18. Wrathall Returns to Australia. After a few other formalities, Mr. Wrathall had his travelling trunks taken on board the Mary Ann and he bid the men good-bye and wished them all the best of luck. The vessels anchor was then lifted and she put out to sea. There was a light favourable wind and the shores of New Zealand were soon left far behind. This fair wind prevailed for several days and a good trip was made across the Tasman. Back in Australia, after a ten days voyage, Mr. Wrathall was welcomed back by his several friends and acquaintances. Though he was reticent in his remarks concerning his sojourn in New Zealand, he could not help occasionally speaking in glowing terms of this new land, which was almost unmarked by the footprints of the white man. The cargo of Kauri flitches taken brought back by the vessel told of the wonderful timber New Zealand produced; builders and shipwrights alike were extremely interested, as they had never before seen Kauri, the giant of all timbers and unique in New Zealand. The vessel unloaded at Wrathalls private wharf at his Melbourne sawmill, and the timber stacked on the shipping wharf. It served as a great advertisement for New Zealand timber: it quite eclipsed anything produced in Australia. Mr. Wrathall soon received a number of enquiries as to price per hundred superficial feet, the lengths in which it could be procured and also the prices for spars, booms and yardarms for shipbuilding. He said that he could supply magnificent spars suitable for all classes of shipbuilding up to eighty and ninety feet in length free from limbs and branches. These spars he could square down to thirty by thirty at the butt to eighteen by eighteen at the head. As to price landed in Melbourne, he had not yet gone into the question of cost but he thought it would probably work out a t about one pound per lineal foot landed. Needless to say, a number of spars were there and then ordered by a firm of shipbuilders who had commenced business in Port Phillip. Four eighties and four nineties were some that were ordered and Wrathall agreed to supply these subject to his scow being able to handle the lengths. After spending a few days attending to his Australian business interests there that were controlled by managers, he, accompanied by Mrs. Wrathall, went out to these Mitigong Station for a round up of the cattle. When there, he told his son, Charles, to pick our thirty six of the coloured breeding cows and four yearling bulls, two shorthorns and two devons, as he intended taking them back with him to place on a run of eight thousand acres that he had taken up in New Zealand. When they were mustered he was to have then driven down to Melbourne in readiness to ship from Port Phillip in about twelve days time. In the meantime he proposed fitting up his coastal scow with stock pens to carry four beats in each pen. He thought the scow would comfortable carry about forty heads. He said that most of his time, during the next two years, would be spend in New Zealand, although he would be backwards and forwards with cattle to New Zealand and a timber freight to Australia. He suggested that in about a months time, there should be another round up of stock so that a similar amount would be paddocked in readiness for the next return trip of the scow. He thought that about one hundred cows and four bulls would be enough to establish cattle in New Zealand which appeared to have an ideal climate. There was also an abundance of natural fed there and the native bush formed an admirable shelter. He proposed keeping the mob entirely for breeding and would not, therefore, attempt to slaughter until the first years increase were three years old. In the meantime he would be able to draw on his depoted stocks of keg beef that he had held in stock when he sold his meat supply business: his accumulated stock was two thousand three hundred kegs. He had already drawn on that to the extent of three hundred kegs. Which he had sent to New Zealand, leaving him a balance of two thousand kegs which he intended keeping for the New Zealand supply entirely as the natives had acquired the taste for beef and his best trading line then was this keg meat. 19. Establishing Cattle in Taipa. On leaving the Station homestead, where he had spent a day and a night, he, with Mrs. Wrathall, visited each of his sons at Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, and Melbourne, distributing his stay equally at each of his sons hotels. At each of these centres, he met many of old friends and when the time came for him to sail he found it hard to tear himself away from his renewed acquaintances. However, it was a duty call and he waved good-bye as he sailed out of port with his load of stock for this new land of his adoption. The ships cargo included forty head of cattle, two stock horses, one ram and twenty ewes, all huddled comfortably in their separate pens, and a dog kennel containing four cattle dogs from the Station, so he had a full equipment of the essentials for the establishment of his tock ranch. Once out to sea he felt the relief from the bustling he had endured during his first return trip to his old associations in Australia. He paid great attention to the stock and personally attended to the feeling of them during the voyage. By his constant care of the animals, they survived the sea voyage and all landed in perfect condition. The trip was a wonderful one and they were fortunate in striking a fair wind practically the whole distance. On the tenth day out from Port Phillip, the scow dropped anchor at Taipa, when, simultaneously, the canoes with Pawi and his men arrived. It was a great day in Taipa as far as the Maori were concerned: they had never before seen cattle, sheep or horses, and they eyed them with great interest. The scow was beached on the sandy foreshore and Mr. Wrathall had a gangway of flitches arranged, with one end of the flitches on the vessel and the other end on the sandy beach. This gangway was about twenty feet wide and formed a magnificent egress for the stock as they were able to walk straight ashore with ease. As