Tractor To Be Sent To Madras College

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31111, 14 July 1966, Page 9

Tractor To Be Sent To Madras College

“Operation 21” is sending a tractor and implements from Christchurch this month for the Madras Christian College, where Mr J. Hayman, of Canterbury, is the training farm director. The £2300 project includes the building of a shed to house the tractor. It is being financed by young people’s efforts throughout New Zealand for “Operation 21,” and is supervised by the Freedom from Hunger Campaign. Mr Hayman, a Lincoln College graduate from Waimate, said when requesting the tractor that it was “a basic tool without which the development of a farm, even in India, is very difficult and expensive.”

The tractor is an International 8275 diesel, equipped

with a plough, mower, harrows, sprayer, spare parts and tools.

A dedication ceremony will be held today. The tractor and implements will then be packed for shipping in the Wairata to Madras from Lyttelton on July 21. Increased food production is the main aim of the tractor project. An area of 100 acres on the college grounds will be developed as a farm. It will not only provide a training ground for the agriculture students, but will be a source of food for the 1000 students and staff on the campus. Mr Hayman has developed a poultry unit of 2000 laying birds and is establishing a 50cow dairying unit and a piggery. The tractor will develop and cultivate the land for animal production and cropping.