�
Forms not included in Survey.Map not to Scale .
Sourc e : Cadastral rviap �:; . Z . M. S . 1 3 , Surv ey Di strict Seri e s ; Wellingt on N o . 48 .
�� merely as fri ends by re spondent s over the who l e are a and i n p art icular by tho s e who s e propert i e s bounded t he m . The ir inc lusion s e emed justified not only t o inc re as e the number of re spondent s but al so b e c ause they app e ared to b e an int e gral p art o f the i nt erac t ions within the are a b e ing s t udi ed .
An increase in the impo rt anc e of grain cropping ,
and an e as i e r c ont our occur further westwards . The p l at e au
f al l s away t o the s outh o f Mangone Road and thus f arms along this road formed the southern boundary .
Soi l s .
The t errac e s o i l s of thi s plat e au , at an alt itude of abo ut 450 f t . ab ove sea leve l , are group ed i n the ye l l ow grey e art h s . They h ave rather "''eak structur ed , light
t op s a i l s , over f airly c omp act subsoils which t end t o dry out re adi ly in the s ummer and b e c ome impervious t o wat er in the wet wint e r . Wint er pasture pugging i s a c o nsiderab l e prob l e m and drainage is required f o r high produc t i o n . The s o i l s are naturally f e rt i l e having develop e d under nat iv e broadl e af and p odoc arp fore st .
C limat e .
Rainf al l averages about 37 inche s p e r annum but the s ummer months t end to b e draughty e sp e c i ally with the strong drying we st erli e s c ommon in l at e summer and aut umn . Fro st s d o o c c ur , but with ade quat e drainage , and summer moi sture , p asture growth c ont inue s virtual ly all year round .
( e ) S e t t l e ment .
Set t l ement of the are a occurred in the l at e 1 890 ' s and e arly 1 900 ' s , aft e r comp l e t i on · of the r ai lway from
5 3 vle l lingt on through t o \·Janganui . S o m e of the prop e rt i e s h av e , i n fact , b e en f arme d by the· s am e f amily for t wo generat i ons . The age and prosperity of t he area i s
indic at ed by the wide s e aled ro ads whi ch give re ady ac c e s s t o F e i lding , a l arge t own servicing t h e s urrounding f arming c o mmunity about s ix to e i ght mi l e s from the are a and the small s ettlement of H alc omb e with its General st o r e s , hot e l and post offi c e , almo st within the survey are a .
Method . ( a )
The loc at ion and name s of the f armers in e ach survey are a were obt ained b ef ore pro c e eding int o the are a t o c onduct the int e rv i ews . A settlers m ap had be e n prep ared by Rot o rua Jayc e e ' s of the who l e Rotorua di stric t and the
loc at i on and nam e s of farmers not previously known t o the
author were obt ained from thi s . I n Palmerston No rth a s imi l ar typ e o f map was in the pro c e s s of public ation but was not
avai l ab l e . Therefore loc at ion and nam e s of the f armers i n thi s surv ey are a were obt ai ned from the Valuat ion Department , P alrne r s t on North and the Oroua C ounty Counc i l , F e i lding .
Re spondent s .
Cont act with the r e spondent s in the Reporo a survey are a w as init i al ly by t e l ephone with tho s e alre ady known t o
the author . Arrangement s were made f o r an int ervi ew and
aft er this was c omp l et ed the author made several d o or t o
door c al l s o f ne arby nei ghbours arranging further int erviews
unt i l all re spondent s h ad b e en int ervi ewed . Some of the
int e rv i e w arrangement s were confirmed by t e l ephone and some new c ont acts made if the re were empty p e riods in a f orthc o ming d ay ' s s chedule of int ervi ews .
The same general p att ern was followed in the
Halc omb e survey are a exc ept that ini t i al int ervi ews were arranged as a re sult of f ac e t o f ac e c ont act whi l e the
author w as f ami li ari sing hims elf with the are a .
Only two f armers in the Reporoa are a had any prio r knowl edge o f the author ' s int ent ion t o c onduct a survey i n
their are a but none o f t h e other farmers in either are a
r e c eived any warning apart from that p as s ed on b y word o f mouth b y other farmers onc e the survey was underway .
Method of Introduc t i o n .
The author int roduc ed hims e lf as being a student o f Nas s ey University and the survey as p art of the
requirement s for his c ours e of study . The general purp o s e o f the survey was out lined , the anonimity o f the re spondent s ' repli e s stre ssed , and a request for an int erview at s ome
c onveni ent t ime made . Sinc e the int ervi ew took approximat e ly two t o two and a half hours the author stre s s ed hi s
wil lingne s s t o c ome at any t ime of t he day or ni ght , any day o f the week . It was felt this wi llingne s s t o c ome at any t ime e nh anc ed the resp ondent s ' willingne s s to make time avai l abl e .
At the t ime of the survey i n Reporoa f armers were i nvolved with crut ching and in Halcomb e it was shearing and l amb draft ing time � However , only one f armer in e ach
di strict was not int erviewed because a suitable t ime c ould not be arranged . From both are as only one f armer refus e d to c o -operat e in the survey and in the Halc omb e survey are a
,
three other farmers were not int ervi ewed , one be ing an ab s ent e e 0\•mer , another b e c ause of d e afne s s and the thi rd was ac c ident ally kil l ed b e f ore an int erv i ew was arranged .
55 (e) Int ervi ewin� .