these quadrupeds moved up to the bank to graze on the green tussocks above the high water mark, the Maori stood aghast as they were amazed at these animals. The sheep were then put into the canoes and taken shore to an open space, where native grasses had taken possession, and which was large enough to proved grazing for the number landed. Mr. Wrathall decided to keep them in this locality until they lambed then he would take them on to the stock ranch, but in the meantime he wanted to make sure of their safety. The horses, too, were a great attraction the natives, especially when John saddled and mounted one, and, with his tock whip and dogs, started off to drive the cattle to Oruru. The whole crowd of natives took part in the droving and, with one Maori leading to show the track, the cattle were taken on to the lower portion of their new home within about two hours driving from Taipa. Fortunately the cattle were very tame and no difficulty was experienced with the droving. The mob was driven on to the low lying cabbage tree flats on which there was an abundance of green feed, where they soon seemed to have satisfied themselves, for one by one they lay down under the shade of the trees to rest. The drovers then returned to Taipa, where, on their arrival, they camped for the night. Next morning they were all busy again rafting the flitches down to the scow which was soon ready for her return voyage. Mr. Wrathall in the meantime had found that it would be possible for the scow to carry the spars that had been ordered so he sent a letter back to the Melbourne shipwright informing him that he could be supplied with the order for the Kauri spars of the dimensions sought via. Four eighties and four nineties, squared and tapered to the sizes mentioned in the tentative arrangement arrived at when they discussed the matter at the interview before Wrathall left Australia. He said that he would be shipping them back by the scow when she returned from her next trip which would probably be within about six weeks from the date and also that he would be able to supply a like amount on each return of the scow for the next few trips. As he had found that he had a clump of trees on his block that would be admirable for spars, he would be pleased to supply any number up to ninety feet, should he receive further orders for any sizes or lengths. Since he had found that his scow could take eight spars on top of the deck load of flitches, the vessels carrying capacity was about fifty thousand feet of sawn timber. The loading of these boats had now become quite a windfall for the natives, for Mr. Wrathall gave them quite a fair supply of stores for each occasion they helped in the loading and unloading operations. The scow was soon loaded and at last she set out on her trip. When she had cleared the Bay, Mr. Wrathall set to work to arrange for the getting of these spars. He found that, during his absence, the felling and crosscutting in the bush was now far ahead of the pitsawers, so he decided to make a start on getting out these lengths and so give the pits a chance to catch up to the crosscutters. He took Snowden and Flavell with him into the bush and pointed out the trees he wanted them to prepare for shipment. The ones selected were those growing near the waters edge. He did this because they would take a lot of handling and care owing to their length and the quantity of timber in each stick and also because there would be great difficulty and great distance in getting them owing to there being no means of haulage. These two expert axemen at once set to work and felled those trees and while they were carrying out the felling operations their Maori labourers were clearing the rubbish from either side of the sticks and getting them ready for the squaring operations. Within a fortnight, the eight spars were squared, jacked to the stream and floated down to the sandy beach in a raft and left in readiness to ship. The final touch with the hewing axe gave them a very fine finish and the workmanship was a credit to Mr. Wrathalls fine axemen. While the squaring was in progress the pitsawers had a chance to cut out a lot of the accumulated logs and the bushmen were able to get back to the cross cutting. Mr.Wrathall had another pit erected and the pitmen then with the extra saw could just keep the bushmen busily engaged and so the work was now better balanced and the output was sufficient to keep the two boats running full freight. This was Mr. Wrathalls ambition. As to the disposal of the timber, his own mill in Melbourne could take all the Kauri flitches he could send over. 20. The Timber Trade Blossoms. Wrathall could now see the silver lining in the clouds, for he could place all the goods that were being freighted by the regular service, he had now established between the two countries. The native population, alone, could absorb the Mary Anns monthly delivery. As no money was in circulation in those far back, distance days, that meant that his outlay for goods already landed, with the necessary services attached (included all wages to date), was in the vicinity of four thousand pounds. The Mary Anns cargo of forty thousand feet of timber was worth eight hundred pounds, as arrangements had been made to place the first class Kauri on the market, at the landing cost of two pounds per hundred, landed on his mill wharf at Melbourne. Her double cargo, therefore, represented in value the sum of once thousand six hundred pounds, while the scow load of fifty thousand feet was worth one thousand pounds landed in Melbourne, making a total value of two thousand six hundred pounds, worth of timber already dispatched. The following showed the position, at that moment, of his New Zealand operations to be: an outlay to date of four thousand pounds against timber shipped to the value of two thousand six hundred pounds: which meant that he was fourteen hundred pounds in debit: but his assets were a full stocked store with buildings which would balance the account, leaving a balance of accumulated assets. These represented the whole of the timber at Mangonui, as