could drive a coach through an act of parliament.

We will not carry pikau the provisions we will hiki them. Hiki means the act of carrying an infant in arms. This was how the provisions were loaded and we were able to set off after the other canoe.

Next morning George Cutfield had a chat with Dickie Barrett about the way things were done in New Zealand. They used muscle power, but the results were better when the team worked in unison. George planned his work accordingly. A team of tree fellers and carpenters were to go into the bush to select poles and slabs for the bridge. The nearest bush was three miles away. Another team was to build a raft for moving heavy objects by sea the rest of the settlers were to identify their belongings and cover them from the weather. Oh, Richard Chilman would you find out whether any body has anything that has wheels.

The Maoris don’t have any wheels and wheels will make things easier to move.

The settlers and other helping hands got busy.

Eleven days later the wooden bridge had been started.

The company store on the other side of the Huatoki was half built. Each tradesman emigrant had an eighth of an acre section allotted to him for two years.

The natives were helping the settlers to build raupo huts, which gave good shelter.

Richard Chilman hadn’t been idle. He had found some wheels that helped move things down to the river. He produced a two-wheeled lumber trolley, two, two wheeled handcarts and six wheelbarrows. It was surprising how many smaller items had been shifted the two miles from the landing beach. The First Team

The company store was open and Captain Cooke was leaving his order. Other farm settlers were waiting their turn.

“Bullocks” said Captain Cooke. “Thats what we need.” He was always making positive statements. This time there were quiet mumbles of agreement.

In fact one farmer replied “he is right you know. That heavy fern grows on land that the Maoris have over gardened. It will be no different from over farmed land in the old country. Clear the rubbish from the top, deep plough and then fallow for six months. It will be as good as new again.” “Probably need nine months fallow,” another farmer commented, “the winters are not hard here. Need bullocks for the ploughing though.”

As Captain Cooke was leaving one of the farmers tapped him on the shoulder. “If you are thinking of getting bullocks you will need a driver. My son George used to be head bullock driver for the squire back home.”

Captain Cooke realised that a bullock driver was a special sort of person who could get the best out of his beasts. He made arrangements to see George. George was a mine of information. He had been thinking of how he could get bullocks and gear. It was available in Australia but what would he use for money.

George and the Captain worked things out.

George would go to Sydney and get bullocks and their gear. The Captain would make arrangements for payment. At the same time he was to buy a riding horse for Mrs Cooke.

By August 1842 there were twelve bullocks in New Plymouth. George had bought eight for the Captain and the other four turned up with Angus Cameron. He had walked them up from Petre or Wanganui. He had loaded a sledge up with a couple of ploughs and other contracting gear. He and his team had to make their own track as they went north.

March 43 was the date of the first census and accurate figures were available. By this time there were eight working horses and forty-three working oxen.

But hold on working bullocks are matched in pairs. So there were either one short or one to many.

Most of the bullocks had been shipped to New Plymouth and offloaded at the open roadstead. Ships were offloaded using whaleboats. Some of these boats had wooden platforms built in their middle. It was not hard to build sides and make a pen but this would only handle small animals. In practice when large animals were to be unloaded a gate was made in the rails along the deck and the animals were pushed overboard. The animals could swim but it was important that there were several boats, to nudge them in the direction of the shore.

Red was a very large and somewhat aggressive animal. With some difficulty he was cornered and pushed through the gate.

He immediately started swimming strongly but in the wrong direction. He swam quickly through a gap between two boats. By the time that they had turned around red had too much of a start. Nobody was able to get in front of him and when last seen he was heading towards Australia. Farming and Bullocks

Captain Cooke sold four of his bullocks to Captain King RN and his brother in law George Cutfield. They had adjoining farms in the area which is now known as Brooklyn.

Captain Cooke was pleased to notice that in the first year seventy acres of ground was ploughed and sown on the farms. As he still employed George it was obvious that there was another bullock driver amongst the settlers.

As more bullocks became available over the next couple of years they were used for deep ploughing the fern land and light ploughing ground previously in bush. It became recognised practice to deep plough the land that was in standing fern. First it was burnt and then cleared.

