Thread: THEY WERE HARD MEN IN ThOSE DAYS

I copied this from an old Deercullers Magazine
Thanks are due to Marlbourough Express 21/10/92 ...Brian Clemens.

" I met up with some jokers who were going deer shooting. It paid six pound a week plus keep, so off I went with them into the St James, St Helens, Molesworth and Lake Sumner areas. It took the old man six months to find out where I had gone".

He spent three years culling in all, learning along the way valuable lessons in camp life, bush craft, and "How to look after yourself".

He thrived on the isolation of a deer cullers life. There were no helicopter drops or walkie talkies in those days.

"We went into the hills on August the 26th 1939 and war broke out on September 3, but we didn't know about it until the following May when we came out ". George recalls

I don't know if anyone likes poetry. I thought this one of a mighty River and Hunters might lighten the mood of this Forum a bit

Again from the Deercullers Magazine. Author unknown. So if anyone has a clue I would be interested.

Lots of Deercullers it seems wrote poetry. The hut books contained a surprising amount of it.

This came from the same source THE DEERCULLERS MAGAZINE. The Name of the author of this fine piece of humour is on the bottom.

Read and smile.

Originally Posted by Scribe

I copied this from an old Deercullers Magazine
Thanks are due to Marlbourough Express 21/10/92 ...Brian Clemens.

" I met up with some jokers who were going deer shooting. It paid six pound a week plus keep, so off I went with them into the St James, St Helens, Molesworth and Lake Sumner areas. It took the old man six months to find out where I had gone".

He spent three years culling in all, learning along the way valuable lessons in camp life, bush craft, and "How to look after yourself".

He thrived on the isolation of a deer cullers life. There were no helicopter drops or walkie talkies in those days.

"We went into the hills on August the 26th 1939 and war broke out on September 3, but we didn't know about it until the following May when we came out ". George recalls

In the mid 60's the NZ Forest Service was paying 8 Pounds, 15 shillings ($17.50) per week plus food and accommodation ??, and a further 30 shillings ($3.00) per tail for goats, pigs, and deer in the Awatere Valley / Molesworth area. Food and ammunition was delivered by the Field Officer every month or so, mostly tinned food, salt, sugar, tea, flour, etc, (you were expected to provide your own meat) and the ammo was .303 CAC ex-military that was hollow pointed by CAC for the NZFS and repacked into 750 round cases. The Hodder hut was the best of the huts and it was just a 4 bunk corrugated iron affair. It was a base hut and the rest were just rough bivvies, carrying all your own supplies as you went. It was not a game where anyone got rich or fat!

Originally Posted by gundoc

In the mid 60's the NZ Forest Service was paying 8 Pounds, 15 shillings ($17.50) per week plus food and accommodation ??, and a further 30 shillings ($3.00) per tail for goats, pigs, and deer in the Awatere Valley / Molesworth area. Food and ammunition was delivered by the Field Officer every month or so, mostly tinned food, salt, sugar, tea, flour, etc, (you were expected to provide your own meat) and the ammo was .303 CAC ex-military that was hollow pointed by CAC for the NZFS and repacked into 750 round cases. The Hodder hut was the best of the huts and it was just a 4 bunk corrugated iron affair. It was a base hut and the rest were just rough bivvies, carrying all your own supplies as you went. It was not a game where anyone got rich or fat!

Certainly not fat. 'Gundoc' My backbone resembled that part of the Ruahine Range called the Sawtooth.

Love reading this stuff guys....Please keep it up!....it's all part of New Zealand rich, very rich tapestry.....

The deer hunter by joff Thompson....have a read, no tails back in them days, all skins returns. Hard men, hard conditions, open sights. In the hills for months and no such thing as airdrops. Just shows you how soft we have become over the years, with all our flash gear.

Originally Posted by sakokid

The deer hunter by joff Thompson....have a read, no tails back in them days, all skins returns. Hard men, hard conditions, open sights. In the hills for months and no such thing as airdrops. Just shows you how soft we have become over the years, with all our flash gear.

Joff Thompson was a mate of my father. In the '50's they would sit around playing cards and drinking beer (it was the done thing to always carry a couple of flagons when visiting) and I used to sit there with my ears flapping like an African elephant, listening to the hunting yarns. I remember us going to visit him up near Coleridge and sat in his old Bren carrier when I was about 6-7.

I read chopper boys and enjoyed it so much I went out and bought it for my dad, some great yarns for sure

Sent from my workbench

Originally Posted by smidey

I read chopper boys and enjoyed it so much I went out and bought it for my dad, some great yarns for sure

Sent from my workbench

Try the Venison Hunters in my opinion the best book written about Hunting/Aviation.

Originally Posted by Scribe

Try the Venison Hunters in my opinion the best book written about Hunting/Aviation.

+1


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Disagree with you Sturge, they weren't hard men , they were just ordinary guys. And we are a bunch of .............

"There's a sock in my stew" about Dick Morris (Off the top of my head) is a fantastic read about a private skin hunter in the Sumner area. I can claim some not too distant relation to one Les Kemp who worked out of Hoki when the landed shooters and flew out meat - Sorry Turehu, but they were hard....

Same source, Deer Cullers Magazine

Same source, Deer Cullers Magazine