Herbert Forest Reunion

This year on 31 March is the 25th anniversary of the demise of the New Zealand Forest Service. This was due to a government policy of changing the structure of many government departments into corporate type enterprises, many became State Owned Enterprises.

There were pluses and minuses to this process and to some extent it caused social changes that are still felt today.

So it turned out that most of the Herbert Forest staff found themselves out of a job come 31 March 1987. There is no easy way through this type of thing and people were forced to redirect their lives.

As for the forest, it became an SOE under the banner of Timberlands Ltd. and they were required to post a return to government. The Herbert Forest people of course were watchful and critical of how the forest was managed, especially regarding early clearfelling and replanting with low stock numbers. Locally it was perceived to be our forest because it was our effort that made it what it was.

When the next change occurred, I was overseas and so did not witness what occurred but it seemed the Timberlands model was not working well maybe because the transition from government department to corporate was too much of a leap for some to get their head around.
As a Maori claim settlement, Herbert Forest was handed to the local tribe, Nai Tahu who sold it on to the American company, Blakely Pacific.
It is difficult to explain Maori claims or to compensate for past wrongs and I am no expert on such matters. But it is true that the original land buyer forged Maori sale agreement and pocketed money he was supposed to hand over- and I think government believed the money was handed over. I'm glad it is not my job to sort that one out after some 150 years!

Blakely Pacific have a good reputation and locally they are proving to be good corporate citizens and the eagle eyes of the ex-forest workers agree that their husbandry of the forest is very good. Locally there is general belief that the forest is now in good hands.

Over the years expressions of interest were put to me regarding a reunion of the old Herbert Forest people and it seemed appropriate to me, to hold a gathering on the 25th anniversary of the demise of the New Zealand Forest Service.
So between some of us, it has been decided to hold the gathering a the old forest HQ site in what was the wet weather shelter on 25th February from around 11:00am.
I asked Blakely Pacific for permission to tour the forest and my contact, Barry Wells came with an old photo album and offered to meet the cost of catering and a bus tour through the forest, saying that it is Blakely Pacific's pleasure to support an event honoring the legacy that they are now managing.
I appreciate this offer and those words.

I do not have a lot of photos from those old days but below are some from the album Barry loaned me:

Very early on - Bert Moir, --, Herb Welsh, Laurie Hore, Artie Bennett, --, Gib Green.
Probably at smoko time.






I only know Artie Bennett on the left, Gib Green in front and Bert Moir on the right. The old 'lemon squeezer' hat at the rear is ex-army. It is likely this photo is around 1950.






Erection of the 4 Bay Garage - built from large gauge Rimu timber and very sturdy.








G.T. Gillies were famous in Oamaru as a local engineering firm and a local car garage/service station. Old George Gillies purchased many GMC vehicles ex-war and sold off parts and refurbished vehicles.
They had also this GMC with a crane that was hired to lift the trusses and walls of the 4 Bay Garage into place.




Albert Stringer tops a newly erected scrub fence. It was very difficult to establish amenity plantings at the HQ site because of a lack of water so to mitigate this we provided shelter from the SW winds that tended to dry out the soils. It was an effective way of protecting young plants.
The scrub was Manuka and Kanuka from the forest.



A more recent portrait of Albert Hugh Stringer, long time office clerk and gardener at Herbert Forest.









The Beehive Bluffs before they were covered with vegetation. The area on top was planted in all sorts of other species - as a park and to take advantage of the views. We were required to spend 2% of our vote on amenities in those days but this was not really an appropriate thing to do with today's values in mind.
On the skyline the trees are Kanuka.



Controlled burn on Diamond Hill. This was part of a trial to what spray regime was most effective on gorse and the seedling response after burning.
This was a good back burn that left a clean planting site.





A controlled burn below Road 19. Again a slow back burn across the face made a nice clean planting site.
This area was burn much earlier by one of the controlled burns that became uncontrolled and while we fought it, it burnt itself out when it could not cross the next gulley because of the native bush that acted as a firebreak.




A portrait of the one and only Colin Bartrum. He did not like photos being taken of him and it is a victory that I have this!
Colin was a Leading Hand on the forest.









Robin May, contractor harvesting export logs from Cpt 13.
I oversaw the implementation of harvesting on the forest, drawing up the logging plans for several years ahead.
Stephen Gibson was the first to be awarded a contract but later lost it to Robin May, which was one of the fights that I had to concede.