In 1848 Charles Hursthouse published a book. Settlement of New Plymouth. In it he described the requirements of settlers who wished to develop land. One chapter dealt with the labour requirements for a fifty acre block. First of all there was the farmer and his wife. No provision was made for extra help in the farm home. It was suggested that the farmer employ a good labourer and a stout lad. The next important item was the purchase of a team of four bullocks and the necessary equipment.

Not all farmers could buy bullocks or indeed have the cash to pay labourers. They burnt the fern and cleared up the remnants of fronds and any tute plants with their own hands. Then with the cash that they had they would employ a contractor with bullocks to plough the cleared land. Then the land would be laid fellow for six months before being cultivated and sown in seed. There were no drills and seed was spread by hand.

In the 1840s bullocks were worth from twenty pounds sterling to thirty pounds. Strong leaders were worth more than the smaller animals in the middle of the team. A team of bullocks could be hired for two pounds a day for two span. That is four bullocks.

It was estimated that fernland could be cleared with the aid of bullocks at a per acre cost of five to six pounds.

Few people today will ever come close to bullocks in New Zealand or indeed working oxen in overseas countries. They have been replaced by bulldozers, trucks and tractors.

In New Zealand and Australia the term bullock belongs to an adult castrated cattle beast. It is usually one of the heavy breeds such as a shorthorn or friesan. Most bullocks are over four years of age because it takes time to train them and they are strongest when fully mature.

They have been the servants of mankind for centuries. First written records of bullocks are contained in ancient Greek writing. They are usually used in pairs called a span.

A single span is used for light work and more spans are added to the pulling chain, as the load is heavier. Two span are usual for ploughing but for deep ploughing of flax land or of heavy fern country an extra span is added.

For very heavy work such as dragging heavy logs out of the bush a team may consist of ten span.

A span of bullocks have to be educated. They have to learn to respond to the commands of the driver. They are not controlled by a bit and reins like a horse. They obey the voice command or whip signal of the teamster. In New Zealand the commands are:

1. Get Up (or start pulling). 2. Whoa to stop. 3. Back Up to take steps backward. 4. Gee to turn to the right. 5. Haw turn to the left.

They are hitched to their load with a yoke and bows and then to a pulling chain.

The wooden yoke is fastened about the necks of each pair and attached with bows so that the force of the load is spread across their shoulders. The bows hold the yoke to the neck and lower shoulders of each animal and allow the force of pulling to come from their chests and then through the yoke to the pulling chain, which connects each pair to the load.

The driver walks on the left hand side of the team and the speed of the team is fixed by the speed at which the driver moves. This doesn’t allow the driver to run but the movement of the load bullocks and driver must match.

Many loads are dragged along or through the ground but at times the load will be loaded on a cart. This causes problems. The bullocks have difficulty controlling the speed of a cart when it is moving down hill.

The extra weight comes as a force on the yokes and on to the back of their horns. With a cart strong brakes have to be used and somebody else will have to put on those brakes. The driver still is walking along side.

Bullocks can pull harder and longer than horses. This is especially so with heavy almost unmovable loads. This is why there were still teams dragging logs out of the bush long after horses had taken over much of the draught work. In practice any farmer who had one or two span of bullocks used to hitch them to a sledge for many tasks on the farm. Carrying out fencing gear. Or pulling a small load of swedes to throw to stock in the winter.

Oh those bullocks that Captian King and Cutfield bought. They cost them thirty pounds after all they were delivered. Transport by Bullocks

While sledges were in common use on the farms, they would have damaged the surfaces of streets and tracks in the town. Fortunately there were several tradesman who could make wheeled carts and drays for moving goods and equipment both around the town and on the farms.

Once the roadstead had been marked out for vessels and the lighters began to bring goods ashore carts pulled by bullocks could easily move on the sand. Some horses were used but there were far more bullocks available in the early stages.

And bullocks could shift grain from the farms to the lighters for export to Sydney or for coastal movement to Auckland and Wellington.

Some of the tradesmen in the community were skilled stonemasons. They need rocks for fireplaces and for the permanent buildings to be built in stone. They cut the stones flat on five sides and then shifted them by bullock carts. Three of the stone buildings are still standing. The original part of St Mary’s church. The old Te Henui vicarage now used by the potters association and the Richmond cottage now at the back of Puke Ariki. The stones for St Mary’s church were selected from the kaweroa reef. At low tide it is still possible to see the areas of the reef, which have been stripped of stones. One stone was so heavy that a nine span team was needed to move it from the reef to the church. It was used for a cross on the eastern gable.

