CONFERENCE DELEGATES’ DAY IN THE COUNTRY

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29138, 25 February 1960, Page 6

CONFERENCE DELEGATES’ DAY IN THE COUNTRY

Mr Godfrey Bowen, chief instructor of the New Zealand Wool Board, stole the show when delegates to the Pacific Area Travel Association conference spent a day in the country yesterday.

Mr Bowen’s sheep-shearing demonstration at Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln, appeared to fascinate the visitors from overseas, and drew enthusiastic applause. “Marvellous” commented an overseas delegate as he watched Mr Bowen shear a sheep with easy skill in a little over a minute.

The visitors also had a glimpse of the Canterbury countryside on a typical warm summer’s day when they drove along dusty shingle roads from Lincoln to Hopn Hay Valley, where an aerial top-dressing display and

sheep-dog working demonstration were held on the property of Mr G. Van Asch. Many of the visitors took photographs of the scene—burnt, brown hillsides rising steeply from the valley, and contrasting with the green ledges and irrigated pastures on the valley floor, t Welcome at Lincoln Delegates were welcomed to Lincoln College by the director (Dr. M. M. Burns). “We are delighted to welcome you to Lincoln, and we hope you will enjoy your brief stay here,” Dr. Burns said. Dr. Burns said that students from a number of overseas countries which delegates represented were attending the college. Those students were welcomed, and added very greatly to the interest and knowledge of the local students “and we do believe that is of mutual benefit," he said. Delegates then lunched informally on the spacious college refectory as guests of the New Zealand Wool Board. New Zealand fare —cold corned beef, ham, and chicken, served with lettuce, tomatoes, asparagus, and savouries—was relished by the visitors. Shearing Demonstration After lunch, the 200 Relegates and their wives crowded into the colleges’ engineering room for the sheep-shearing demonstration by Mr Bowen. , Just before the demonstration began. Professor W. McCaskill gave an outline of the history of the oldest-established agricultural college in the Southern Hemisphere, and described in brief its work. Professor McCaskill then introduced Mr Bowen as “one of the outstanding shearers in the world today.” Before his demonstration, Mr Bowen said there were 700,000,000 sheep in the world, and 50,000,000 in New Zealand, and they all had -to be shorn. “It takes a year to grow a fleece, but in a few seconds on the board, a lot of harm can be done,” Mr Bowen said. “I’m not really going to show you how I can shear, so much as how to shear, and how not to shear.” Quality of Shearing

After shearing his first sheep —a big Romney wether —in fast time, Mr Bowen pointed out that speed was not so much the essence, as the quality of a shearer’s work, taking the wool off the sheep smoothly and without cuts or blemishes.

And Mr Bowen drew a hearty round- of applause as he showed the wether, beautifully and cleanly shorn, before sending it back to its pen with a deft flick of his left foot, which again delighted the audience. In speed demonstrations, Mr Bowen shore two sheep in 65sec and 67sec.

“I think I can just about keep up with our Minister of Finance,” he said. (Laughter). Mr Bowen ended his demonstration with his now well-known speciality of shearing a sheep blindfolded —again to spontaneous applause from the Visitors. Hoon Hay Valley

After a hot, dusty drive along back roads from Lincoln to Hoon Hay Valley, the visitors received welcome refreshments from a little white tent perched on a gentle slope overlooking the valley bottom on Mr Van Asch's property. Gathered on this slope, which formed a natural grandstand, the delegates watched a demonstration of sheepdog handling by Mr R. M. Wilson, of Kirwee. As Mr Wilson's leading dog, Star, was put through his paces, Mr J. Fulton gave a commentary and explained the training and working of the dogs, and their importance in New Zealand sheepfarming. This was followed by an aerialtopdressing display with Cessna and Piper aircraft. The visitors saw these loaded from a four-wheel drive truck and trailer, and then watched with interest as the small planes swooped low over the long, narrow, flat paddock, with clouds of superphosphate billowing like smoke in their wake.

The day was rounded off for most of the delegates by hospitality extended by various country hosts aroqnd Christchurch last evening.