I recently attended, online, the annual general meeting of the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural and Horticulture Sciences held at Lincoln University.          It was held after a forum titled ” Can farmers mitigate climate change?”          It held a special meaning for me because when I was president in 1970/71 my AGM was held…

        In 1965 I was conscripted to work in the Head Office of the Department of Agriculture in Wellington – against my wishes. I purchased the first house I looked at in Dorset Way, Wilton, Wellington. I lived in it for one month before my wife saw it. I still live in it today.         …

One morning I came to breakfast to find a newspaper cutting on my plate telling me a Toastmasters Club was to be formed in Wellington.          My wife said, “This wouldn’t do you any harm.” How right she was.          I joined the club and attended the first meeting. An old school friend belonged to…

Not many people in New Zealand can remember sitting around a camp fire and singing songs with the late Lord Baden Powell – I can!      The place was in Hastings at Winsor Park, and I was a young grub (a cub at that time). It must have been in 1935 – I was 9…

I never had an ambition to be an author or a publisher. It just happened – it was an evolutionary process,          I have written 26 titles, all non-fiction how-to -do-it books.                   It all started when I was working for the Department of Agriculture in Taranaki and I was conscripted to a job…

The most valuable things I learned at university were how to organise an event – this taught me the art of delegation.          I also learned the ineffectiveness of the lecture as a teaching tool. For many years, in many countries, I carried out recall trials to confirm this finding.          For many years I…

         One birthday I received a fancy gift-boxed, Harley – Davidson set, consisting of a black nylon parka and a bottle of French aftershave – a strange combination.          “I didn’t know you knew I owned a Harley-Davidson motorbike”, I said to my son-in-law, Charles Lambert.          He was impressed. But if he had seen…

I have been asked what my favourite Pacific Island country having worked in or visited a large number of them.          Having worked in Samoa four times, once for five months after cyclone Ofa and my last visit was for an Australian aid mission. I enjoyed my stay but it wouldn’t be my first choice.…

Q&A – Moss Memories 35 – Spirit Voices          Most people do not realize that at one stage we were expecting an invasion by the Japanese as their forces swept south. Australia was being bombed. Sydney Harbour was invaded by Japanese submarines.          in 1942, at the age of sixteen, I was a Lance Corporal…

What and where is Flock House?          It was a farm training centre 14km South of Bull’s village situated on 3,000 acres of land.          Apart from the Rural Field Cadets course run by State Advances,  it probably gave the best practical training in agricultural skills in New Zealand. It was set up in 1924…