MAORI FARMERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 65, 16 March 1940, Page 14

MAORI FARMERS

AHUWHENUA TROPHY

' AWARDS FOR 1940

This year the Ahuwhenua Trust Board has awarded tp Mrs. Tatai Hall, of Te Teko, Bay of Plenty, the magnificent silver cup for ' good farming presented in 1933 by the Rt. Hon. Viscount Bledisloe for annual competition amongst Maori farmers. Mrs. Hall is a member of the Arawa tribe and a settler on the Putauaki Development scheme. She and her husbShd took up their present farm of 93 acres in January, 1936, when the area was wholly unimproved. Their previous farming experience.was gained on a very small area which they occupied in North Auckland.. They have shown very considerable farming ability and their keenness to become efficient has been a great encouragement to th*e Native Department. In last year's competition for the trophy they were placed second.

Fred Amoamo, of Omarumutu, who was placed second, is a member of the Whakatohea tribe, and is a settler under the Whakatohea Development scheme. . The third place was awarded to a settler on the Waiapu Development Scheme, Mrs. Ngarangi Kohere, of Rangitukia, who is a member of the Ngatiporou tribe,- and who was also placed third in the last competition.

Mr. C. Walker, instructor in Agriculture at Hamilton* was: again the I judge of the competition. In his report he stated that the standard reached by all of the eight competitors was worthy of the highest commendation and bore favourable comparison with that attained in previous competitions. There was very little to choose between the first four competitors, any. one 6f whom submitted an entry -that would have been worthy of the highest honour. Each displayed intelligence and initiative well above the average. They had worked diligently and adopted adi vanced ideas.