''Sharing The Land
Ben Rupapera's South Taranaki dairy herd is familiar with pop-songs. Every day they hear a medley of tunes from the last four decades as Ben coaxes them to his cowshed on a 157 hectare block near Hawera.
Ben, who features on this week's Country Calendar programme, sings because he has a happy disposition. But as a sharemilker he's also grateful for the opportunities he and his wife, Lynne, have had in the dairy industry.
The couple started late in the industry. Ben worked for 25 years in the freezing works at Eltham before he decided to make a change. After five years as a farm worker, he and Lynne sold their house, bought their first herd and became sharemilkers on land owned by his hapu, Ngāti Tū, at Manaia.
At first Lynne, who's Pakeha, couldn't imagine herself milking cows, but after a few years her two children were growing up and she was ready for a new challenge. Now she loves the work, particularly raising the calves.
Keen to build up his assets and get ahead, Ben had his eye on the new ventures of a big local Maori incorporation, Parininihi ki Waitotara. The incorporation, known as PKW, manages lands that were returned to Maori following the confiscations by the Crown in the 19th century.
For generations the Maori shareholders in PKW had no control over their 20,000 hectares of reserved lands. Till the mid 1970s the Crown managed the land, which was leased out in perpetuity at peppercorn rentals.
In 1997 new legislation gave PKW the first right of refusal to purchase leases on its land when they're up for sale and the incorporation was also able to charge market rentals.
Since then PKW has bought back a number of leases and amalgamated them into 14 large dairy farms milking 7000 cows. It's now the biggest dairying entity in Taranaki.
Seven years ago Ben and Lynne took up a 50/50 sharemilking contract on the first of PKW's dairy conversions. Five farmlots were amalgamated to create his farm and he now milks 450 cows.
At one time Ben's mother was one of the eight thousand shareholders in PKW but she sold out when the incorporation seemed to have little future. It's one of Ben's regrets, although he's glad to be part of such a big Maori enterprise, sharemilking on land owned by members of his own iwi.
PKW wants to encourage more Taranaki Maori into farming. Most of its current sharemilkers are Pakeha and few young Maori have shown an interest in taking up the farming scholarships it offers. But Ben hopes his enthusiasm will inspire other Maori to give it a go.'' TVNZ; tvnz.co.nz; 13/05/2008