The vicar of St Mary’s had hoped that the stone church could have been built in four months. The foundation stone was laid on March 25th 1845. But he had not allowed for winter rain. The bullocks could pull the carts through the mud but it was a slow process and more spans had to be added to the teams. It is not known where the stone in the vicarage and in Richmond cottage came from. They could have come from the rivers.

In 1848 to 1849 the delivery of parcels and small object was not a problem often the supplying firm could arrange delivery. But Henry Wells in his history of Taranaki states some other cartage was available. There was lightfoot a horse owned by William Rebark. There was also a bullock. Darby had a bullock called Redmond, which allowed itself to be harnessed to a cart with shafts. Fortunately very little cartage was required.

The first time that the name of H. A. Atkinson later Prime Minister of New Zealand was mentioned in the press was when he drove his bullock team up Brougham Street carrying post and rails for the Marsland Hill stockade.

Another New Plymouth name associated with transport was John Franklin Hooker, he later formed the firm of Hookers. John was born in 1853 in a cottage on the site of the present Devonport Flats. His father was Nathaniel Hooker a stone mason. Nathaniel helped build the first section of St Mary’s church. He also helped line the stream banks in Devon Street ready for bridging works. John did not want to learn to be a stonemason and when he was 15 he left New Plymouth to work in a flax mill. A year later he had save enough money to buy his bullock and cart. He called himself a bullock conductor not a bullocky and set about carting stones. One of his first jobs was to carry gravel to improve the condition of the tracks used as streets in the town. Even with such contracts he found it hard going and often did not earn more than ten cents a day.

But John Hooker and Darby in 1848 used only one bullock to pull a cart. It was usual to have spans of two animals in a team held together with a yoke connected to a pulling chain. But here we have only one animal. The trick of the trade is to take a horse collar and fit it upside down around the bullock’s neck. The reins have to be reversed as well and wired up at the bottom of the collar. The hitching hooks have to be turned up the other way as well instead of a pulling chain trace chains are attached to a swingle tree. Darby had arranged shafts so that he could attach them to a collar.

It is not possible to use a bridle with a bullock. The bit stops the animal from chewing its cud. Instead a bullocks works from command given by the driver as he walks alongside. Another problem is that a cart pulled by a bullock has to have good brakes to use when it is going down hill. The bullock cannot hold back its load. Quite often there has to be a person riding in the cart to operate the brakes. In the Army Now

The Duke of Wellington used bullocks to move the supply wagons of his troops. He also used them to move his heavy artillery into position. The British troops in New Zealand used bullocks for the same purposes.

But sometimes bullocks were not available. The first fight in the Taranaki land wars was at Waitara and the troops were moved in by sea. The Pakeha troops were defeated with heavy casualties.

The local residents in New Plymouth were fairly sure that the Taranaki tribe was going to join in the conflict. Thomas good offered to design a stockade to protect the settlers from attack from the south.

His idea was accepted and the locals got to work. Thomas good supervised. Captain Burton set about arranging the internal fittings.

The expense was first met by the settlers with costs later carried by the government.

Eighteen settlers were paid for a total of 82 days carting with bullock wagons and six were paid as carpenters for 241 days of work. Other work done by the carpenters was carried by the settlers who were compensated with military pay and rations. The stockade was finished in June 1860 and the stockade served the army both as a fort and as a base until 1862.

The following are extracts from the journal of private Alfred Blueth during the fighting against the Hau Hau movement. He saw active service in number 4 company with Captain Carthew in 1863 to 1865

1865

July 13th landed at Taranaki and were march to Omata stockade. Four miles from town.

July 14th received new rifles at Omata. Too wet to proceed.

July 15th marched south and camped at Oakura a distance of eight miles. The roads were so wet it took the bullocks eight hours to do it. Pitched our tents on soaking ground.

July 18th forward again to Tataramaika only six miles. The bullocks were barely able to pull the baggage the roads being so bad. Again pitched our tents on cold wet ground.

July 19th again forward to the promised land and arrived at our destination. The new redoubt at stony river all wet through. A total distance of 24 miles from town having been on the road six days. There was obviously an El Nino climate in 1865. Wet and muddy seemed to be the climate for most of the land wars and not only while on patrol. One of the roads that became a quagmire was lower brougham street. A dray once sank through the road there and was not recovered for months. The bullocks would have been unhitched.

But mud was not the only thing to hold thins back. Military policy set up by the generals was to win back areas of land and capture pa was by digging pits and stockades and this took time.

This was their answer to the guerilla tactics of the Maori. The Generals

From 1860 there were two of them. The locals were sure that the first one Charles gold was incompetent. He was very timid and took a long time to make decisions. It was not perhaps his fault. He had been in the army since 1828 and in 32 years had never been in a military campaign.

He was also held back by government policy. He was to defend New Plymouth, but not to allow his troops to take any aggressive actions, which might make the Maoris in other area want to become involved.

The second general was Major General Pratt. He had been the over all commander of all the troops in Australasia. He came over to New Plymouth to see whether he could sort things right. He was also bound by the defensive policy set out by the government. He and his officers talked out the problem.

Their answer, the Maori pa's are really castles that have to be stormed. The correct way to capture a castle is to dig saps or trenches so that cannon's can breach the walls. Then the troops can take over.

It took a long time, but it sort of worked. As a sap came close to a pa, and the troops were ready to attack. They found that the Maoris had already left. The Maoris were busy digging dugouts in the next pa.

Three months later the Maoris had become tired of digging and asked for a truce.

W. Richmond amended a famous nursery rhyme.

General Gold was not very old General Pratt was not very fat But all the motions of General Gold were as slow as if they had been fat and old. And all the motions of General Pratt were as if he had been old and fat

Andy Hill a well known bullocky had trained a new span of leading bullocks and they had to be given names. An obvious choice was General Gold and General Pratt.

Andy’s team was given the job of hauling a howitzer back to Waitara. There could have been Maori around so he called on his team leader.

Get up now General Pratt ye old lazy devil or ill cut the hide off you.

Get up was the command to move forward.

The howitzer was delivered and on his way back to town, Andy was unlucky and General Pratt his new leader was shot by a stray bullet. He had to leave General Pratt on the ground and rearrange his team. A source of meat was now available to the troops. A message was sent back to town.

It probably read the body of General Pratt needs to be picked up soon.

The message was mixed up on its way. General Pratt the officer had been killed ands his corpse had to be brought back. The regiment was quite upset and then it was found out that General Pratt was at a conference at headquarters.

No doubt Andy made arrangements with the local army cooks to dispose of the body of General Pratt. He was quite fat.

A large cauldron of stew was available for the troops next day and three months later the Maoris had become so tired of digging that they asked for a truce. Besides it was time for them to plant their kumara gardens. Busy Bullock Teams

During the latter years of the nineteenth century the contractors with bullock teams for hire were kept very busy. Several times they were mentioned in the local Newspaper, other than in the racing page. The same could not be said of horses. Yes, there is the poets bridge in Pukekura Park, but that was not a commercial contract. One bullock made the headlines.

A quote from Port Taranaki by Brian Scanlon. An event in May caused excitement at the breakwater. The Garlock was unloading bullocks at the cattle wharf when one jumped overboard and swam around the breakwater to seal rock where he landed. Then he set out for Moturoa island where landing was difficult and he swam near the end of the breakwater before coming ashore on the seaward side of the wall. Greatly cramped in his limbs after a couple of hours in the water. Several of the mob were driven to the beach where the escapee could see them. The runaway swam over and joined them.

This was at a time when there had been changes in the use of bullocks at the port. Only a few years before bullocks had been pulling drays to unload the surf boats at the roadstead by the Huatoki river. It was only a few months after our rogue bullocks swim that the first of a continuous stream of refrigerated vessels called at the breakwater wharf to load frozen meat from the Waitara works. Instead of unloading cargo cull bullocks had now become cargo.

On October 1868 local newspaper copy told of the erection of the Cape Egmont lighthouse 90 years before. It was actually 87 years before but there must have been a page of copy needed to fill out the paper, to quote

“The dismantling and transportation of the light house to Taranaki was a considerable undertaking for those early days and it was not until 1881 that the lighthouse was erected and the light switched on.”

