FOOTBALL TO FARMING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23225, 24 June 1937, Page 5

FOOTBALL TO FARMING

NEPIA GOING BACK TO LAND MODEL PROPERTY IN WAIAPU A return to serious farming is apparently the intention of George Nepia. who has returned to his home in the Waiapu district, on the East Coast of the North Island, after an adventure into tire League football arena in the Old Country. Nepia’s experience with the Streatham Mitcham Club, London, with which he signed up 18 months ago on libera] financial guarantees might not have been a complete success from the point of view of the league, but it gave him an opportunity to establish his farm on a sound basis During a brief stay in Gisborne en route from Auckland to the East Coast Nepia was accorded a hearty welcome from Maori friends in the district. He offered no information as to any future projects in which the development of his farm did not figure. He was anxious to complete his journey and get back with his family in the familialsurroundings of Waiapu Valley, and to inspect the property into which he put £SOO, the signing up fee which he obtained on his entry into the League code in 1935. The farm is reported to have prospered well under the management of Mrs Nepia, and is spoken of as a model for Maori farmers of the dairying district in Waiapu and beyond. At the time of his departure from the Rugby Union code, Nepia shared the difficulties of most dairy farmers of tire Dominion, and his properly badly needed finance. The opportunity of spending a season or two under the League banner, and Unis securing the necessary finance, was irresistible. The result of the decision. though it entailed an exile of 18 months from his own country, has been most satisfactory to Nepia, who looks forward to modest prosperity in his old surroundings.