FARMERS’ TOUR

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1060, 26 August 1930, Page 7

FARMERS’ TOUR

N.Z. PARTY IN ENGLAND CREATES INTEREST

LEARNING AND TEACHING New Zealand farmers and their wives, who are at present making a tour of Great Britain and Europe, are receiving considerable attention in the London and provincial newspapers in England. Thomas Cook and Son, Ltd., arranged the tour, which is a comprehensive one enabling the visitors to the Old World to see everything of interest. The “Daily Dispatch” (Manchester) prints an interview with Mr. William Simpkin, who is managing director of one of the biggest dairy companies in New Zealand. When the party was visiting the Royal Show at Manchester, he told the newspaper representatives that the New Zealanders could travel , the world and not see a more imposing display of cattle. Many of the breeds, however, did not interest them. “My firm makes 2,500 tons of butter a year, and 90 per cent, of the cows are Jerseys, from which we get an average of 2201 b of butter a cow a year,” he said. MORE “BEEFY” COW The “Manchester Guardian” states that Mr. c. G. C. Dernier, president of the New Zealand Jersey Cattle Breeders, told representatives of the Royal Show that he thought the British dairymen employed a much more “beefy'* cow than would be considered profitable in New Zealand. However, the visitors could learn much in England. When the New Zealand party visited the Liverpool Produce Exchange, Mr. A. Collins, the president, urged them to ship their produce direct to Liverpool. Mr. Thomas Hobson, leader of the New Zealand party, said that the farmers would do tlieir best to ensure more direct shipments of New Zealand produce to the Mersey. At the Alexandra Dock the tourists saw some of the frozen mutton produced on their own farms being unloaded from the ships, and they expressed appreciation of the manner in which it was handled.

Mr. W. P. Gauvain, an electrical engineer travelling with the party, said that New Zealand was the Empire’s dairy farm and it was run by 11,000 electric motors driving the milking machines. Escorts from Thomas Cook ami Son, Ltd., travel with the party.