OLD COLLEGIANS’ OCCASIONS
Distinguished Old Collegian 2013
A highlight of the KCOCA Annual Dinner at the Northern Club on Friday June 7 will be the presentation of this award.
Peter JACKSON( Parnell, 1959-63) was the son of Hughlings JACKSON( King’ s, 1925-30) who served in Second Expeditionary Force right through the Pacific before taking up a serviceman’ s rehab farm at Te Akau under a farm settlement scheme for returning servicemen. The Jackson family arrived in there in 1947, when Peter was two.
Today this original farm has grown between the two brothers Jo JACKSON( Parnell, 1955-59) and Peter to a holding of 9,000 acres.
Peter started his schooling at Te Akau School before moving, when he was seven years old, to boarding at Southwell School, where he was Head Boy in his final year.
Peter’ s years at King’ s were filled with leadership roles- Captain of the 1st XV( winners of Auckland Secondary Schools’ competition), three years in the rowing VIII, Captain of Auckland Secondary Schools’ XV and, finally, Head Boy of the College.
At the completion of his King’ s education, Peter, like most farming young men, attended then Massey College, gaining an agricultural diploma while playing a serious amount of rugby with the Massey University team.
After the Massey years, Peter shepherded on a number of farming properties in Fielding, Canterbury and King Country before returning in 1967 to Te Akau to farm in partnership with his father and brother Jo. After increasing their land holdings substantially, the brothers split their partnership to farm independently.
down on the farm
Peter married Prudence Rogers in 1972 and they have four fine sons – Sam( 1987-91), Tom( 1989- 93), William( 1994-98) and James( 1998-2002); all Old Collegians from St John’ s House.
As well as farming, Peter was a very strong community man. Along with his close friend the late Angus MacDonald, a Mayor of the Waikato District and an Old Boy of Te Akau, Peter brought to fruition their dream of building, on 60 acres, a district community complex at Te Akau, as a home for all sports including polo, rugby and a nine-hole golf course, badminton hall and pony club, while also creating a focal point for district functions.
Their commitment was so strong that they personally purchased the farm to build this complex in order that the project could proceed and then sold the remaining land to neighbours! This complex is now the envy of many farming districts in New Zealand and is a lasting tribute to the vision of Peter and Angus. It is amusing to note that nine years after the complex was opened it was discovered the land titles had never been transferred to the complex and were still in the names of Peter Jackson and Angus MacDonald; an oversight since rectified!
In 1982, Peter was awarded a Nuffield Scholarship to study sheep genetics and meat marketing in the United Kingdom and Europe for nine months. This he did while Prue and his family kept the home fires burning- the farm and the family.
Following this experience Peter became heavily involved in the meat industry, which at the time, was in serious financial difficulties. He was
Peter Jackson, PAST Chairman of the King’ s College Board of Governors
subsequently appointed Chairman of AFFCO Cooperative Meat Co, a position he held for 10 years during which he led the company through a $ 60M capital-raising and restructure followed by a listing on the stock exchange.
For many years, Peter served on the Board of Southwell School before joining the King’ s College Board of Governors where, on the retirement of Sir Alan HELLABY( St John’ s, 1940-44), he was appointed Chairman of the Board, a position he also, held for 10 years. As if this was not sufficient, at one stage he was on the board or overseeing farming properties of eleven different companies.
Peter Jackson’ s contribution to the farming industry has been immense. His deep farming knowledge is widely recognised in the agriculture sector; particularly for his work in the area of facial eczema research and sheep genetics, breeding sheep which are resistant to the terminal condition. In a bad year this was costing the country more than $ 150M in losses. Breeding rams for the sheep industry has been his passion for over 45 years and Piquet Hill Stud is one of New Zealand’ s largest ram breeding operations, renowned for its facial eczema resistant genetics.
A very proud Old Collegian, Peter says he is very aware, to this day, of the sacrifices his parents made in difficult financial times, to send two boys from a small farm in Te Akau to King’ s College. He enjoyed his“ King’ s years” and now has one grandson, Harry, whom Peter hopes will carry on the family King’ s tradition.
30 AUTUMN 2013 • KING’ S COURIER