WATTIE
PAIRMAN
There was always only two of us in the contracts.
The first one was Reg Buckley, who worked with me
for about two years, then Wattie Pairman, who was my
mate for about three years. Wattie was a First World
War Gallipoli veteran, quite a character, a good
chap, educated, who rather liked his alcohol,
especially the hard stuff. He liked a little dry
humour in his jokes. He had one year with me on
Polson's station and two years on Collins'.
We were camped out the back and were working on a
ridge above the camp, sawing a long dead totara for
posts and battens. The tree was half buried in the
ground, and we had to dig a trench on one side so we
could manipulate the crosscut saw. Then while we
were sawing off lengths of posts, one we had just
sawn through dropped down with a great bump. Wattie
was on the trench side when this happened. As the
opposite end tipped and started to move, Wattie
ducked down deep enough to avoid being crushed: The
log rolled over the top of my mate and set sail for
the bottom of the gully. The log pushed him down a
little, but no harm done.
He stood up and watched it roll, then to go end over
end, until it went clean through the bunk tent. The
log missed the tent pole, came through and hit the
foot end of my bed, smashing it into the ground.
That turned out to be a wonderful joke for Wattie
but all the tent and gear belonged to me. The log
had bounced from my bed, smashed into a box of
stores, mainly flour and sugar, then came to rest In
the creek. We lost a day cleaning up and sewing up
the tent damage; sugar and flour was scattered
around everywhere. This happened on one of our last
jobs for Polson's, just before we had to pack all
our camping gear over to Collins Brothers at Aranui
Station.
SETTING UP CAMP
We had to repack the next day, load the packhorses
and proceed to the back of that station, where we
had to put up a reasonably good camp, for we had
quite a large amount of work to do in that vicinity.
It took almost three days work.
First we had to find a place where good clean water
was handy and where there was plenty of wood handy
for the camp-fire. We had to find straight poles
from the bush for tent poles, as well as split wide
slabs for the fireplace. We made a frame to nail or
wire the slabs on, making a little wall about eight
foot long and about ten foot high, with a three-post
wall at right angles at each end. Then we built up
clay inside about two foot six high. This left a
place like a shelf to put the camp oven and billies
on while doing the cooking. and we put in big nails
on the slabs to hang out wet clothes to dry.
We always had a pole frame inside the tent to keep
it intact in windy weather. The bottom of the tent
was usually tied down to pegs, and logs were placed
around to keep the cold draught out. The tent that
went over the pole frame was made of calico, with a
tent fly of calico above it to stop the spray from
the rain going onto the tent. Once in a while when a
gale was on, we had to go out in nightshirts to make
things a bit safer. Or when the gale finished we got
at it with needle and thread to mend the holes. When
camping in the bush we did have a tree branch break
off occasionally and fall on the tent.
The beds were made of poles but with us it was not
manuka. Because the bush was usually handy, we
selected good straight poles and softer timber that
was easier to staple the sacking onto. We never
selected forked trees, we drove four stout pegs Into
the ground for bed posts. Bracken fern was good with
canvas thrown over the top beneath the blankets.
CAMP FURNITURE
Most things necessary were split from straight trees
into thin slabs. We usually had staple boxes or sawn
off bits of trees which were about one foot through
to sit on. Candles were the mainstay for lighting
but we often nursed a kerosene hurricane lamp from
camp to camp which was useful for going for water at
the spring or creek.
If one felt uncomfortable, the lantern was
particularly handy for finding one's way away. Most
places we didn't need a lavatory, we usually walked
about three or four chain from the camp and squatted
amongst some shrubbery on the off windward side of
the camp. Some places we dug a deep hole, put a
stake each side then put a pole across for us to
rest on over the drop.
There was only enough room to hang clothes from the
framework inside, and to keep things in a box or two
under the bed. Of course you often put your best
trousers under the homemade mattress to hold the
creases right.
CAMP FOOD
It was never too wet to go pig-hunting to bring home
some pork, or to down a kaka from a high tree-top.
They made a wonderful tasty stew. Of course if there
was something special on somewhere we might go, but
usually we were often weeks on end, only walking out
to the homestead once in a while. I stayed on one
place working for four months.
The cowboy (the sheep-station's 15 year old
cow-milker) brought our mail every fortnight and
sometimes through the week. I
always looked forward to the Auckland Weekly to
read, especially on Sunday if we were not working.
Woods
Great Peppermint Cure was great. . . Still
going I think.
Our mutton or beef killed on the
station was the mainstay for meat and the price
twopence halfpenny a pound they charged us. This was
taken off our wages when we were squared up, usually
when we were going to the city for a break after a
long spell of work. I hardly ever worried about the
grog but was known to have got silly once or twice.
I earned a fair sort of cheque at that time.
sCAMP COOKING
We mainly relied on camp ovens for baking our bread
twice a week. We replenished our own yeast with
potato water, and in the summer when the weather was
hot we tied the cork down in the bottle to keep it
airtight. Sometimes the corks blew out on us. One
hot day we used a whisky bottle; it was made of
thinner glass than beer bottles, and the yeast blew
the entire neck off the bottle.
When we made our camp bread, we mixed the yeast into
the dough and then left it in a warm place to rise.
Then we punched it down twice. The last time it was
punched and kneaded up, then put in the camp-oven
and hung up high over the fire to rise. When it had
risen enough, sometimes lifting the lid on the
camp-oven, we hung the camp-oven low over the big
embers away from any flames. Matai was exceedingly
good for making hot embers and there was plenty of
it around the camp in those days.
We also made yeast buns with sultanas thrown in
which made them come out with an appetising smell.
And sometimes we made dumplings boiled in a kerosene
tin. They rose well and were very light and dry. And
with sultanas in them and butter put on them while
they were hot they made choice eating. There
was a bank with water trickling just below our
Aranui camp and we dug a shelf out among the ferns
to keep some of our butter and meat cool.
Billies were used for boiling the vegetables and
fruit etc. One billy was specially kept as the tea
billy. We always had a ledge of soil sods built up
or shelves split from trees to put our billies or
pots on to keep warm There was always plenty of wood
about all round the camp and our fire was never
completely cold.
When going out to work for the day we covered the
heaped glowing embers with a good depth of ashes and
embers would last two days. We only had to uncover
the embers, put on some small wood and it would burn
instantly with no delay. In the split slab chimney
we hung three pieces of chain, and made S-hooks so
as we could hang camp oven or billies etc any
distance we needed above the fire to get correct
heat.
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