Cpt 24 with Queens Road to the right. This was to be my first controlled burn and quite a tricky one too because it was completely surrounded by forest.
It went well but I did have concerns when the fire rushed uphill toward the road - lesson learned; fire races uphill but does not burn cleanly. But it does lose its power at the top - a good place to fight it from.


Windthrow damage after the 1980 Southwest gales. To try and understand the dynamics of windthrow, a plane was hired and I took oblique photos. This meant we had to take the door off the plane - all the way from Hilderthorpe! I was wrapped in my Swandri, but it was a freezing trip!




Cpt 41 windthrow damage after the 1975 NW gales. This photo is taken from the boundary with Tom Coleman's farm. He called it Tuscon Valley.
The trees were tall and pruned to 32' with thin spacing. I stood by them as they smashed like matchsticks that night, Aug 1.
A warm, moonlit night.



Cpt 54 windthrow after the SW storm of 16.3.80. District Ranger Jack Barber on the left and OiC Alf Milligan on the right.
After thinning the stand is vulnerable to powerful winds.
The track is actually the one that went into the mine office/hut on Diamond Hill. Mick Hill used it when he had a permit to cut Manuka firewood on the point overlooking the Larch (now logged).



Dorothy, the old Galleon grader was purchased by Waitaki Transport.
Bert Moir drove this machine to maintain the forest roads and on various construction jobs.
She came back to the forest when Waitaki Transport won a contract to lay gravel on some of the roads.



The CRU was the 'Central Roading Unit' based at Conical Hills, where where was a large NZFS workshop. We used to call them the 'Roading Gang' but that term became unpopular when motorcycle gangs made the word 'gang' to become associated with unlawful elements.
These guys travelled up on a Monday and back on a Friday which made me question the efficiency of the expensive machinery.


The annual Forestry/Sawmill cricket match, February 1979.
Alf looks to be holding - handing over the trophy which means we lost. The margin would have been small :p
Always a good picnic day out and social gathering.








Couches Road from Breakneck Road. Looking at Cpt 24. The macrocarpas on the ridge were felled, but had been a hedge around Nat Stephenson's house. These trees had been markers for Moeraki fishermen.





Hat Day! Denis Moody, Lester Robb, Darryl Wright, Ian (Kakanui) Beck, Len Capill, Phil (Snow) Wilkie, Phil (Bert) Thompson, Mel Jamieson, Alf Milligan.
In front - Nick Nicholidis, Dave Caldwell.






I will post this blog now because there are a lot of photos and will continue.....

A Gold Mine at Trotters Gorge

During the Great Depression, the government paid men to prospect for gold in the hope something might eventuate from a find. There were workable deposits at Livingston and of course there is the big mine now operating across the ridge operated by Oceana Gold at Macraes.

I knew the creeks running from catchments within the forest were prospected - all along to lower Kakanui Range really. Not much was found though some guys were suspected of making money from some creeks. Of course I had a little fossic in some of the creeks and found some shiny dust, but not any gold.

Sometimes when the scrub or fern is burnt well in preparation for planting, the land is revealed as it has not been for years. This also happens when a forest matures and the trees cause other vegetation to die off through a lack of sunlight.
On the Trotters Gorge Block, the controlled burn of Compartment 73 was particularly clean and it revealed a small small gold mine. Water races, holding reservoir, sluiced areas and some mining equipment.
I asked around but found nobody who knew of this enterprise and so cannot report on the success - but the pictures tell as much as I know.

Viewed from above the reservoir looks small - in the center of the photo. Else, the very clean burn.








The reservoir with Colin standing in shows that it must have held a lot of water.
The bluffs are limestone, the same as the gorge.







Inside the reservoir showing the edge of it and the work involver in its construction.








The water race seems to end in this gulley, and a track continues on the same contour, so maybe the race was never completed.








Colin standing in one of the water races, showing that they must have carried a good volume of water.











In several laces the race is formed with considerable rock works.












A Kowhai tree growing in the race shows the age of the workings.












The race and areas where sluicing took place.









Another of the sluiced areas.









A mineshaft on the ridge.









Colin standing in one of the mineshafts








Miner's cradle left in the small rock shelter.












The gold pan we found in the rock shelter. All was left the as it was for someone else to enjoy finding.

Freezing Workers

It has to be said that workers from the Pukeuri Freezing works paid a large part in the development of Herbert Forest. While it is admitted that the permanent workforce could not have completed work required without the help from these guys, we did not particularly like having them foisted upon us.

