Twenty-Eight Wool, Man and Muscle 1968

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Wool, Man and Muscle

Sheep farming had played a significant role in the development of the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand throughout the period of colonisation, particularly in eastern Taranaki, Patea, Waverley, Waitotara, the inland high country up the Parapara Road to Raetihi, Waimarino, Wanganui and down through Rangitikei and Manawatu. Exporting ever-increasing quantities of produce from the area became an integral part of the commercial infrastructure, with wool, hides and other cargo being shipped from the Patea and Wanganui ports in the late 1800s. As railway transport became reliable, Wanganui Port became one of the major wool centres. It was also bringing in the output of both bush-frontier and runholder districts from as far north as the back-country of Taranaki to as far south as Foxton. In 1886 nearly 1,000 tons of wool was railed into Wanganui, and it soon became the main outlet for most of the wool from Wellington district’s west coast’s 750,000 sheep.

Selling wool on behalf of clients has been part of the company’s trading portfolio since Farmers’ Co-op opened its doors, although the Wanganui woolstore was not established until 1918. The first sale by auction of 1,100 bales displayed in the New Zealand Farmers’ Distributing Company’s old store was held in 1924, then under the management of Mr Cecil Christensen who held the position until his death in 1959. The woolstore was enlarged by 9000 sq. ft. in 1927 and a railway siding for direct consignments was constructed. The agency arrangement with Blue Star Line in 1933 saw the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship between both parties at Wanganui. As chief agents, the Farmers’ Co-op wool department was also responsible for all the documentation and delivery of wool sold at Wanganui auction shipped by Blue Star vessels.

Farmers’ Co-op Woolstore, Gonville, Wanganui 1926–27.

In addition to storing and auctioning wool the company also owned wool-dumping equipment. The process of wool dumping was operating in the 1890s and possibly earlier at many ports around the country. It was designed to save shipping space by pressing two bales of wool together, to make a cubic package the same size as one bale of wool. Prior to wool dumping, bales of wool were ‘screwed’ by jacks into the holds of the ships. Shipping companies or harbour boards usually provided the dumping equipment. As a matter of local interest the Patea Harbour Board invested in a wool dumping plant in 1891. The siting of the Patea plant caused considerable consternation when local wool exporters voiced disapproval to the Patea Harbour Board when they installed a wool dumper ‘on the town side of the river in the shed on the Harbour Board Wharf’, rather than on the opposite side of the river adjacent to the railway wharf. Wool arriving by rail had to be carted ‘away over the bridge, close upon a mile to the Board’s wharf on the other or town side of the Patea river’ before it could be dumped and returned to the other side for shipping.

Farmers’ Co-op’s Wanganui wool dumping appliance came up for consideration in July 1937 when a report was requested from ‘Niven’s expert’, regarding maintenance of the wool dump that required urgent repairs. Alternative recommendations were submitted for the board’s approval: (a) Overhauling and speeding up the existing pumps by 20 per cent, and (b) The installation of new pumps and motor and new concrete foundations. A new wool dump was installed in 1938, ‘and very satisfactory results were obtained. On a trial run of 100 bales double the previous output was obtained – the rate being 70 bales per hour.’

Additions to No 1 Woolstore at Wanganui in 1938 and 1942 reflected the booming wool industry, when over 15,000 bales per year were being handled. In 1947 No 2 Woolstore was purchased from Walter Hill & Sons at Castlecliff, previously a scouring plant. Extensions incorporating an upstairs area and a small downstairs area and modern offices and facilities for staff and wool buyers increased the floor space to 87,500 square feet in 1960. In 1963 No 2 Woolstore was refurbished with modern equipment for handling wool for binning and reclassing. In later years the Wanganui wool-selling centre had ‘nominal port status’, enabling the wool clip to be offered locally at no penalty to growers despite its distance from a main port. The bulk of wool sold was ‘dumped’ greasy and railed to Wellington and Napier for shipment overseas. To cover the railage costs buyers were levied an amount per bale which was administered on behalf of all the Wanganui wool brokers. In the late 1950s and early 1960s there were many companies offering wool broking services out of Wanganui. Some of the companies with wool facilities were: Dalgety & Co., Farmers’ Co-op, F. R. Jackson, Johnston & Co., Levin & Co, N. Z. Loan & Mercantile, Murray Roberts, Newton King, Farmers Co-op Distribution Co., Wright Stephenson.

In 1968 the company’s newsletter ‘Focus’ recorded that, ‘in the 44

Farmers’ Co-op Woolstore No 1 was totally destroyed by fire at Gonville, Wanganui on 14 December 1972.

