Sir Peter ELWORTHY K.B. [15072]

  General Notes:

Peter tragically died at the height of his powers and full of plans for the future.

Obituary: Sir Peter Elworthy
By Arnold Pickmere
5:00 AM Saturday Jan 17, 2004
Farmer, politician, businessman. Died aged 68.
Sir Peter Elworthy, of Craigmore, South Canterbury, was a man of reserved demeanour, with a politically astute and analytical brain.
His diverse career ranged from farming endeavours and being founding chairman of the Ravensdown co-operative fertiliser company, to heading Federated Farmers in the critical years when farming subsidies were dismantled in the 1980s.
He was a director of the Reserve Bank for 14 years and held numerous business directorships.
His other interests were also diverse, from conservation and organic farming to being, as he put it himself, a Tiger Moth aircraft nut.
Peter Elworthy had an air of assurance, attributed by some to connections with the South Island landed family tradition of being sent to Christ's College followed by Lincoln College, from which he graduated in 1953.
His home estate land at Craigmore, inland from Timaru, is part of the original leasehold run, Pareora Station, secured by Edward Elworthy in 1864.
But Peter Elworthy believed the best education he had for agriculture and for life was the year he spent working in the Southland high country at Glanaray Station.
Elworthy never worried about advocating things that were not popular, as long as he was convinced of their merit.
An early example was deer farming. As the founding president of the Deer Farmers' Association, he overcame many obstacles and doubters towards a new farming industry. It was carried out with a professionalism unseen in the promotion of other farming enthusiasms that have come and gone.
But his biggest contribution was his time as president of Federated Farmers in the mid-1980s. That was when it became obvious that the substantial Muldoon-initiated system of Government-subsidised land development, stock incentive schemes and supplementary minimum prices for farmers was not sustainable.
Sheep numbers had soared. Markets such as the Soviet Union and Iran were not slow to notice New Zealand was producing a surplus of sheepmeat that no one else wanted.
Millions of dollars in subsidies were paid to farmers for meat and wool.
In 1984, the new Labour Government was happy to drop the subsidies. Peter Elworthy's job of convincing farmers was tough, because even the artificial payments were not enough to compensate farmers for rampant inflation (some bank rates for farm finance topped 25 per cent even in 1986).
Elworthy was forced to remind the new Finance Minister, Roger Douglas, that the supplementary prices had only partly offset the costs imposed on farming by protected and inefficient monopoly industries, union power and restrictive trade practices.
He told Douglas' then-deputy, Richard Prebble, who seemed prepared to let farmers go broke rather than restructure the meat industry, that he was "in cuckoo land" if he believed the economy could survive without the meat industry.
But Elworthy, who got farmers to generally agree with the thrust of eliminating subsidies and exposing farming to market forces, was not the tub-thumper some would have liked him to be. He was wary of antagonising the city electorate, and keen to find a balance with the wider community.
In his retirement years Sir Peter achieved prominence with his chairmanship of the independent Sustainability Council, urging caution and more research into genetic modification and the attitudes towards it developing in New Zealand's overseas markets.
Sir Peter is survived by his wife, Lady Fiona McHardy Elworthy, two sons and two daughters.
He collapsed and died at Wanaka this week, after recently completing medical tests that cleared him to continue flying his bright yellow Tiger Moth.
Sir Peter won the cup for the Perfect Loop at the Tiger Moth rally in 2002. He was so proud of this that his wife suggested it might be marked on his epitaph.
NZ Herald 17 Jan 2004.

Editorial
The night that Sir Roger Douglas delivered his first Budget was the moment the country realised he was serious. After years of rarefied discussion of economic reform, and a platitudinous "economic summit" conference soon after the 1984 election, the new Government set out in its Budget to show it meant business. Farmers were its sacrificial lambs.
The myriad production subsidies they had acquired during a decade of economic decline were abolished at a stroke. The subsidies might have been mere compensation for the costs farmers carried as a consequence of the protection of non-competitive sectors of the economy, but those other sectors would be given a little time to adjust. The farmers' fate was their warning.
It is fortunate for the country that farmers were led at that crucial time by Sir Peter Elworthy. Newly elected as president of Federated Farmers, the quietly spoken South Canterbury squire proved to be a steely leader. With others on his executive he kept farmers' sights firmly fixed on the national interest even as many of them were caught with mortgages they could no longer service and reports of personal trauma, even tragedy, were rife in rural districts.
The exemplary role that farmers played in the great economic changes of the past 20 years has received too little recognition. And the qualities of leadership required in agriculture at that time can readily be imagined. Sir Peter was made a Knight Bachelor in 1988. In subsequent years his interests ranged far beyond farming and included a number of company directorships as well as cultural, educational and charitable foundations. Lately he has been prominent in the unsuccessful campaign to continue the moratorium on commercial release of genetically modified crops.
His sudden death on Sunday deprives the country of a man who had boundless interest in its welfare and much more to give. But his contribution should never be understated. He was calm, clear-headed and gently resolute. When due regard is given to those who led the late 20th Century liberalisation of the New Zealand economy, Peter Elworthy deserves to be remembered with the best.
The New Zealand Herald Editorial 13 Jan 2004

Obituary: Sir Peter Elworthy
Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons yesterday praised the contribution the late Sir Peter Elworthy made to the anti-genetic engineering movement.
"As a practical farmer and as a businessman he could reach out to those sectors, where his opinions were particularly respected," Ms Fitzsimons said.
"In retirement he was prepared to take on a high-profile position at the Sustainability Council, knowing how controversial it would be.
"That wouldn't have worried Sir Peter; he always worked in the best interest of the land."
Ref NZ Herald 4:59 AM Tuesday Jan 13, 2004

Peter married Living