It was not only freezing workers, but they were a large proportion of what was generally termed 'Winter Employment Scheme'. And was often initiated by various governments.
Sometimes we would weekly report the the number of workers and the work completed so the Minister of Labour or Forestry could stand up in parliament and tell the country how the unemployed were being utilized.
Of course politically it was deemed better to have people on employment schemes rather than have them sitting at home on the dole - and the money for such works came out of a different barrel.

The seasonal nature of the freezing work industry saw the factory closing down through the winter months, so a lot of labour became available during the winter months.
In the early days, the Labour Department guy in Oamaru would ask us to take some people, and we did so, but if we said there is no work for them, he would have pressure applied from the Dunedin office.
Of course we had a reasonably small programme before Fraser's Block was purchased and extra workers were perceived to be taking taking work form our permanent workers, so we had to 'create' work for the extras and it was difficult to motivate supervisors as well as workers to carry out work that was deemed to be filling in time.

Once the Diamond Hill block and Fraser's Block were purchased, we began to plan with the winter employment workers in mind and we utilized them well, but often for political reasons we had to take on more than we needed, but by this time, with more land and an increased interest in formation of walking tracks we could utilize these people more effectively.

We had to go through some difficulty on the way. Our local workers and I were not really union savvy and were generally lax with what could be termed 'union rules'. But of course the freezing workers were staunch union supporters and liked the rules to be followed to the letter.
This made life interesting and it made it more difficult for me to appoint supervisors to the work crews - we called them 'gangs', but that name is used for other groups these days.
Some complaints were made to their union about 'what they had to put up with' as far as transport, work conditions and equipment were concerned.
I guess this stemmed from, as far as they were concerned, work on the hill is physically demanding and guy raw from town felt the pain of getting up to speed.

One fellow walked all the way down from Government Hill - maybe a hour for a fit guy - leaving without telling his supervisor and wanting a lift home. He reckoned he had 'ricked' his stomach.
Admittedly is was a cold, Southwesterly morning, but I demonstrated the planting technique to a new recruit and then when he had a try, I pulled out the ten trees he had planted because he had obviously taken no heed of what I had shown him. He asked me to take him back to HQ and he would go home, never to return.

I had trouble with one small guy who was the union organizer - he had told me that as long as they were careful as to their demands, strike action was very productive. No strikes were held against us, which was a bonus because you don't want trouble in the workplace - besides cutting gorse with a slasher teaches humility if nothing else.

In the end freezing workers were an asset to our work programme and contributed in a valuable way.

A Deer Hunt at the back of Fraser's

As part of the development of the Fraser's Block, which was to become known as 'south Block', I first had to establish a survey line from Trig G because there were no old survey pegs to tie in to. Well at least we did not have access to the Cadastral maps and I couldn't find any boundary pegs. The only aerial photo was very old and GPS had not been invented yet, so land survey was the way to go.

The beehive shape of the bluff has almost gone
because of the vegetation, but it is about 50metres high.

Already Mick and I had established the main access road, which I called 'Beehive Road' - no, not because of the bees, but because of the huge yellow sandstone bluff that was roughly the shape of a beehive. This bluff was the target of artillery reservists who practiced fired at the bluff from [apparently the coast]. We found many of the timed shrapnel shells around the bluff - lump of lead shot in them about the size of a large marble! Bloody hell who would like to be in a war with them flying/exploding overhead?

The lay of the land was a bit difficult, because we needed to put the road above the bluff and we did not really have much choice about the distance because the road took off past a small saddle - the old geometry thing, the hypotenuse is the grade - height is the vertical - distance the horizontal. The easier the better for all operations, especially log transport.
I took a reading with my Abney level from the saddle to the top of the bluff and wet forth through the scrub with 'survey cloth' - linen rag that is ripped into strips to 'flag', mark where the top of the 'cut' was to be. Meaning where the bulldozer made its first cut to form the road.
Actually I nearly fell over another small bluff that was hidden by scrub because it was right in the middle of the proposed road! This caused me to modify the line making on section of the road steeper than I would have liked, but it was a straight, short section, so not so bad.

Once the road was formed Colin and I carried out the survey and I plotted on a map, finishing the survey at the boundary strainer on Lindsay Clearwater's place.
Mick on the old D6 opened up the old tracks, making them useable for our vehicles and so we could plan the future roading pattern.

