Dangerously well paid occupation
When the whistle blew at Waitara’s freezing works in the early days it was all hands on deck to load the frozen carcases of beef and mutton into the refrigerated holds of the large punts tied up at the nearby wharf.
Good money was earned by the labourers, and school kids too, that were there for the job at hand.
Court reports of the era saw fathers of school kids fined for not sending their children to school. Good money meant it was worth the risk of a fine.
It was a labour intensive exercise in early times, as wooden horse drawn carts were loaded and then carted to the wharf from the chillers and then unloaded by hand into the hold of the barges.
However in 1891 things were much improved with a new tramline being installed from the cool stores to the wharf, utilising wooden trucks on cast iron wheels laden with frozen carcases.
The line was supported on heavy wooden tresses and ran on a slight incline to the wharf where they were unloaded. The rail line circled back running through another chiller door entrance to be loaded again. Running six of these wooden trucks 450 sheep an hour were loaded.
In 1891 the steamer Maori called into the roadstead to be loaded. The cargo for her comprised of 1832 quarters of beef, 2034 sheep, 60 lambs, 22 bales of wool and 25 kegs of butter.
Load outs became a challenge between gangs of labourers and records were set in the time they were loaded. Ships masters who called into Waitara’s port were impressed with the efficiency and trade was booming for our small river port.
At the mercy of the weather and tides, the small steamers like the Manukau and Tainui towed the laden lighters out over the bar, five miles off the mouth to the awaiting overseas ships, the cargo bound for the markets in England.
It was a very dangerous operation in a rolling swell as the lighters of meat swayed and dipped in the sea. Carcases were loaded into rope nets and slug off up into the holds of the large ships. Many accidents saw men thrown into the sea, squashed between the ship and the lighter or knocked overboard by the large frozen quarters of beef. There are many accounts of this.
You certainly had to have your wits about you and only experienced labourers handled the operations.
Sometimes if the weather changed suddenly and things got too dangerous, the lighters were cut free of the steamer and were left to their own devices. On several occasions lighters were found washed ashore as far as Kawhia.
An elderly resident who I knew for many years, Minnie Lehndorf, told me of the time she and her sister sneaked aboard a lighter which was due to be towed out.
Their father, Captain Martin Jensen, was the master of the steamer Manukau. She told me ‘‘We only wanted to see what Dad did’’.
Unfortunately for the pair it turned out to be a rough day at sea and indeed the lighters were cut free. Lost at sea the two were worried indeed as they were tossed about in the sea, with a frantic father worried about where they’d got to.
Washed ashore near Kawhia all was revealed as a very frightened pair of young girls were found, very cold but OK when the air tight hatch was removed. I’d imagine a good scolding from father ensued!
It amazes me the quantities of frozen meat that were loaded for export this way. I’ve read where 28 lighter loads of meat were offloaded into one ship. That’s a lot of meat!
Many things hindered the loading of meat from the works to be exported this way. A flooded river, heavy seas, timing of the tides, and continuous dredging of the river to keep the channel clear.
But from the mid 1880s when the freezing works was built until the 1920s this was how it was done.
In today’s world its hard to imagine things were done this way, but it all had to start somewhere. History is a fascinating thing.