NOTABLE FIGURE IN MATCH PLOUGHING

Press, 15 June 1979, Page 9

NOTABLE FIGURE IN MATCH PLOUGHING

In the death of Mr T. F. (Frank) Carter at the end of last week at the age of 80 years match ploughing in New Zealand has lost one of its most notable figures. He was well-known in ploughing match circles in both New Zealand and overseas and like that of Mr W. G. (Bill) Miller of Wendon in Southland a few years ago his death will leave a gap that will be hard to fill. A tall and kindly man, he was a familiar figure at ploughing matches around the country. Only two weeks ago he was present at the annual match of the Lincoln Ploughing Match Association, with which as an administrator he was associated for the best part of 50 years. At the time of his death he had been on the committee of the association f,or about 47 years, including 25 years as its president. He has lately been one of its patrons and was also a life member.

Only last year in recognition of his long and faithful service to ploughing he was made an honorary life member of the New Zealand Ploughing Association. Before he retired last year he was the longest serving member on the executive of the association — he had been on it for

more than 20 years and had held the office of national president.

He travelled overseas to world matches on four occasions and judged on all of these. Three times he also acted as manager of New Zealand’s representatives in the contests and one of these was A. J. Wallace, who was runnerup to the world champion in Somerset in England in 1971. Mr Carter had an important role in New Zealand being allocated its first world contest in 1967. In 1962 he put the New Zealand application for the contest to the governing board of the World Ploughing Organisation in The Hague in the Netherlands. It was not all plain sailing. One of the European representatives asked if there were enough tractors in New Zealand to hold a world contest. Mr Carter told the meeting that New Zealand looked on itself as one of the most mechanised countries in the world in the agricultural field. He was subsequently gratified that the first contest in New Zealand (in his home area) turned out to be one of the best ever to be held.

In his younger days Mr Carter was a match ploughman himself — in the days before tractors when the trusty old draughts held the spotlight. He probably

made his debut in match ploughing at Leeston in 1913 when he was about 14 years of age. In the following year he was ploughing in a match at Templeton when the fateful news reached the ground that Britain had declared war on Germany. On that day he won the boys’ class. As a young man he worked as a teamster at Killinchy and Brookside. Mr Carter has lived at Greenpark for about 48 years on a property that is now farmed by his twin sons, Gordon and Peter, who have followed in their father’s footsteps in being actively interested in match ploughing — both have competed in national ploughing contests. Outside ploughing Mr Carter served on a number of local bodies. He was on the Springs County Council for 10 years, the Ellesmere County Council for 12 years, the Central Canterbury Electric Power Board for 22 years, the North Canterbury Hospital Board for 12 years, and for a similar period on the Canterbury Licensing Committee.

As well as his wife Mr Carter is survived by his daughters, Catherine (Mrs W. N. Denton, of Tai Tapu) and Norma (Mrs E. J. Inwood, of Halswell) and Gordon and Peter, of Greenpark.