While reconstruction of the lighthouse was taking place at Cape Egmont some hostility was shown by local Maoris whose attitude had delayed work when the site was first decide on. The armed constabulary was called in and for some time after the light came into use they remained at the site.

The words considerable undertaking described something, which was a rather involved job of work. The steam ship Hinemoana had to find a smooth enough place close to land, which avoided the large boulders on the beach for its surf boats to land. Fortunately the Hinemoana had a donkey engine so a winch line could be attached to the surf boats. This allowed the surf boats to be dragged back to the ship. On the shore the flat bottomed surf boats were met by teams of bullocks. The plates were unloaded and stacked on sledges to be dragged to the site of the lighthouse this was some distance away over uneven ground. The bullocks had to come from New Plymouth through hostile country where surveyors line were being ploughed in by the Maoris. There was some discussion between the contractors as to the size of the teams needed. One bullock for every one ton of load was the rough guide. And the weight of the lighthouse was 90 ton. But the load would be in smaller parts. If three or four six span teams were taken they would be merged if a ten span team was needed in any sticky places. Then there were the hostile Maoris. Then they heard that 40 members of the armed constabulary were going to protect them on the trip and on the site afterwards. They now felt secure. They were lucky in their timing. They had unloaded all the portable plates on to the shore and moved them to the site before the winter rains started in July.

All up it cost 3533 pounds to shift the lighthouse.

The next news worthy job carried out by teams of bullocks was in New Plymouth.

A large building on Mangorei Road had to be shifted to a site at Brooklands. The old colonial hospital was put up for auction. It was a very large building and not suitable for a private house. It was a bit run down and demand was light.

It was bought by Mrs Newton King for the sum of ten pounds. She decided to move it to a section near her home in Brooklands. Unlike a lighthouse it could not be dragged on sledges. The council would certainly have complained about damage to its streets.

The two story building had to be taken to bits the parts identified and then moved in drays pulled by bullocks. The hospital was on a flat site and Brooklands was flat as well. But between the two there was a river and another gully. There was a bridge and some roads but it still was a steep haul. It was reerected and a further room added. By the time everything was completed it had cost another five hundred pounds.

It is still there today and is known as ‘The Gables.’ The Relationship of Driver and Beast

George's Father had told Captain Cooke that only a few people could control a bullock team. This control is aptly described by Ellis Peters in one of her books.

See there's an oxen team on the other side trying to break in a new strip. Watch the beast strain at it and you will know the force needed to break in new land. Across the river on the edge of a newly ploughed paddock a new strip was being broken in. The ox team leaned into their yokes and heaved the plowman behind clung and dragged on the heavy share. Before the leading pair a man walked backwards arms gently waving and beckoning his goad like a wand flourished for magic not for its sting. His high pure calls carried aloft on the air cajoling and praising. Toward him the beasts leaned willingly following his cries with all their might.

Ellis Peters describes how animals which had been brought up as pets felt about their master.

In the hard world of the professional bullock drive things were much different. Arthur Cannon in his book the bullock drivers handbook tells us about the problems of a driver and his team.

Steers are cattle, usually neuters but still reacting as cattle. The most aggressive animal is the bull, who rules the rest of the herd. In the same way the most aggressive bullock will be the ruler.

What the bullock driver has to do is gain this position of dominance. Arthur Cannon says that the bullock driver has to dominate his team so that they immediately obey his commands. First he has to put his animals in a position so that they think that they are in a herd. He links his animals by twos as a span and his spans with a pulling chain so that they all act in unison.

By constant repetition in the training yard a span of bullocks are made to realize that, Get up means go forward Whoa means stop and stand still Gee means turn to the right Haw means turn to the left Back up means step backward.

Bullocks cannot push a cart backwards but they need to create some room so that they can be hitched and unhitched from the pulling chain.

Strange to say some drivers never swear. They either say very little or use words with explosive sounds. Bullocks respond to words that they are taught or to positions of the whip, which are commands. Non swearing drivers are just as successful as swearing drivers.

