AERIAL FARMING BACKGROUND

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32215, 6 February 1970, Page 8

AERIAL FARMING BACKGROUND

Before he joined Kempthorne Prossers recently as marketing manager of the company’s fertiliser division, Mr H. K. (John) Death had been associated with the aerial farming industry for about 17 years, which he notes spreads more than half of the fertiliser manufactured in New Zealand. Mr Death, who was born and bred on a farm at Levin, attended Horowhenua college and was in the Air Force from 1942 to 1946, during which time he had two years overseas in the Pacific as a Utter. On his return to New Zealand he joined Union Air-

ways, the predecessor of National Airways, as an inspector and licensed engineer. In 1952 he joined Aerial Farming of New Zealand, Ltd, as engineering manager and in 1956 he was promoted to the position of general manager. The organisation had then become Aerial Farming Holdings, Ltd. Working in the southern half of the North Island it is one of the five largest aerial topdressing companies in the country. A chartered engineer and associate fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Mr Death is the holder of aircraft engineers’ maintenance licences A, B, C, D, and XI, and has a licence for jet engines. He is also a qualified pilot with more than 2000 hours of flying to his credit. Joining the aerial farming industry while it was still in its infancy, Mr Death did

original design work on equipment such as hoppers, loaders and aerial spraying systems. In 1959 he visited Australia to organise an agency for his company with the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation. Mr Death is a former chairman of the engineering division of the Aviation Industry Association and a former member of the council of the division. He has been a member of the council of the Royal Aeronautical Society for 11 years and has been chairman of the Palmerston North branch of the society for a similar period. In his new position he hopes to continue to take an interest in flying. Mr P. R. Moore, whom Mr Death succeeds, has gone to a position with the fertiliser industry in Australia.