There was a leading ridge that headed West and fell steeply into the South Branch of the Waianakarua River, which was the boundary between the forest and Walter Rutherford's property. The whole area was clothed in quite magnificent Manuka/Kanuka forest and scrub with broadleaf forest in the gulleys. Actually this was the area I saw puffballs which are an indigenous truffles
.



Mick and I had seen deer sign along this ridge when we opened up the track along the top as we sat on the moss covered rocks to look down into the river bed. So we planned a days hunting - there were to be four of us, Mick, Merv McCabe (sen), Steve (Mag's young brother) and me.
On a cool, autumn morning we parked up at the end of the ridgetop track and Mick paired off with Steve to head down the Northern flank of the ridge, while Merv and I headed to the South. The Kanuka was tall and open because the understory had been grazed for years by sheep, deer and pigs, so the going was easy, it a little steep. Merv did not want to go down too far, because he thought of the climb out, so he headed along the contour Northwards while I kept on going down towards the river.
I hadn't gone very far, when in a small basin, I spotted two spikers [young stags] in a little basin. I decided to shoot both because I thought Merv was handy and would come down to help me with the carcases. He didn't arrive, but while I waited for him I took the back and fillet steaks and skinned the carcases and cut the backbone so we could each carry a set of hind quarters each.
It was my expectation that they would have heard my two shots, and would surely come to meet me, so I started the heft and climb out. I was used to the old imperial measurement and could visualize a cricket pitch at 22 yards [steps] and that equated to one chain and there were eighty chain in a mile. I counted 22 steps as I carried the first set of hind quarters up the steep hill. There I left them and went back down to collect the other set, and counted 11 steps after I passed the first set. From then on I took each set one chain at a time as I proceeded up the hill.

Meantime, the others had gathered back at the truck wand were waiting form me, and I was taking a long time. They had not heard my shots. Mick and Merv played tricks on young Steve, telling them that I go 'bush happy' when I am on my own and I might walk for miles - they might even come back tomorrow to find me. I worried the lad.

It took me until late afternoon to reach the ridge and for the others to hear my approach, and they came rushing to give me a hand - at last! They were pleased with my efforts and apologetic that I was left to lug the meat up on my own! Still we shared the meat as is usual, because another time it would they who did the shooting/carrying.
Actually, fit as I was, it had been a huge effort to carry those hind quarters out and secretly, it took me a couple of weeks to recover!

A more distant view of the South Block and the Beehive

Hooks

We called Colin Bartrum 'Hooks' because he was a keen fisherman, but he liked and took an interest in all sports, playing cricket and golf.There is a lot I could write about this guy because he remains a good mate of mine and we did a lot together over the years.

Hooks never married and when he moved out of his parent's home, the old manse in Herbert, he bought a house in Hampden where I visited and checked that he being tidy and ate well. He never liked green vegetables but could eat the best part of a chicken at a sitting!

When I arrived at Herbert Forest, Colin was a Reg 130 Forest Hand One that classified him as a laborer with forest skills. I promoted him to Leading Hand putting him in charge of work gangs, something he did not altogether like, but he accepted the challenge of it.
So he became my right hand man and I found him to be the first to agree with my sense of sustainability - taking just enough fish, whitebait and preserving native flora and fauna. Mind, he was a sportsman [always fair, if hard] and he shot deer and pigs for sport with the advantage of the meat byproduct. I shot deer, pigs and hunter possums because it was my job. I have always liked animals but quickly learned in my forestry training that animals such as pigs, deer, chamois, thar, goats, rabbit, hares and possums were noxious animals and government policy was to exterminate them. This was because there were no indigenous mammals [save a small bat] in New Zealand. These introduced animals caused erosion on the mountains and decimated our indigenous plants. So whenever the opportunity arose, I would shoot, or otherwise kill these animals - I remember being accused of participating in blood sports. No, rather my duty because I was skilled to carry out that kind of work.

I enjoyed the competitiveness with Colin. We would lay a long line of cyanide to kill possums and then later go out to skin them. We did not share - whoever skinned the animal packed it and it was his to stretch and dry - then we would go together to sell them to old Fred Barklay of course to get the best price. This was in the back-blocks and we would go all day without food and drinking only from creeks or the river. By the end of the day the full pack became heavy!
Likewise marking trees; few that I have worked with have the same idea of tree selection as Colin did - well I guess I trained him to some extent, but there were times when discussion raged on.

