Christmas

During Christmas/New Year, we would stand down most of the forest workers so they could have a decent break after a usually full-on year. A skeleton staff would be kept on though as quick response in the event of fire.

Unless I was on my own, there were two of us staff people and plus three others - enough to operate the Wajax fire pump. Mind you - just what could be done! There were two Wajax Trailers that carried 200 gallons of water each - though we didn't have a good vehicle to tow them. The old Bedford had enough power, but the steep hill into the forest was difficult to negotiate as it was a gravel road and traction was a problem.

The old Commer I drove lacked power. It had plenty of wick in low gear and I remember 'rushing' up the Herbert Hill to put out a fire on telephone pole. It was low gear all the way and very slow.

The trailers held packs of fire hose, tools like axes, grubbers/mattocks and fire rakes. The pump was mounted on the back. The Wajax was a two cylinder two stroke engine that roared at millions of decibels (we had no ear-muffs). Sometimes they were hard to start because two stroke fuel mixtures had a high oil content and if the petrol evaporated out - the spark plugs became coated and would not spark. They were good though.

I have seen it though when the 200 gallons of water filled the hose (because it was so long) that no water came out the end!

There was also a canvas 'mini-dam' that was used to pump water to at the limit of the Wajax's power, and another pumped the water on.

So if we had a big fire outbreak, we would have to call for help! I didn't happen - at least during Christmas/New Year.

At 9:00am we took weather readings - for the met. service and for fire control records, then at 1:00pm we took weather readings for fire control. At ten minutes past the hour we radioed the record through to the Tapanui office. Main thing to know was the relative humidity, wind direction and strength and the weight of the sticks representing lighter fuels. This gave a fire danger reading and provided an alertness factor. It was a good system and reliable.

Even though our worker all lived locally, the Forest Service policy was to allow people two days travel to reach their homes. On the last work day, it would be a clean-up day, tidying things and sharpening tools.

Sometimes firms that we worked with would bring us some beer, or we would 'take the hat around' and buy beer and pies (one day Archie Woodrew cooked up a huge pot of new spuds! That was a treat!). We would sit in the shade under the silver birch trees, drinking and eating; or if it was cold, in the 4 Bay Garage. The drinking would start at around 2:00pm but Albert and I were usually busy tying up loose ends for at least another hour.

Most of the workers, being creatures of habit, left on the dot of 4:30pm which was the usual knockoff time. The rest of us would stay on, often until the beer ran out - but some was always kept in reserve for the standby crew.

Some drunk a little more than was appropriate, others much more, but generally behavior was good and all managed to find their way home sooner or later - but safely.

We often had school boys working for the holidays and we allowed them a drink or two and managed them. One young guy from Waianakarua managed to get into a fight on the way home! Another from the township complained to his father that we had been to tough and did not allow him enough beer. His father later complained to me and suggested next time he be given more. Well the obvious happened and the next year the father complained that we allowed the boy to have too much!

Good social times during a good era.