VISITOR TO N.Z.

Press, Volume C, Issue 29517, 19 May 1961, Page 2

VISITOR TO N.Z.

Ann Crawford Of Queensland

Miss Ann Crawford, who is visiting New Zealand under the auspices of New Zealand Country Girls’ Clubs, comes from Australia’s sugar cane area. She is the daughter of a Queensland sugar cane farmer.

Miss Crawford passed through Christchurch recently on her way to Southland. She will attend the Dominion conference of Country Girls’ Clubs in Timaru from June 20 to June 23. In a recent interview Miss Crawford said Australia's colourful cane-cutters were gradually being replaced by machines. “The machines cut cutting costs from a minimum of £1 a ton with the men. to about 7s 6d with the machine. In this way you, can almost pay off the machine after only one season.” On her father’s farm at Mossman such a machine was the first privately-owned one in the area. It had been specially made for the farm and had cost about £2OOO with the additional cost of the tractor to pull it. It would be used for the first time this season, she said. The only other machine in the area was owned by the nearby mill, but further south in Queensland, the cutting machines were being used to even greater extent as the cane in the south was a different variety and was easier to, cut by machine. Miss Crawford said that on her home farm (Brie Brie, the Victorian aboriginal name for Valley of Happiness) there were usually 12 cut. ters employed and they were mostly Italians. The farm comprised 550 acres. Before she returns to Queensland, Miss Crawford will return to the North Island where she will spend more time studying New Zealand .methods of farming. She will attend the Dominion conference as an observer.