COURTESY OF LOFTY ROSS

years to date, only three auctioneers had been responsible for selling Farmers’ Co-op clients’ wool. Collectively the three had sold 699,151 bales, ‘which, if put in one line would cover 463 miles’. The first was ever-versatile Clem Trotter. It is known that on one expedition to England he attended a wool-classing course at Bradford College. His experience, skill and energy was evident at the wool auctions held in the Royal Wanganui Opera House and he continued as the company’s wool auctioneer throughout his entire term as general manager and would have continued after he retired, given half the chance. The auctions were a great social occasion in the early years. Russell Nelson, manager, and Bill Marshall were the other two auctioneers. Others in positions of responsibility during that time were: B. V. D. Slater, assistant manager; A. W. Salt, bin manager; W. L. Brown, chief clerk; Don Cameron, foreman; Norman Cate, assistant foreman.

Fire in the Society’s No 1 Woolstore at Wanganui in the middle of woolclip processing, on 14 December 1972, may have seriously effected Farmers’ Co-op shareholders had it not been for the generosity of New Zealand Farmers’ Co-op Distributing Company Ltd, who came to the rescue, offering space in their own Wanganui wool store a few hundred yards up the road for the remainder of the season. The fire destroyed: 710 Bales of wool sent into store for the January sale. 3208 Bales of wool sold at the December sale but not paid for by buyers. 599 bales of wool paid for by buyers, being wool purchased at the December and earlier sales. The Society’s insurance cover with Guardian Royal Exchange on the first two items of $850,000 was adequate to meet the loss, including costs relating to salvage. The insurance on the third classification was the responsibility of owners. The main building was totally destroyed except for one small area adjacent to a house, which was untouched. An insurance claim amounting to $138,000 was paid for the woolstore and with the exception of a couple of small items, including scales and one motorised wool-handling truck, the plant was also totally destroyed, with a sum of $10,000 being paid by the insurance company. The neighbourly assistance of FCDC prompted the two companies to realise the advantage of practical rationalisation and they decided to form a jointly owned company, Farmers’ Co-op Wools Ltd, to handle their wool operations in Wanganui. This operation combined the staff of both organisations and in its first year of trading, ending 30 June 1974, it handled 33.24 per cent of the total wool clip marketed in Wanganui. In the 1975/76 season wool returns changed from a commission on wool sale sold to a charge per kilo. During the 1978/79 year negotiations were concluded in purchasing the interests of Farmers’ Co-operative Distributing Company Ltd, culminating in Farmers’ Co-op Wools Ltd operating as a totally owned subsidiary of Farmers’ Co-op. One of the evergreen characters and mainstays of what became Allied Farmers Wools Ltd was Alan ‘Lofty’ Ross, who began his career with the Wanganui based Farmers’ Co-operative Distributing Company as a storeman in 1963. Lofty joined the payroll of Farmers’ Co-op in 1972 after the disastrous fire of 1972, as did many FCDC staff. The demise of the old two-storey wooden woolstore proved the catalyst for change with the subsequent amalgamation of the Feildingbased Farmers’ Co-operative Distributing Company and Farmers’ Co-operative Organisation Society of New Zealand Ltd. Lofty Ross has vivid memories of the fire of 1972:

Alan (Lofty) Ross 1972–2008, company foreman, Allied Farmers’ Wools Ltd, Wanganui.

My boss, Bill Wilcox, rang me up at about 2:00am. He said ‘the woolstore is on fire’. ‘What woolstore’? I asked. ‘Farmers’ Organisation Wool Store (then our opposition but later we amalgamated) woolstore,’ he replied. ‘We need help – you’d better get in there and try to get some wool out’. ‘I got on my pushbike – I lived about three miles away – and as I was coming up past the hospital all you could see was a bright red glow. By the time I arrived, the woolstore had gone, and there was nothing which could be done to save it. It was one of the biggest fires which Wanganui has ever seen. ‘It was a big, two-storey, wooden building, with the offices upstairs’.

No-one was ever sure how that fire started. Some thought it may have been caused by an electric forklift which had been set to charge up overnight, but there was no proof of anything. The safe, which was located upstairs, fell through the floor, but the contents were badly charred. If there was any paper money in there, well there was no sign of it when we got the safe open!”

