RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33805, 31 March 1975, Page 14

RANDOM REMINDER

WIN DE Al 1

There is no mistaking the flair for improvisation which gives the New Zealander one of his more likeable characteristics. Farmers, in particular, have only to discover the need for some unusual job to invent or adapt a piece of machinery for it to be done well. But even farmers are sometimes saddled with the dreary little chores their city cousins have to suffer. And a North Canterbury farmer, asked by his wife to get up

their enormous pear tree to bring down the crop, put in the usual plea for a stay of execution on the basis of being too busy. But that very same daj' his wife, strewn all over a chaise longue, thumbing through glossy magazines and sipping a Martini, as farmers’ wives do al! over the country, most of the time, heard what seemed like a thunderstorm in what had been a ciear sky. The noise came from

her husband returning from work. Or, more accurately, from the thumping of pears, scores and scores of them, as they hit the ground. There was another sound too. It came from the helicopter which her husband flew to get to the more hilly regions in his property. And it had been a simple exercise — a bit of hovering, a good burst of down draught, and the job was done.