Nothing says “good morning” quite like a rooster announcing sunrise at 4:30 a.m. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Kem Ormond takes a look at the world of farming back in the day. In this week’s Pastures Past, she’s found newspaper articles from the 1920s and 30s about noisy roosters.
You either love them, or you hate them – I’m talking about roosters.
Those strutting, crowing kings of the coop have been stirring up drama for over a century.
Flick through the Shannon News of 1922 or the NZ Herald in 1935, and you’ll find plenty of neighbourly squabbles over the early morning “cock-a-doodle-doo”.
The Waipukurau Press even reported on a Christchurch local, who, in 1933, once begged the town clerk to silence the city’s roosters.
Fast forward to today, and the battle of the birds continues.
Councils still have rules about rooster ownership, mostly to keep the peace (and the sleep).
Because let’s face it, nothing says “good morning” quite like a rooster announcing sunrise at 4:30 a.m.
And if you’ve ever been chased by one of these feathered gladiators, you know they’re not just noisy, they’re bold!
Roosters don’t mess around when defending their turf.
So, love them or loathe them, roosters remain the ultimate rural alarm clock, and sometimes, the reason neighbours stop talking.
Below is a selection of historical stories on rooster disputes from the Shannon News (1922), Waipukurau Press (1933), New Zealand Herald (1935), and the Northern Advocate (1937).
Shannon News, February 14, 1922
(To the Editor)
Sir:–Will you kindly publish the following correction in the Shannon News re a complaint made by Mrs E. Perkins, of Stout Street, by the Shannon Council:—
1. Re statement of my fowlhouse being nearer than 30 feet to Perkins’ dwelling: This is incorrect. It is at least 20 yards away, and enclosed, and just where the Health Officer suggested I should put it.
2. Re roosters crowing: I do not think that mine are singular in that respect. Considering that there are a good few roosters - just within two chains of the dwelling, perhaps the people would get sleep if they were up, say, at Mangahao, where no roosters are crowing at night.
If you should hear of a crowless rooster for sale, I might comply with my neighbour’s desire, if not too dear, and buy it.—l am, etc.,
John Peters
Balance Street, Shannon.
Waipukurau Press, 12 May 1933,
His many duties
Some sidelights
This happened on March 31, the day on which Mr J.S. Neville, town clerk of Christchurch, completed 32 years’ service with the municipality.
“No, madam, I am sorry, but I cannot stop roosters crowing.”
“But you’re the town clerk, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but–”
“Well, these roosters are keeping us awake.”
With soothing remarks born of long years of tactful handling of all sorts and conditions of people, Mr John Samuel Neville, J.P., town clerk of the city of Christchurch, put down the receiver and sighed gently.
“People seem to think,” he remarked, “that a town clerk can even stop roosters crowing.”
And Mr Neville (he is known as Jack to all his associates) cannot do that, despite the fact that he has completed 32 years’ service with the city council.
—Christchurch Star.
New Zealand Herald, February 9, 1935
Sir, —Much has been said about dogs, but to my way of thinking, crowing roosters are fifty times worse, waking one up about 3.30 a.m. every morning all the year round.
People living in close quarters, and on small sections, should not be allowed to keep poultry, let alone roosters, to drive one crazy, and bring flies and smells about.
Talk about £2 tax on dogs! If I had my way, I’d put £l0 on roosters.
Sleep.
Northern Advocate, October 15, 1937
Evidently Whangarei’s problem of the early crowing rooster is shared by other municipalities.
The publication of a Press Association message from here on the subject evoked a steady stream of correspondence in the Taranaki papers.
Here are some specimen “cackles” from a New Plymouth paper: —
“In our neighbourhood cock-crowing begins as soon as motor-cycling leaves off and an unbroken night’s sleep is rare. Is there not a by-law prohibiting poultry-farming in the borough, and is it functioning? I think not, otherwise New Plymouth would not have the biggest proportionate poultry population of any town in the Dominion.”
“I do not believe that New Plymouth, on the whole, has an undue number of roosters in the borough. I have received the report of the poultry census of last year and this shows that of 18,278 fowls in the borough, only 1780 are male birds, a proportion of one rooster to more than ten female birds. I may say that in some other towns the proportion of roosters is far greater, notably at Onehunga, where the proportion is one rooster to six fowls.
“I heartily endorse remarks concerning the crowing of roosters in town. What with the noise of motor cars and cycles till late at night and the crowing commencing early in the morning and sometimes all night, is it any wonder that cases of nervous breakdown are so prevalent to-day?
“I suggest that people who keep roosters should be compelled to pay a tax, which I am sure would soon put an end to the nuisance.
“May I point out in regard to the complaint about sleep being disturbed by the crowing of cocks in the early morning that the town of Whangarei is taking active steps to put an end to a similar nuisance. An official report on the subject is to be made to the Whangarei Borough Council by its inspector.
“The inspector may have to rise before daybreak, or perhaps even patrol the borough on moonlight nights as his ‘order of reference’ instructs him to pay particular attention to the crowing of roosters.
“Rotorua suffered similarly in former times, until its borough council made a by-law restricting the keeping of roosters within certain residential areas.”
- Source: Papers Past