22 March 1996 Tripp scholar sees positive future for farming

Agricultural Commerce student Kane Metcalfe of Christchurch is the latest winner of a 52-year-old Lincoln scholarship which carries the name of one of rural Canterbury's founding families, the Tripps.

Twenty-one-year-old Kane, a former Head Boy at Hornby High School, will complete a double major for his B.Com.(Ag) degree at Lincoln University this year, specialising in Farm Management and Rural Valuation.

Optimistic about the contribution agriculture will continue to make to the New Zealand economy, Kane hopes to pursue a career in the rural banking/finance field then ultimately get on the land, perhaps dairying.

He sees New Zealand's traditional agricultural base as something that's "not going to go away" and he is keen to pursue a life related to the land and the contribution it makes to the country's economy.

He would also like to get involved with farming politics and make a contribution by that means as well.

On the road to his Lincoln degree, Kane has completed periods of practical work on a sheep and beef property at Te Puke, a cropping farm at Leeston and a dairy unit in Matamata.

His parents used to own a 10-acre block at Prebbleton but now farm in the Waikato.

Kane’s Tripp Scholarship commemorates the life of John Mowbray Howard Tripp of Orari Gorge Station, who died in 1939. It was established by his wife Mary Tripp in 1944 and the main criterion for its award is the contribution a candidate is likely to make to farming after studying at Lincoln.

JMH Tripp was one of four sons of Charles George Tripp who took up Orari Gorge Station in the early 1860s after farming with John Barton Arundel Acland at Mount Peel. The pair were the first high country settlers in Canterbury, occupying Mt Peel and adjacent runs in the mid-1850s.

The Tripp Scholarship was presented to Kane by JMH Tripp's grandson David Tripp.

The Community Diary. Produced by The Community Relations Centre, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand