We came to Leigh, North Auckland in 1932 and bought this small farm. It had some 40 large Pinus Insignis trees some 45 years old on it. As they were beginning to die at the tops we decided to sell them. A local man bought them for 5/- for 1000 feet. Having cut them down and cut them up suitable lengths, up to 30 feet long, we engaged a bullock driver to take them down to the beach a mile away. We were very excited when he came with 20 bullocks, a large timber waggon, 3 jacks and an axe. The driver was a most remarkable man of Austrian extraction, though born in this country his English was very difficult to understand. He camped down by the beach and engaged a local man Sandy Matheson to help him.
| At 5 am. every morning he mustered his bullocks off an 80 acre paddock and with Sandy's help got them all yoked up. This took some time as some of the bullocks were only half broken in. At last they were all ready and with a crack of his enormouse whip and a whistle with his fingers in his mouth they slowly moved off. The waggon with the two "polers" were left on the side of the road, while rest of the team was taken in to the first trees, logs 4 feet through and over 2000 super feet in length. A short chain with a "dog" at each end was hammered into the sides of the log and the bullocks attached. Then the fun began, with a crack of his whip and yells of "Schneider", "Sharberre" he ran up and down the long line of bullocks but they could not move it. "Give her a touch Sandy" he would yell, Sandy would take a timber jack ( Prices screw jack, unique I believe, to this country ) and placing it against the side of the log, would roll it slightly, this gave the bullocks a chance to move it. But no, they could only move it an inch or so. "Der bine trees are very hebby?" asked "bullocky". "No" said Sandy, "but the bark is so rough, the log clings to the ground, not like the smooth barked Kauri trees you are used to." So they had to resort to blocks and even bark some of the trees before they were at last got out to where the waggon was waiting. Here the logs were jacked on to the waggon by rolling them up to pieces of timber resting from the ground to the two wheels on one side. When one jack could push no more, the other man took the weight and carried on while the first man got the "spear" of his jack down inside his jack for another push. When the load was on they were secured with chains and wracks. The bullocks were attached to the pole and away they went for the cliff above the beach, Sandy in charge of the powerful screw brake at the back of the waggon. At the sea the logs were unloaded on the top of a 40 foot sloping cliff. When some 20,000 super feet had been collected a scow came from Auckland and laid off the beach. |
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| A New Zealand scow, is I believe, unique in the ship building world. The Govenor General (see note #2 below) has had a model of one sent home to London. These scows are schooner rigged boats carrying some 30 tons. They are flat bottomed and have a centre board, which in those vessels with a hold, divides it in two, in the case of a vessel with no hold, carrying deck cargo only, the centre board casing divides the deck in half fore and aft. They are built of straight timber, the narrowing in of the bows being arranged by placing the timbers diagonally on the ribs. They have crude oil engines and a power winch. |
| The scow anchored close to the beach. A log was let go down on to the beach. The bullocks pulled the logs into the water which they did not like very much, as a bullock pulls with his head down, so cannot do much when the water comes above his knees. They had great difficulty with some logs as the waves would tend to wash them back again and when they settled they sank in the wet sand. Bullocky rushed up and down, sometimes up to his waist in the water. When a log was at last floated off the man from the scow in a boat, drove a spike with a ring in it, into one end and tied a rope to it and bound it to the scow. The logs were lifted by the power winch and boom and put on the deck of the scow. | |
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| Some of the biggest logs had to be rolled into the sea. This was done with a "parbuckle" a wire rope wound several times round the log which had been placed parallel to the sea. The bullocks were attached and the unwinding of the rope did the trick. One day I did not like the look of the weather, it was coming up from the south. The logs were all off the beach by the evening and were all tied behind the scow ready for loading. But for some reason the captain was in no hurry to leave. That night it bagan to blow. It blew for 3 days and nights. My wife and I went down in the rain to see how she was getting on. there she was plunging up and down and all but 8 of the logs had gone, the spikes having pulled out. So they had to get another load of logs the next day. The logs that broke adrift were recovered later on another beach further north. | |
| The road above our house, as shown in the photo, has a very bad bend. Many of the logs had to be carted down it. It was a very tricky bit of work to get 20 bullocks round this bend and then the waggon foot by foot without turning too sharply and upsetting it The waggon would be stopped near the corner by Sandy at the screw brake Bullocky would manouvre the team round without letting the "polers" move, then the waggon would be let move a yard or so and the "polers" moved round a little at the same time. Once round the bend the bullocks almost trotted down the rest of the hill in a cloud of dust. Once however they did turn too sharply and over went the two back wheels of the waggon. The waggon was like a military limber, the two sets of wheels being connected with a pole and a link. I went to see if I could help. It looked an ugly mess, the back wheels still with logs attached, on their side up the steep bank. With two jacks they lifted the logs, which lifted the wheels enough to get the lower one off the axle, this also brought the whole lot sliding down the bank to a more level position. Then the job of getting the wheel on again began. The wheel I should say weighed 3 or 4 cwt being of hard wood and a 6 inch tyre. Placing the jacks under the logs and wheels together till the axle was at the right height for the wheel to be re-placed. Sandy had one jack while bullocky and myself lifted the huge wheel into an upright position, just then the bullocks moved, the jack shifted and down came the whole lot. Sandy was knocked sideways by the logs which fell on bullocky's legs. He in falling let go of the wheel which I managed to push over, otherwise it might have rolled half a mile to the bottom of the hill. To my surprise bullocky pulled his legs from under the logs unhurt. They were very long logs and their ends when they fell rested on the road up the hill, their other ends being on the fore carriage it just left enough room for him to withdraw his feet. All he said was "Ach! we must jack dem up again Sandy". Soon we had the wheel on and away they went as though nothing had happened!. |
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The logs got safely to Auckland to be cut up for all sorts of wooden boxes. Though I did not get much for the trees, we had a most interesting time watching the work of one of the oldest forms of transport which is not often seen in this country.