The driver has to convince the bullocks that he is the boss. As he no reins or bits to control the animals he has to use his voice and his whip to give commands. In fact he can develop so that he becomes either a voice driver or a whip driver. A voice driver usually has a deep expressive voice. Loudly or softly quietly or slowly he could get his team to do what he wanted. A whip driver has very little to say but he guides his team by the way he handles his whip. He hays his whip in a series of position each of which show his bullocks what he wants done. He might tap a bullock quietly with the end of his whip rarely does he have to lash it heavily.

Arthur Cannon did not feel that a team was big enough to react as a herd until there were several spans in the team. Three spans were a bare minimum it took six to make a proper working team.

There are other relationships between a team and its driver than the way in which commands are given. The health of each bullock is vital. If a bullocks suffers from deafness it is not going to hear order and this can cause some misunderstanding.

Pink eye is a disease of cattle that affects their sight and the animal needs to be treated with veterinary remedies to cure this complaint. Bullocks can become blind from other causes such as an eye pierced by a twig or being knocked by accident.

Bullocks need to be able to eat enough. A bullock is cheap to feed. It does not need chaff or grain like a horse but it does need six hours of grazing on good pasture, the usual routine for a working bullock is for six hours work followed by six hours for grazing. If the job requires longer work the driver needs a second team.

Time to chew the cud is not a problem as the bullock can do this while he is working. At all times they need access to clean water. A Lady Bullocky

Surely this can’t be true. Bullocks are driven by men. Judith assured me that she had driven a bullock team for ten years from the age of six to sixteen. It was understandable when Judith gave me more detail. Judith’s father had a wooden leg and couldn’t walk long distances without discomfort. There were only girls in her family and Judith was the eldest girl.

All this was sixty years ago but Judith instantly remembered the named of her bullock friends and their odd ways.

Ben was the near side leader and Chard on the offside. Bullet was the near side poler and Paddy the off side one. If the load was going to be heavy there would be a middle span. Mac was the on the nearside and he was black and white. Judith thought that Donald was on the offside. Mac was inclined to be lazy and she had to give him the odd jab in the ribs with her whip handle to make him toe the line. While Mac was different all the other members of her team were red shorthorns.

At first Judith was too short to harness them up and her dad did that. But she did remember that when she finished for the day the harness had to be taken off alongside the fence and near the gate. This would be where the bullocks would be harness in the morning. The dog would bring the animals in from their grazing ready to start and the harness would be waiting. The yokes would be left leaning against the fence.

As Judith became older she would fit the yokes to the bullock herself. She started with the lead bullocks and work back to the polers. Rest the yoke on the near side leaders shoulder and bring up the bow through the holes in the yoke. Slide in the pins in the holes on the bows and then do the offside leader. Then hitch the yoke to the pulling chain and move on to the next span. You needed to have a big secure pocket to hold the pins. Bits of number eight wire were not a very good substitute if you lost a pin.

Judith was a whip driver. Not that she whipped her animals. She did not tell the bullocks what to do by speaking to them. All her commands were given with signals with her whip.

The whips used with bullocks are unusual. The handle should be a length and a half of the driver’s height. The thong is about the length of the handle. Judith used her whip to make signals to the bullocks. A forward position of the whip on the ground meant go. To the near side turn, to the left. To the off side, turn to the right. Straight up stop. And lying on the ground to the rear meant back up. Any correction to the bullocks was done with a poke of the handle or a rap with the thong on the off side bullocks. The main way of control was to out think the bullocks. Judith kept an eye on their behaviour and their attitude. She never used to swear at them although some time she felt like it. On the other hand sometimes the bullocks seemed to know what she wanted and do it without seeing any command of the whip. Judith and her team had the job of dragging logs for firewood out of the bush. Her father or other people working on the farm had cut up Rata trees into four foot lengths and attached a chain around each log.

The logs were split up and sold to supply a local niche market. Several of the dairy factories that were close to their farm used the logs to make steam in their boilers. They could have used coal but it became expensive and a mixture of coal and Rata wood did as good a job and was cheaper.

The bush waiting clearing on the farm had been milled for Rimu, Totara and other timber, but Rata were too hard to cut and was left with the smaller scrub. The trees were at least three feet thick and were skidded along tracks in the bush. It was Judith’s job to hitch her team to the chain wrapped around each log and then drag it into a paddock near to the road. The tracks through the bush were easy to follow but the log had to be lined up when it came to gateways. If the log hit a post Judith had to take her team around behind the log and pull it backwards. This was rather difficult to do. The logs out in the roadside paddock were split up with explosives either a splitting gun or by gelignite using a hole drilled in the log. This was a job her father did and then the smaller pieces were stacked up in heaps of a cord. A cord is four feet high four feet wide and eight feet long. The factories would quote the price that they would pay by the cord.

