Mr
Frank Gary
30-11-1981
I
think it was sometimes in August since I last wrote to you and I must
apologise for not writing sooner, but without going into details things here
have been pretty hectic.
I
must write to Fred Jeffrey as I have a photo to send him of the Black Red
Modern Game Cockerel which was Ch. Bantam at the Bantam Club of NSW Annual
Show. It took out the ABA Medallion.
I
must also apologise for not getting drawings of the Pekin to you. My son hasn’t
even yet got around to doing them. However I am enclosing sketches which I
have pieced together. I will explain a little about them later in the letter.
I
must thank you for the copy of the 5th Edition of the ABA
Bantam Standard which arrived only last week. My congratulations on the
effort. I haven’t had time to go right through it yet, but have noted the
Langshan. Your grandson did a really good job with the art work. Please pass
on my congratulations to him also. Also tank you for the acknowledgement in
the Standard of both Neville hotly and myself. We are only too happy to assist
wherever we can, so do not hesitate to call on us at any time. We really
enjoyed the exercise.
While
on the subject of standard: although I have not got a copy of
1981 ABA Yearbook as yet I noted in the one Neville received the standard
for Australian Pit Game, Australian Game and Pekin which is very good. I
checked the copy I received from you on that breed which did have in it pea
comb but I had a note alongside it that it was incorrect. Perhaps I did not
advise on that when I wrote back to you? The Australian Pit Game is a straight
combed bird and is dubbed as an OEG would be. Some of the Pits have muffs, you
may check if I advised on that. I’m sorry if I missed it. Neville is coming
down to my house one night. We will go through the Yearbook
against my copies from you. I may have missed something else. If so will let
you know since last writing my son has married and I have been doing some work
on his home as well as helping in the business. His home is of an historic
nature being built in 1840 (that is old for Australia). It was originally an
inn,The Black Horse. Unfortunately
before he acquired it very little maintenance had been done on it. He hopes
over the years to restore it to its original condition and use it for holding
small dinner parties and the like as this is part of his business.
Hope
both you and your wife are keeping well. Guess you are coming up to a White
Xmas, there is New Jersey, of course here at Xmas we usually only wear a pair
of shorts and little else. My doctor gave me a good report on my eyes a short
time back. I use Pilocarpin 3% - 4 times a day which seems to do the job.
30-12-1981
I
am continuing the letter which I started around a month ago. Even I have
finished it, then it would have been no good posting it as the mail situation
here in NSW was out of action for about 3 weeks during December. The men were
on strike and there was no mail in or out for that time. They went back to
work just before Christmas.
The
book I have been writing is not finished after being at a standstill for some
months. It is calledThe Pekin Bantam in
Australia , 190 pages, quarto, typewritten. I typed all the stencils myself
and painted them on the duplicator. I’ve worked pretty hard on it over the
last month. I could not afford to have it published with printing costs etc.
A
printer friend of mine has done the photographs for me by the offset process.
I have only painted 120 copies but have the stencils which can be used again
if necessary.
All
that remains to be done is the insertion of another page. A chap from
Melbourne who writes poultry articles for the newspaper down there is writing
a forward for me and I am waiting on that to come to hand. Then the pages,
including the cover, have to be stapled together and trimmed by the printer
which I anticipate will be done around the middle of January. It won’t be
morocco bound, nothing fancy, but does contain quite a deal of information.
Hopefully I will sell a few copies to defray the cost. As soon as they are
ready I will be sending both you and Fred Jeffrey a copy for your personal
library.
I
am enclosing drawings which my son eventually got around to doing. These will
be included in the book. I think they may raise some comment from some
breeders out here but feel they are reasonably close to what me are
endeavouring to achieve and after all I think that’s what it is all about.
In
any case as I have stated in my book I was prepared to go out on a limb with
regard to the standard here in Australia. Somebody had to do something. I have
been looking through my file of old Australian
Poultry papers and read where somebody says we should do this or that.
After 40 years these things still haven’t been done, so hopefully with the
time I have left I’m going to do something about a lot of these things. Some
may hate me for it but as you once said to me Don’t worry about what they say. If you believe that what you are
doing needs doing just go ahead and do it.
A good example is the ABA and the ABA
Bantam Standard and yourself in particular.
I
may have told you before that some couple of years ago I acquired about 800
copies of a weekly newspaper called Poultry
that was published in Sydney from 1918 to 1970. They contain a wealth of
information. Now I have finished the Pekin book. I hope to go through these
papers and extract the articles and information on the 4 breeds indigenous to
Australia namely the Langshan, Australorp, Australian Game and Australian Pit
Game. I think I can get enough material of a booklet on each of them. It may
take some time but if it is not done all the info will eventually be lost
forever. Anyway must close now and will not leave it so long before writing
again.
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