yet untouched, with enough timber standing in the Taipa bush to keep his men going full time for another two years. In addition, he had a heavy stock of timber on hand at the pits that he hoped to find a market for, his landed interest of eight thousand acres at Oruru on which he had already started his cattle ranch, and timber spars, valued at six hundred and eighty pounds landed at Melbourne, ready to ship. This stock-taking served as his first balance sheet. He had compiled this to be recorded in the ledger in his head office at Melbourne, where the chief clerk has been instructed to place credits to Mr. Wrathalls New Zealand Commercial A/c., which A/c. was charged with all goods shipped and all wages and other charges connected with the shipping transport. Mr. Wrathall had advanced from his private capital account all monies required for the operations and he intended opening, as soon as his advance had been refunded, a New Zealand Capital A/c. so that each countrys operations would be kept separate. He then charged the New Zealand branch with the freight charges both ways and with a commission on the timber sales when he bought in for his own mill and placed the timber elsewhere. The balance after all deductions was placed to the credit of the New Zealand Capital A/c. which formed the foundation of his son, Stephens, start in life, John, too, was not forgotten as the agreement was that one third of this capital A/c. was to be given to him to work the cattle ranch, and Mr. Wrathall, therefore, felt that both his sons would soon be on the fair road to success. If they failed, it could only be through business incompetence, so he decided that he would remain with them in New Zealand for a time until they both were well established. The vessels now came and went at regular intervals and the spars had become a popular freight and were soon in great demand on account of their magnificence for masts, booms and yardarms. Many were placed in America by the Australian shipwright who had made the contract with Mr. Wrathall for a repeat order for eight each load of the scow until further notified. Many vessels were trading between Australia and America at that time and when they ere needing any attention they were berthed in this shipwrights dock and there the men off these vessels examined these beautiful New Zealand spars and so the spar trade grew to tremendous dimensions. It was a remarkable coincidence that one order that came from America for twelve eighty foot spars was from a Charles Wrathall, and it was believed that this was a member of the original firm of Wrathall Bros., Ship Chandlers, England, and a brother of Stephens, who may have gone to America after the break up of the English firm. Mr. Wrathall, however, being a very busy man and of a very independent disposition, never bothered himself about it and certainly did not interest himself any more than by saying that he probably was his brother Charles, who, he believed, had married the Rev. Hicks daughter and gone to America. We have reason to know now that he was Charles, a member of the old firm in which Mr. Wrathall, himself, was a partner, because another set of records shows Charles Wrathall as having enjoyed a very successful commercial life in America and was probably more noted than Stephen, but the American branch will be left free to tell their story because we have no records, and I will, therefore, return to continue my essay on the New Zealand Branch of the family. The shipping continued uninterrupted for a considerable time and the back freighting with timber kept both vessels very busy, the scow bringing cattle on each trip and the Mary Ann with goods, providing full loads each way. By the end of the first year, Mr. Wrathall felt that he had enough breeding cattle and horses to serve the country so he ceased importing and divided the incoming cargo equally between the two ships for ballast purposes, because the back freights were sufficient to keep both vessels running and it required the both ships to clear the production of sawn timber, which was averaging about seventy five thousand feet of flitches a month through the pits. This was a little more than both vessels could handle and slowly the heap of flitched timber accumulated. Mr. Wrathall did not mind that as he intended chartering larger ship for an occasional trip to help clear the output. 21. An American Wrathall Orders Timber The vessels now came and went at regular intervals and the spars had become a popular freight and were soon in great demand on account of their magnificence for masts, booms and yardarms. Many were placed in America by the Australian shipwright who had made the contract with Mr Wrathall for a repeat order for 8 each load on the scow until further notified. Many vessels were trading between Australia and America at that time and when they were needing any attention they were berthed in this shipwright's dock and then the men off these vessels examined these beautiful NZ spars and so the spar trade grew to tremendous dimensions. It was a remarkable co-incidence that one order that came from America for twelve 80 ft spars was from a Charles Wrathall, and it was believed that this was a member of the original firm of Wrathall Bros. Ship Chandlers, England, and a brother of Stephen's, who may have gone to America after the breakup of the English firm. Mr Wrathall however, being a very busy man and of very independent disposition, never bothered himself about it and certainly did not interest himself any more than by saying that he probably was his brother Charles who, he believed, had married the Rev. Hick's daughter and gone to America. We have reason to know now that he was Charles, a member of the old firm in which Mr Wrathall himself was a partner, because another set of records shows Charles Wrathall as having enjoyed a very successful commercial life in America and was probably more noted that Stephen, but the American branch will be left free to tell their story because we have no records, and I will therefore return to continue my essay on the NZ Branch of the family.