Judith was still going to school at the time that she was a bullock driver and she usually did her driving work in the weekends or during the holidays.

Shifting firewood was not the only job that bullocks could do on the farm. The most spectacular job that had been carried out on the farm with bullocks was the shifting of a house. When Judith’s parents got married they did not have a house to move into. There was only a small whare that Judith’s father had used. But there was an empty three roomed house down the road on the closed down sawmill property. It had been built by the managing director and when he moved to a new house the assistant manager had moved in. The mill had closed down when all the timber trees had been felled and cut up. The area was being turned into farmland and only one house was needed. There it was a sound empty house available for sale for removal.

There were no contractors around who shifted houses and it became a job for the farm staff. The house was jacked up with timber jacks and the bottom plates were freed from the piles. First some flat boards were laid on the ground along the track the house had to follow like a railway track. A supply of round poles had been cut from the bush and they were used as rollers under the house and an eight span team of bullock was hitched to the front. They had to stop every now and again to move the rollers, which had been fed under the house back to the front again. Slowly the house mover forward then onto the road and up the hill to the family farm. By mid afternoon it was ready to be moved onto its piles at its new site. It has had some additions and improvements but it is still in use today.

Above the fireplace in the living room is a large photograph of the house moving up the road to its new site. A Bullocky Talks Chris Aplin tells Alwys Owen

Chris Aplin was brought up on a dairy farm. He was happy with cattle but he didn’t like the idea of milking cows all his life. He was interested in carpentry but the local builder already had two apprentices and couldn’t employ any more. He would have been though to be lazy if he asked for the dole but he was unemployed.

Somebody said, “What about giving Harry Grant a try?” Harry was a one armed bullocky and could not do jobs like ploughing or moving dirt with a scoop. Chris decided to give Harry a try. Harry had a dray and other equipment and he had a big team. He was inclined to be grumpy but with a missing arm you could understand that. He still had some use from his arm. It was off at the wrist and he had a hook attached. He could use an axe and do most things. Chris thought that if a one armed man can handle bullocks it should be easy for me with two arms.

There was a bit of carpentry as well. Not the sawing up of logs as they collected firewood. Which was their main contract. But the bullocks needed their yokes looked after. Every yoke which was made of wood had to fit the bullocks necks snugly this meant carving and rasping the wood for each individual bullock. Chris also had to bend the bows to fit. This was steel work but with a hot fire and a blacksmiths vice could alter the angle of the bows so that the fitted easily to the bullocks necks.

A few years later Chris noticed that his father in law had a couple of bucket reared steers grazing around in the front paddock. A shorthorn and a big jersey. These were animals that could be trained as steers.

I can train steers for Grant thought Chris. So I might as well train some for myself. Father in law said yes. Chris put halters on the steers and tied them together. After a couple of days and nights in the paddock they were ready to be brought into the yard for training. He soon got them to lead and eventually tow a sledge around the farm moving heavy loads. Chris got another couple of steers and trained them as well.

Harry Grant was ready to retire but Chris couldn’t afford to buy him out. Harry had an auction sale. Chris had some money so he was able to buy a few younger steers and a useful lot of equipment. After that things just built up until he had he had fourteen steers, seven span.

He managed to pick up Harry's firewood contract. There was a stand of Matai, which was good for firewood and Chris could get 30/- a cord. It had to be cut into four foot logs and then split into smaller pieces. The firewood then had to be carted across country, out of gullies over hilltops and then onto a clay road. No chain saws in those and it all had to be cut by hand. Chris still had his firewood one man saw hung up in his shed. It was rough country and bullocks played a big part in developing it. Horse couldn’t work among the stumps and undergrowth but bullocks could. Chris knew a chap who drove a team of twenty. They took a bit of handling. But this team could be driven through a gateway which was not much more than the width of the bullocks and that required a very good bullocky.

The time came when Chris found the handling of a bullock team was no longer making money. He changed to other jobs but mostly in the carpentry line.

