In the last story, Steve and I followed James Norton and the telegram waiting at Dunedin. James's brother Thomas William is the man through whom our mum's line comes. His story takes us from the whaling boats into a shearing shed at Kekerengu, where three generations of the family were working side by side.
In December 1908, Thomas Norton was still shearing in his seventieth year.
Beside him, his son Harry was shearing too. His grandson Henry was picking fleece.
Three generations of one family, each named with his job in the same account.
Thomas spent many years whaling at Kaikōura and was known for his skill with a harpoon. Don Wilson's Whaler by Providence tells much of his working life through the sea.
When the whaling season ended, he took up the blades.
His shearing round began at Waipapa Station near the Clarence River, then carried him south through the sheep stations. At the larger properties the work could keep him there for weeks. Wilson notes that on a good day a blade shearer like Thomas could shear a hundred sheep.
The book describes blade shearing as physically demanding work, well suited to a man who had spent years pulling an oar in a whaling boat.
By December 1908, Thomas was close to seventy and still at it at Kekerengu. Harry worked alongside him while Henry picked fleece.
Thomas did other work between seasons as well. He worked at times for the Kaikōura Roads Board and served as pound keeper for the county council. But the book says he took particular pleasure in his annual shearing journeys and remembered them as good years in his life.
Those few lines bring three generations into the same day of work.
Thomas and Harry on the blades. Henry picking fleece. Kekerengu, December 1908.
Don Wilson comes down through Thomas's brother James. Mum's line comes through Thomas William. Mum and Don are cousins through those two sons of Patrick Norton and Makereta Tangitu, so Don's book brings two branches of the Norton family back onto the same page.
If your whānau has photographs, shearing records or memories connected with the Nortons at Kekerengu, Waipapa or the Clarence, Steve and I would be glad to hear what has been kept.
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