He was a good chainman working with me when I carried out chain and compass surveys to plot land information on maps. The chainman ensured the line to be surveyed was clear and the chain was not compromised to give an untrue reading - this was for distance and we needed to be accurate! If the survey plotted onto the map did not close within two degrees, the survey needed to be remeasured and I did not like doing that. Colin helped me to be very accurate.



Above is a prismatic used to measure the angle between pegs. Mine was ex-army and accurate, forward bearing should be 180 degrees different from the reverse bearing (a check

The chain was not made of the chain links like the older ones, this was a thin steel band - the reader end [my end] with actual links marked on, the last chain if you like, and the rest the actual chain, which Colin called out.

The Abney Level was to check the slope because the all lineal measurements need to be brought to level to fit on to a map. There was a table to read off in the office. All had to be entered into a note book, starting at the rear with notes about topography and anything of interest along the way.

In his younger days, old Hooks uses to play cricket for the MCC! Actually Maheno Cricket Club, he was a good and keen cricketer and represented North Otago. He enticed me to fill in at a game at the Orari Domain, and unknown to me at the time, he told the others that I had played Brabham Shield cricket, but I got the message when I was facing the bowling. Me? I know how to hold a bat because there is a thin end and the bowler charged at me like the boar on the Toyota ad! Well I didn't have to see the ball to have it hit the bat and run off to the boundary! Anyway I was soon out and at the after-match raffles, Colin won a can of oysters. I managed to eat most of them on the drive back, but after we had dropped Ronnie off at Waimotu, I vomited them up! The taste wasn't as good the second time around!

Colin had a fi shing boat, the 'Ilene' and he had a slipway at Shag Point. Colin used to like me to drive the old girl [drive is not the word, but I'm no seaman] because of my experience as a surveyor, I could us landmarks as pointers and find the good fishing spots. She was a good little boat but sailing into the slipway was dangerous, as she was slower than the surf, with the danger of going sideways, so timing was critical. He would sit at the stern watching the sea and yell 'Giver her arseholes!' - full throttle!
I always felt safe out in the sea and maybe that is a dangerous thing, but one time I did sweat! Something huge passed under the boat, we never identified it, but we think it may have been a whale shark. It had the potential to tip us over.
We used to go go netting for flounders off the Hampden beach, sometimes catching elephant fish as well. I would hold the rope on the beach and Colin would row out [we would only do this when it was flat calm] dropping the drag net after him and then we would pull the net in. One day a dolphin was swimming in the bite of the net and I had visions of Colin being dragged out to sea! But no, Colin was unaware but the dolphin went straight through the net leaving a big hole! We had some good feeds in those days!
He replaced the boat in later years a larger more powerful one! We spent ages fixing it and cleaning the Volvo stern drive. It had a Zephyr Mk3 motor, so it was powerful. Well the day came to launch her at Moeraki and we puttered out on the axillary motor. In Moeraki harbor Colin fired up the motor! It all happened at once! The throttle was jammed full on! She was in gear and the steering didn't work! We were on course to cut David Higgins' boat in half. Colin tried the controls but on we roared, so I turned the key and it worked! We avoided David's boat because luckily the axillary motor started first pop and we were able to make a turn! We never put the boat back in the water!

Colin trained as beekeeper with Stan Davidson and his own farther, old Stan Bartrum used to keep bees as well. When Colin found out that I was interested in bees, we each bought a couple of hives and built up our population. As w ell we set p a couple of hives on the Forest HQ site and supplied honey to the workers.
There is a lot to know about bees and bee keeping and we were generally successful. The regulations were not as strict as today, although each hive had to be registered and inspected.
One evening we decided to shift six of out hives to the other side of the river. We loaded them on a trailer when we though all the bees had come home, then Colin driving his Landrover, slowly drove through the paddock. Every beekeeper's nightmare - the hives all tipped over! we had taken out protective gear off and it was not an option to cover ourselves outside! The cab of a short wheel-base Landrover is not ideal for a couple of guys to put on overalls.
Once outside, the bees hit us en mass ! In the end we managed sort things out as best we could and the hives survived.

One of Colin's tricks was to catch a handful of drone, they have no sting, and frighten people with them - usually asking someone to hold a hand out and he would put them in there! He delighted in the reaction.