But in the 60s Chris was a widower with his family off his hands bullocks once more came into his life. There was a Maori chap living across the road who had two steers. Those two over there, Boxer and Blucher. He wasn’t able to feed them properly. He thought that he could find another paddock but didn’t know where. In the end he gave them to Chris.

So Chris brought them home and fed them and looked after them and got them going but you couldn’t do much with only two bullocks so two more appeared Dan and Pilot. Then Chris had to knock up a dray and he was in business again.

It was really too much for Chris because he became attached to them and didn’t want to loose them. But they had to go. In the winter his one paddock would not feed them and he would have to get up early in the morning to feed them on the road side the long acre it is called.

Chris decided he would have to put an ad in the paper. They were for sale but butchers need not apply. But it was a shame Chris thought that the young people are not interested, if it was something that could be filled up with petrol and go brrrm down the road and over the bank they would be interested then.

Well Chris put several ads in the paper and he still had his bullocks. Then Peter Smith heard of them. He wanted them for an attraction at a pioneer village, they would only be pulling a sledge around and not doing any heavy work but they would still be working bullocks. Chris was glad to give them away.

After that Chris moved to Australia to stay with his son in the sunlight of Queensland. Tales of Animal Interest

The Bull

Sometimes Bulls are put alongside Steers in a team. The driver will be looking for an increase in aggression from his leaders. This wasn’t quite the case in this story.

Jim used to work on a Taranaki Coastal farm that had a Bullock team. The team was used for deep ploughing an area of lupins and sand dunes, which was then sown in pasture.

One year the team was used for another purpose. A stray Bull was the problem. It belonged to the neighbour and it had a habit of breaking through fences and hedges and then joining Jims milking herd. It didn’t matter so much once the cows were in calf.

The neighbour was rung up and told about the Bull and in due course he would come over and collect it. But this time the herd was not due to be mated and the Bull turned up. It was put in the yard by itself and the neighbour rung to collect it. Fortunately no cows were in season but the neighbour was asked to keep his loverboy Bull under control.

Two weeks later the Bull was back. The neighbour had been told to keep him home. Jim thought that a couple of cows were Bulling. This time the Bull had to be given the message. It was suggested that the answer was a day working in the Bullock team. It would give him the message to stay away. It needed dehorning though before a yoke would fit. The Bull was put into the dehorning bail and his horns removed. For good measure a ring was put in his nose so that he could be handled. The Bullock team was ready to set off for work. The driver was asked to give the Bullock in the nearside middle span a rest. With a snaffle on his nose the Bull was put into position and the yoke attached. As the team moved off the Bull had no way of escape. He had to push his yoke forward against the chain or be dragged along.

At the end of the day the Bull was taken out of harness and put in the yard by itself. You never saw such a dispirited animal. His head was sore from dehorning, he had a ring in his nose and was sore from being lead around, he was covered with sweat and he was so tired he could hardly drag one foot after the other.

But he never came back. Good Dog - Sam

A good dog was needed to collect the working Bullocks each morning and bring them up to their gear for harnessing up.

Sam belonged to Neal and for a young dog he was shaping up well. He would come when called and would obey the command get away back.

This day Neal was working in the farm quarry. It was the dry time of the year and the farm staff were using the Bullocks and a dray to metal part of the side road. It was the county’s job really, but the county did not have enough money and farmers often metalled the muddy parts themselves. Sometimes the county would give them a credit on their rates.

The metal in the quarry was of good quality but it had to be loosened from the bank and then shoveled into the dray. The bank of the quarry was going to be blasted with gelignite. A deep hole had been drilled and a charge and fuse inserted. Bullocks and staff were moved out of the quarry and Neal had the job of lighting the fuse, he decided that he needn’t rush out of the quarry. He would be safe in the far away corner. He lit the fuse and ran to his place of safety. He turned around and saw Sam was nosing the burning fuse. Sam could be killed. “Sam come hear, Sam.” Sam was a good dog he ran over to Neal. But he was carrying the plug of gelignite and the lit fuse in his mouth. Its Neal’s life that was at risk. To bad about Sam. Get away back Sam getaway back. Again Sam was a good dog.

He laid the fuse and gelignite at Neal’s feet and ran out of the quarry.

End of story.