Long Ploughing Association

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31365, 10 May 1967, Page 24

Long Ploughing Association

The president of the New Zealand Ploughing Association, chairman of the organising committee for the 14th World Ploughing Contest and New Zealand member of the governing board of the World Ploughing Organisation, Mr E. A. E. (Evan) Fairhall, of Renwick, Marlborough, has a long record of competitive ploughing, judging of ploughing and ploughing match administration.

His father before him, Mr Louis Fairhall, was an almost legendary figure in Marlborough with the plough, although he never ploughed in a match. In paddocks up to a mile long, he was noted for the straightness of his furrows and his drilling and for the neatness of his work. Mr Evan Fairhall was born in Blenheim and educated at Renwick primary school and Marlborough College. He started farm work on leaving school in 1929 on the 1200-acre property owned by his father and his uncle, of which nearly 400 acres is now part of Woodbourne aerodrome. On the death of his father in 1930 he took over his father’s interest in the property. He is now fanning

557 acres in partnership with his son and daughter. Two thousand sheep are carried on the farm and there is a programme of cropping and small seeds production. Mr Evan Fairhall began match ploughing in 1935 with a three-furrow plough drawn by a six-horse team. In 1938 he changed over to tractors. He was the first Marlborough Ploughing Association representative to compete in a final for the Atlantic Silver Plough (in 1957). During his career in competitive ploughing from 1935 to 1958 he won many championships in the northern part of the South Island. Since retiring in 1958, he has performed the duties of a ploughing judge. In the administrative sphere, he has been a committee member of the Marlborough Ploughing Association since 1936 and its president for 10 years. He retired from the chairmanship only this year. Mr Fairhall was elected to the executive of the New Zealand Ploughing Association in 1959. In 1964, he was team manager to Mr E. J. Croy, of Wakanui, when he competed in the World Ploughing Contest in Austria and he was elected to the governing board of the World Ploughing Organisation in 1965.

Outside ploughing, Mr

Fairhall has been active in a number of other spheres. In Federated Farmers he has been a member of the Marlborough provincial executive. He is still a member of the Blenheim branch committee, on which he has served for 20 years. He has also been chairman of the branch. Mr Fairhall is a former chairman of the National Party tot the Marlborough electorate and is at present

vice-chairman. He Is a director of the Marlborough Lucerne Meal Company. For a number of years he was chairman of the Renwick school committee, and also served as chairman of the centennial committee of the school and chairman of the Renwick district centennial committee. A Justice of the Peace, Mr Fairhall is also interested in motor sport and photography.