German wasps are a constant danger to beehives, because they rob honey and kill bees, so Colin and I would kill any wasp nests we alerted to or found. The bes t method was to fill a beer bottle with petrol and push the neck of the bottle into the exit hole of the nest. Some people light the petrol, but it is dangerous and there is no need to. The fumes do the job.
There was a huge nest just by the bridge in an old tree stump and it was proving difficult to get on top of. One day we filled some Indian Knapsack Pumps [for fighting fires] with petrol, donned our protective gear and started the fight. It was a hot day, which caused the petrol to evaporate more quickly - a good thing or bad, I don't know - but the wasps were active and attacked us. We had cut a line to the stump as far as we could without being savaged [we were not suited up for that job] and we found that there were several exit holes in the nest. Once we reached the nest, we took turns spraying the attacking wasps with the petrol while the other poked the nozzle down each hole to give it a dose. Killing wasps does nothing in the end, you have to kill the queen. When all the pumps w ere empty. We made our retreat and a few days later we could tell we had won the battle. Never the war though - queens hibernate and set up nest the following spring.

I took him Thar shooting at Mt Cook, well we stayed in the Fred Stream hut and climbed the mount ains behind. We slept on the floor and Colin complained that rats crawled all over us and were playing football with an empty tin on the floor. I heard nothing, but the next night, I found that he was right, there were a lot of rate in the hut! He slept in the car, but I felt safe enough.
One morning as we set off, there was a car parked in a pull off area and we could see the car was in motion. As we became closer, we could see a pink pair pf women's knickers on the steering wheel. I had to physically pull Colin away, because he wanted to creep beside the car and let off a shot of his rifle at what he called, 'the gravy stroke'! We left them to it.
We did climb the slopes of Mt Cook, seep and through snow, and on the leading ridge this Swiss guy came bouncing down, from rock to rock! We were amazed because we had used a deal of energy getting to where we did! The Thar were quite safe, we never fired a shot!

We made two trips to Stewart Island, the first time flying across in the Domini sea plane. We took my dog Wally, coated in baby powder so he didn't stink out the other passengers. One woman took a liking to him and I was nervous that he was going to vomit in her lap! I managed to distract him enough.
We had blue cod and crayfish there, staying at Chew Tobacco Bay. The area lacked fresh water and we suspected Wally of licking our plates clean because we had not washed them!

The next time we took Spencer King with us [one of our work mates] he took a bottle (several?] of rum - Colin and I did not drink very much - and old Spencer would have a toddy or two each evening after the day's hunt - never offering us a swig. When there was about an inch left in the bottle, Colin and I drank it and replaced it with cold tea. Spencer did not notice it in his first toddy, and the second he looked quizzical when he poured the rest, we gave the game away by rolling on the floor in laughter!

It's a quieter life now for us all!

The Logging Arch

I attended a local birthday party last night (and I don't do that too often) where I met up with Geoff Herbert. Herb, as we call him, used to be a silvercultural contractor who worked on the forest for some time and I admired the hard work he carried out.

Luck did not always follow poor old Herb and he never really recovered from the setback caused when the guy he was in partnership with in a logging operation, drove off with the log-skidder and sold it in off, pocketing the cash!

Herb now is in the firewood business and uses a small crawler tractor, winch and logging arch to extract his produce.

I was interested to know where Herb had found a logging arch, because these days they are not used so much because there are more modern machines available to 'the big boys' today.

He had found the one that I arranged for Bert Bennett!

This takes me back to 1965 or 6! Bert, who owned the local sawmill used to log farm blocks in the district to run his sawmill. He used a TD6 crawler tractor with a winch and skidded the logs out of the bush causing the butt of the logs to be filled with soil and stones.
My old mate Keith Gibson, was the sawyer at the mill and as part of his duties he sharpened the saw blades. Keith operated the breaking down bench which cut the logs down to a suitable size for the breast bench which cut the actual timber.
To reduce time and saw maintenance, Bill Matches was employed from time to time to chip away the rough bark, soil and stones from the butt of the larger logs.

I suggested to Bert that a logging arch help produce cleaner logs and make for a more efficient logging operation (and Bill had died). Through my forestry contacts I was able to source an arch from Tapanui for Bert to try. It was an instant success and old Bob Yates (who operated it) wanted Bert to keep it.
Well I did have some influence! Bert was given the arch because, as I put it, he would be logging in the forest soon.

Well the arch was used for some considerable time but became redundant when Bert bought a Timberjack log-skidder.

I am thrilled to know Herb is now getting very good use out it!