The Evolution of the Shearer
By Henry E. Butler
First season out, a rouseabout, a loppy on the "board."
A knight of the broom and tar-stick, the "ringer" is his lord;
He picks up fleeces, throws them out, 'tends to the call "Tar here,"
And. racing up the board, he'll pull a "friction wheel" in gear.
He fetches combs and cutters, or a pannikin of tea.
Between whiles, when an even catch the board from wool is free,
Watching his lord, the ringer, racing down the "whipping side,"
At "smoke oh" he will finish off the "big gun's" sheep with pride.
He listens to the tallies shorn around the fire at night.
And wonders if he'll ever be a "gun;" some day he might;
And so he "loppies" on and has a cut in now and then.
And next year you will find him shearing in a learner's "pen."
Notes
From the Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser Wednesday 15 January 1908 p. 173.
About the Author
THE TECHNICAL COLLEGE. THE WOOL CLASSES. (From The Sydney Stock and Station Journal Friday 11 August 1905 p. 3.)
Good work is being done in the training of young men, at the Woolclassing Department of the Technical College, Sydney. It will surprise most readers to learn that all the day students at the class are engaged for sheds, each one having; from two to four sheds, and that at extreme rates. If there were 150 students, they could all find remunerative work, for the demand is very great and that speaks well for the teaching power of the classes and the estimation in which the work of the college is held. We purpose saying something about the teaching done by Mr. Hawkesworth for the place ought to be better known than it is.
In the meantime we give the pass-list for 1905 in the wool-classing examinations:--Honours: Lucien G. Bonnefin, Sydney; Albert A. Griffith, Orange; Harold D. Cutler, Sydney; Gilbert Pntchard, Sydney ; Walter L. Hickenbotham, Victoria ; Claude V. Terry, Yass; Benjamin J. Taylor, Bankstown ; Henry E Butler Sydney ; Andrew B. McLennan, Narrandera; Arthur G. Thomas, Sydney; Victor R. Taylor, Bathurst; Robert W. Chilcott, Queensland.