WOMAN beats THE MEN

Te Ao Hou, Summer 1953, Page 46

WOMAN beats THE MEN Many people shook their heads when Mrs R. Beazley announced her intention of farming a hundred and fifty-two acres of scrub country at Kaiaua. In 1936 she took advantage of the Maori Land Development Scheme, and although the early years were hard, the property gradually began to look like a dairy farm. Mrs Beazley has just been awarded the 1952 Ahuwhenua Trophy for efficient Maori farming. Mr R. C. Taylor, the extension officer of the Department of Agriculture at Rotorua, who judged the competition, gave Mrs Beazley full marks for her farm records. According to the New Zealand Herald, ‘He considers the fencing adequate for a dairy farm; the water supply and farm shelter good: the milking-shed, yards and equipment, house and surroundings to be of an exceptionally high standard, and the general neatness and cleanliness to be excellent.’ During these busy years Mrs Beazley has found time to be both President and Secretary of the Kaiaua Women's Institute, of which she is the only Maori member.