The Press Baron and the Kiwi

Press, 20 September 1985, Page 8

The Press Baron and the Kiwi

The Press Baron and the Kiwi, by A. A. Copland, published by Springwood Books (Roulston Green Associates) 232 pp, $37.95. Reviewed by lan Blair.

In 1942, when the U.K. Government sought assistance of New Zealand agricultural experts for lifting food production, six were designated by the then Department of Agriculture and at short notice went to Britain on secondment to county War Agriculture Committees.

The personal evolution of one of these advisers was quite extraordinary but paradoxically Copland’s accomplishment was not derived from service within the bureaucracy but because his talents and attributes had attracted Lord Beaverbrook. Amid multifarious war cabinet involvements the irrepressible baron, war economy needs notwithstanding, was bent on enhancing his commercial operations of newspapers and farming.

How he learned about the kiwi is not revealed in this book but he must have become' aware of the forthright, out-spoken New Zealander at work in Somerset. Copland was stirring up the county food production organisation and his innovative management procedures had become pub and manor talk. Such was Lord Beaverbrook’s clout that Copland’s transfer from public to private enterprise was authorised by no less than Winston Churchill in consultation with the New Zealand Prime Minister.

Food production was certainly a priority on the Beaverbrook farms within the directives regarding specific crops or animal production. But for the remainder of the war period and afterwards, the Beaverbrook operation was based upon purchase of derelict farms in Somerset and Cornwall and maximising profit from them, through the employment of proven N.Z. methods at that time not utilised in U.K., together with applications of local procedures as judged by a very shrewd and capable manager.

During 21 years with Lord Beaverbrook and 15 with Sir Max Aitken, Copland and a co-director (finance) George Miller, made Cricket Malherbie Ltd into an organisation of 13 farms, employing 90 farm workers, 150 operators on allied enterprises (milk and cheese) with an annual turnover which rose to £4.5 million generating a profit of £ 300,000. The personal component of the book is modestly, even nonchalantly, presented. What Copland achieved with livestock gave rise to an era among the stud animals that attracted national and overseas acclaim. Agronomists would probably want to be told more of the cereal, sugar-beet, small seeds programmes which were also eye-catching to the neighbours and made the men from the ministry wonder. Improvement of grassland was the key. Copland translated to Somerset what had been initiated by his

fond-remembered mentor in South Canterbury, Bill Stafford. Glimpses of his diverse personal experiences - humourous, tragic - are interspersed as short sections among the narrative on farm management, production and distribution. Some disclosures are intriguing indeed, such as how the first exotic cattle came into the U.K. The door has been shut however, or the blind drawn on some developments where grave injury was sustained. Copland was regularly in conflict with bureaucrats, planners, and breed societies. But throughout the Cricket Malherbie evolution, from unit farm production to factory type farming with allied packaging, retailing and distribution, he had a warm personal relationship with his managers and workers. Lord Beaverbrook, dominates the early chapters, leaving the impression that the success of Cricket Malherbie Ltd was a consequence of the availability of unlimited Beaverbrook finance, readily on tap for all developments. It must have helped greatly, but the resources had also been there for earlier managers . who achieved little. One adjective is consistently applied by Copland to his noble friend - “great”. They were quite a pair. The older and the younger version of right-wing conservatives; utterly opposed to the E.E.C. development from inception to fruition.

The book is straight-for-ward and converstional in style. Something more of historical analysis and economic appraisals, with documentation, would have enhanced it as resource material on a significant part of recent agricultural history. A wide reader interest is deserved for this most interesting and attractive book by the man from Esk Valley who 50 years ago at Lincoln College, with a balance of practical farm skills as founation for his academic course (M.Agr.Sc.), set his mind and ambition on becoming this country’s director-general of agriculture. He might well have

achieved that. But his life with the Beaverbrook family and work with English gentry and yeomen through more than three decades of change and advance, was likely more entertaining, profitable and satisfying. The end point however is sad, with dispersal of the (great) company, the menace (to the author) of E.E.C, growing produce surpluses, difficulties of establishing young people on farms and general agricultural gloom abounding. ‘Sandy’ and his wife came back to N.Z. in 1977 to live at Taupo, where regrettably he died earlier this year about the time of publication of this book.