Muscle was king when ‘Lofty’ first entered the woolstore as a storeman in 1963: In those days, all of the wool bales were loaded and unloaded by barrow and hook. To get through the work, the company used to employ a lot of casual labour comprising mostly young students. Everything was done manually – in fact we were about the last woolstore in New Zealand to get a forklift – neither our manager nor his foreman believed in them! During peak periods, there would be about 50 people working in the store, including the winter crew which was kept right through, plus the casuals. About 15,000 bales of wool would be handled in a season. In those days the season would run from November through until February. Then there would be a little bit of second shear, but thereafter, for about four months of the year, you did nothing! Back in the 1960s, there was no real money – everyone talked about going to the woolstore or the freezing works where you were paid overtime, but it’s very hard work. For four weeks of overtime – usually nine hours on a Saturday and the same on a Sunday – I took home £28 or $56 equivalent for a seven-day week. My flatmates used to think that I was a millionaire! But you had to take into account that it was hard physical labour. We’d arrive at 7am, and start loading or unloading wool bales. Not everyone stood up to the work – especially the students who were employed as casual labour. A barrow with a bale of wool on it would weigh about 180 kilograms, and while some managed to lift this load, others would start to shake at the knees!

Lofty Ross was promoted to the position of company foreman and retired in 2008 after 45 years working with wool, witnessing the evolution of the wool-handling industry from a man and muscle era to a high-tech industry.

Declining sheep numbers was challenging Wanganui as a wool-selling centre and Farmers’ Coop Wools Ltd, minority shareholder in Wanganui Wool Dumpers Ltd, was prompted to purchase a 50 per cent share in Wanganui Wool Dumpers, preventing closure and sale of the wool dump in 1990. A partnership with Cargill New Zealand Limited was formed and continued to operate as the Wanganui Wool Dumper partnership, making a significant contribution to the annual result of the wool division. However, with the rationalisation of the wool scouring industry, including the closure of Cargill NZ Ltd’s woolscour, Wanganui Wool Dumpers partnership was dissolved in 1997 and all assets liquidated. This coincided with Allied Farmers Ltd purchasing a 20 per cent shareholding in a new company Tucker Wool Processors Ltd and the purchase of a 25 per cent shareholding in Napier Wool Dumpers 1997 Ltd, with Tucker Wool Processors taking a 75 per cent shareholding in the same company.

Seldom are companies with a trading history comparable with Allied Farmers Ltd entirely spared cases of fraud or embezzlement by staff. In spite of the number of trading outlets, employees from all walks of life, and staff levels exceeding 700 at times, only a few cases of misappropriation of money have been identified over the society’s 120-year history. However, a Wanganui Chronicle article dated 9 January 2004 captioned ‘Misappropriation of $545,856 by pair, court finds’, reported that following a civil hearing and the High Court judgment of Justice Goddard, former Wanganui wool division manager and his office manager had misappropriated $545,856 over a number of years by creating fictitious records relating to the purchase of wool against which they drew cheques

Farmers Co-op Woolstore, Gonville, Wanganui.

payable to cash ‘to a conservative value of $522,356’. They also laundered stolen cheques valued at $22,531 through a social club bank account, using knowledge and control of the company’s accounting system they had built up over a decade. An earlier criminal case was dismissed due to a technicality, but a civil case brought by Allied Farmers Ltd resulted in Justice Goddard awarding $545,865 and costs of $193,478 to Allied Farmers Wools Limited and eventually, through a variety of means, a recovery of $510,000 was received as settlement. The misappropriation had occurred over a number of years from the mid-1990s and was revealed through the investigations carried out by re-employed former staff members, the company secretary, Allied Farmers staff domiciled at Wanganui and a forensic and investigative accounting specialist.

Allied Farmers Ltd had operated a dedicated woolstore at Wanganui throughout the past 90 years but the continuing reduction in sheep numbers throughout the country and waning profits precipitated what was to be the end of a significant division of the company that had contributed much throughout the years in terms of service to farmers and to the financial stability of the organisation. It was announced ‘with a certain amount of sadness’ on 10 July 2008 by Allied Farmers Ltd chairman John Loughlin and Wool Grower Holdings chairman James Aitken, that Allied Farmers Wools Ltd had been sold to The Wool Company Ltd. The Wool Company Ltd had been established as an initiative of Wool Industry Network Ltd and entered into an agreement to purchase the wool business of PGG Wrightson. Allied Farmers considered that the sale demonstrated its strong support for the strategic initiatives of the Wool Industry network for the importance of achieving a meaningful level of clip consolidation. It was hoped that the sale would play a part in generating higher returns for wool growers and an improved profile for New Zealand wool in world markets. John Loughlin said: ‘Allied Farmers is very pleased that it has been able to participate as an early mover in the wool industry consolidation and contribute to an initiative to grow value in the industry.’