Obituary Mr R. H. Bevin

Press, 24 May 1980, Page 11

Obituary Mr R. H. Bevin

Mr Richard Hughes Bevin, who made an important contribution to the progress of farming in New Zealand over many years, has died in Wellington. He was 78.

Mr Bevin. who was born in Dunedin, lectured at Lincoln College, was a senior member of the staff of the Tasmanian Department of Agriculture, helped establish the Economic Service of the New Zealand Meat and Wool Boards, and served on the British Phosphate Commission.

He was educated at Otago Boys’ High School and then at Lincoln College from 1921 to 1923, where he obtained a :.. ■ <-» ••»,»• 4 • •••■ T i,»

subsequently completed the requirements for the bachelor of agriculture degree at Otago University. Between 1928 and 1936 Mr Bevin served with the Tasmanian Department of Agriculture as a district advisory officer and the department’s chief agronomist.

He lectured at Lincoln College between 1937 and 1950 and in that time was closely identified with the development of farm management courses and the development of the colege’s Ashley Dene farm. Mr Bevin was appointed the foundation executive

officer of the Meat and Wool Boards’ Economic Service in 1950. He held this post until he retired in 1967. During the 1960 s he was chairman of the Wool Marketing Study Group.

After retiring, he served is the New Zealand representative on the British Phosphate Commission in 1972-73 and was engaged, with a retired officer of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, in producing a report on the feasibility of air transportation of meat. In 1960, Lincoln College awarded Mr Bevin the Bledisloe Medal, which is awarded to former students who have made major contributions to the advancement of New Zealand agriculture.

Mr Bevin. was formerly president of the Canterbury Agricultural College Old' Students’ Association, president of the New Zealand Grasslands Association, president of the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural Science, and a member of the college’s board of governors between 1955 and 1962.

Mr F. L. Ward, who was appointed director of the Meat and Wool Board’s Economic Service after Mr Bevin retired in 1967. was associated with Mr Bevin for many years. He was a student under Mr Bevin, then a junior lecturer at the college, and and finally an officer of the Economic Service until Mr Bevin retired.

Mr Ward described Mr Bevin as a man with very wide vision, who was able to look to the future of New Zealand agriculture not only on an individual farm basis but in terms of districts, provinces, and the country as a whole.

The farm management courses, which Mr Bevin was partly responsible for establishing in the 19205, had changed the shape of New Zealand agriculture at that time, Mr Ward said.

Sir Malcolm Burns, a former principal of Lincoln College, said the valuation and farm management courses Mr Bevin and Mr A. H. Flay organised had produced some of New Zealand’s leading agriculturalists.

Mr Bevin was widely accepted in farming circles and regarded as a man of very sound practical background.

“His contribution was outstanding.”