Need N.Z. Advisers

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31001, 5 March 1966, Page 9

Need N.Z. Advisers

A party of members of South Australian farm improvement dubs now visiting New Zealand make no secret of the fact that they want New Zealand farm advisers. The deputy leader of the Australian party, Mr R. E. Burrows, of Naracoorte, said in Auckland recently: “With an expanding population our farms are getting smaller and we have to farm more intensively. We have to look to New Zealand and pinch as many of your farm advisers as possible because we need men who have studied.the business side of farming. We are advertising here pretty intensively to get more men to come over.”

Of course, many holders of the diploma of farm management and rural valuation from Lincoln College, attracted by salaries and favourable conditions, have already gone to such positions in Australia. There are 18 men and 15 wives in the party now beginning the South Island section of their tour. Many of them are former servicemen of the Second World War who are now farming properties of up to 5000 acres. Their farms, sheep, beef cattle and wheat growing properties, are scattered over a distance of 600 miles from Mount Gambier to Kirnba.

Rainfall over this territory is generally low by New Zealand standards—l 4 inches a year in some parts and up to 30 inches in others. Nevertheless, many farmers are doing well under these conditions. One of them is the leader of the party, Mr A. S. Rodda, a post war settler who is described as a pioneer in an area formerly known as the 90mile desert at Tintinara. On light, sandy country with an average rainfall of about 18 inches a year, Mr Rodda has grown lucerne very successfully by spacing his plants 18 I inches apart so that they do not compete too much for : available moisture.

A few members of the party are from a former servicemen's farm settlement on Kangaroo Island, about 25 miles off the South Australian coast.

The visit of the Australians to New Zealand is a reciprocal one following a visit to Australia last May by members of the mueh-travelled Te Awamutu Farm Improvement Club.