McCaskill award won locally

Press, 11 June 1982, Page 21

McCaskill award won locally

The Banks Peninsula Young Farmers’ Club has won the inaugural award of the Dr L. W. McCaskill Y.F.C. Community Award trophy and the club was presented with the trophy by Dr McCaskill at the Y'F.C. annual conference in Kaitaia this week. Dr McCaskill is Grand Patron of Y.F.C. and at the annual conference in Oamaru last year he gave some money for trophy as the Y.F.C. movement saw fit to mark his 50 years involvement with the movement. Miss Jane Etherington. of Christchurch, was given the task of getting a suitable trophy made. It was to be an award for community service as this is one of the aims of the movement and one that has hitherto been unrecognised. Miss Etherington consulted Professor John Simpson. Professor of Fine Arts at Canterbury University, who suggested the trophy be made of wood, greenstone or be a N.Z. painting, to be in keeping with the nature of the man and of the movement. He advised Mr Pat Mulcahy, the noted wood sculptor. Mr Mulcahy has carved the trophy depicting the plant Ranunculus paucifolius. the Castle Hill buttercup, which Dr McCaskill was responsible for preserving from extinction. He was recognised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and

Natural Resources which met in Christchurch last year. The buttercup is one of the rarest plants in the world, found only in an area of six hectares of limestone in the Castle Hill basin. Canterbury. In 1948 there were only 32 plants left and their existence was threatened bv stock. Dr McCaskill arranged for the buttercup area to be fenced by Lincoln College students in March 1948 and until 1978 he had responsibility for the care of the area, which was later declared a nature reserve. By regular weeding, dividing and transplanting, and saving and sowing seed, the number of plants has been increased to over 400. They are now cared for by the Department of Lands’ and Survey. Dr McCaskill was a teacher of agriculture from 1923 to 1960 and then until 1965 he was the first director of the Tussock Grasslands and Mountain Lands Institute. In November 1932. while on the staff of the Dunedin Teachers' College, he helped form New Zealand’s first Young Farmers' Club at Palmerston. Otago, and has been associated with the movement ever since. From 1945 to 1960 he was the Lincoln College representative on the National Committee of Y.F.C. and is now Grand Patron. The first winner of the award, the Banks Peninsula

club. has 38 members from all over the peninsula. Its greatest contribution to the community this year has been a cluo donation of $lBOO to the Akaroa Hospital. The money was to go towards proposed renovations and modifications to the hospital, which has in the past dealt mainly with maternity cases, to enable it to also provide for geriatric and general patients. "It was felt that the hospital would have to close if the proposed changes could not be made." said Miss Susan Craw, secretary of the Banks Peninsula club. But the donations from the Y.F.C. and other groups and people have apparently retained the hospital. The club raised funds through activities such as selling drench to farmers, bagging and selling sheep manure, running the Annual Fleece Wool Competition. Duvauchelle Show disco and a country and western night. "Another fund raising activity of particular importance was a public debate held to raise money for Telethon. The debate was between three of the members of the club and the three political candidates for the seat of Selwyn." said the secretary. “We also try to have some activities each year to help further the knowledge of our members, and this year we have been involved with an owner classer course in wool classing and short courses on

the purchasing and organisation of a farm." A large number of the delegates to this year's Y.F.C. conference travelled to Kaitaia by special excursion train which left from

Bluff last week-end and reached the top of the North Island in time for the start of the conference on Wednesday. It picked up delegates along the route.