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Prices, up about £2 a head, made many buyers wary
The shouts of auctioneers, the bellowing of cattle, the barking of dogs, the heat of a Gisborne summer day, the steamy smell of animals packed into yards like sardines, rows of shiny automobiles parked nearby, and tired horses hitched to rails ...... that's Matawhera on the day of the big cattle fair. In a few hours, a nod here and a nod there have changed the ownership of thousands of valuable beasts — and many more thousands of equally valuable pound notes. You have to be sharp to see those nods. Some buyers, it seems, do no more than raise an eyebrow a quarter-inch to raise a bid twenty shillings, but no play in the game is missed by the auctioneer and his hawk-eyed assistants.

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For the cattle, it's a waiting game.

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Auctioneer and assistants keep sharp eye for buyer response

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Well-known sign on Makaraka butcher's shop might well be motto for Matawhero sales

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To buy or not to buy-that is the question.

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Buyers from far and near look over the best Poverty Bay has to offer.