Many A Glorious Morning

Coming to New Zealand as a young man in the mid-1920s, David McLeod soon found his way to the high country of the South Island. He got his first independent job on Mount White Station in the Upper Waimakariri country and was up striding the tops almost before he had time to acquire a musterer's stick, let alone a dog or two. But he took to the mustering game as a Merino takes to the tussock. He had to learn things the hard way - and hard they were! - but meanwhile he could enjoy the grand companionship of hut and campfire, not to mention the glorious mountain mornings that so stirred his Scottish blood.

Here he tells the story of those first years getting the hang of things. After Mount White, he hag a long spell on Mesopotamia Station - linked in the very early days with Samuel Butler - and he roved further afield in Canterbury, mustering also on Craigieburn and Avoca stations. He writes of horses, dogs, sheep, cattle, deer, rabbits, keas - but most of all that 'very select body of men, hardy, tough, capable' who earned their grubstake striding the hills with him. 'I have tried', he says, to describe my progress in this occupation [mustering] from the helpless new chum who could not work a dog or kill a sheep, through the failures and the triumphs, the exhaustion and exhilaration, to the day when I had to exchange freedom for responsibility and go no more a-roving among the stations.'

Format: Hardback - Great condition

Publisher: Whitcombe & Tombs

Published: 1970

ISBN: 72330179