The int erviews were c arri ed out in t he order pre scribed by the que stionnaire . An att empt t o e st ablish and maint ain the respondent s int ere st and c o-operat i on was made by fo llowing the guide s to intervi ewing obt ai ned from the lit erature , e specially tho se of V . V . Munr o e . Although there i s no check on the accuracy o f the rep l i e s it was f e lt that the s erious appro ach of the author to the questi onnaire re sul ted in the re sp ondent s treat ing the int e rview s erious ly and t rying to answer the que sti ons hone stly . Throughout the int erviev,r , and in any probing which may have b e en required , an effort was made t o avoid any indic ation _ of approval or di s approval of the answers or att itudes exure s s ed . The lit erature sugge st s that such a permi s s ive atmo sphere enhanc e s the chanc e s of the resp ondent answering in t erms of hi s true f e e lings .
Loc ation o f Int erview .
Generally the int erviews were c onduc t ed in the resp ondent ' s home and on two occ asions the r e spondent s were actually c onfined to bed , one o f which being in a ho spit al . Two int erviews were c onduc t ed in the f armer ' s wo o l shed and one at the Dep artment of Agriculture offic e i n Rot orua. Occas ional ly the wife or s ome members of the f amily were pre sent during the int e rview but they were not considered t o b e a hinderanc e and i n s ome c as e s prompted their retic ent or mode st husb and s to fuller repli e s . However , only replie s by the f armer himself were not e d . If the respons e c ould not be c l assified ac cordinG to the pre -c oded r e spons e s inc luded in the que stionnaire it was rec orded verbat�� f or c oding l at e r .
56 F arm
The re spondent s ' f arms were not inspect ed b e c aus e the int erest of thi s study i s with each individual r e spondent and hi s att itudes r ather than with hi s f arm . However , with the intensive travelling within e ach are a and al s o the use of aeri al phot ographs a picture of farm layout and cont our
problems were obt ained .
N o r e sp ondent s refus ed t o answer any o f the que stions ,
al though b e c ause of time limit at ions one f armer in e ach are a
f ai led t o f i l l i n the O s go od S emantic Different i al • .
Problems With Pre-c eding .
Bec aus e the f armers involved in p re-t e st ing were
not c omplet e ly c omp arab le with the farmers actually int ervi ewed in the survey , problems were e xp eri enc ed with s ome of the
pre -c eded answers • .Thi s was p art icularly s o wi th que stion
35 where the pre-c oded r e spons e s had not b e en ful ly t e st ed by the pre -t e st s and henc e required receding . S ome short - c omings were al s o f ound in the two sections whi c h had not b e en pre -t e st ed . The c ont act with advisory med i a que st ion required a stronger definit ion of degree of c ont act and two ext r a c at egori e s were inc luded to allow f or people who
e xchanged magazine s and who knew the F arm Advi s ory Off ic er and h ad had c ont act with him but not in the last three years .
Prob lems in Semant ic Different i al .
It was al s o f ound that probl ems aro s e in introduc ing
and e xpl aining the S emant ic Differential devic e but thi s was p art ly· overc ome by alt ering the introduction t o inc lude the
/ (
Also b ec ause e ac h sc al e or list of bipolar adj ective s was print e d and given to the respondent t o fill in , no firm c ontrol c ould b e obt ained over the speed at which they c onsidered each p ai r of adj ective s , and inaccurac i e s may have o c curred as a result of s ome thought rather than simp l e
assoc i ation be ing applied . Sinc e eight diff erent c onc ept s , or firms . were pre sent ed , the re spondent s became f amiliar with the layout of the ad j ective s on the scale and some markings of the degree of association may have b e en purely repetitive on the b asi s of a previous marking . Randomi sing the line order o f the p airs of adj ectives for e ach c onc ept for e ach respondent , and some form of reading devic e which only allowed a brief p eriod in which t o make a deci sion on the bipolar pairs would have been ne eded t o overc om e the s e two problems .
The o rder in which the eight c onc ept s were
pre se nted was det ermined by the author mixing eight c ards on which the c onc ept s were print ed and then reading them ou� ac c ording to the order achi eved . The flash c ards which were u s ed in que stions 45 , 4 6 and 1 41 were als o t r e ated in thi s way in an att empt t o ensure pre sent ation in a random order to each r e spondent .
of Dat a
The re sponse s t o pre -c oded questions were rec orded directly onto the que stionnaire but t o ensure a uniformity in c oding , re spons e s to qu�stions s e eking attitude s ide as or opinions were not c od ed until both the Reporo a and Halc omb e are as had b e en surveyed . A+l re spons e s f o r thi s typ e o f que stion were c onsidered simultaneously as it was
58
c onsidered unif ormity in c oding may not have b e en achi eved if the re spons e s from e ach are a had b e en c oded when the s urvey of the are a was c omp l et ed . Thi s was bec ause a period of about five months elap s ed b etween the dat e o f c ompl et ion o f the s urvey in t h e Reporoa are a and t h e dat e o f c omplet ion of t h e Halc ombe are a survey .
The c ode numb ers were punched on t o c omput er c ards
direct ly from e ach p age of the que stionnai�e . A t o t al of
twe lve c ards were us ed f o r e ach re spondent in c oding the r e spons e s t o the que s t ionnai re and a further thre e were r e quired for e ach r e spondent in c oding re spons e s t o the Osgood Semant ic Diff erent i al .
Methods of
Physic al dat a such a s acre age s , stock numbers , l ambing p erc ent age s , f erti li s e r t onnage s and numbers of c h i ldren were analys ed with a c omput er programme prepared
I
b y Nr \11 . G . Payne of the Farm Management Department , f"las sey Universit y . From thi s programme , sums , means , the highest and lowest v alues in a dat a fi e ld and the number of ent rie s
i n that f i e ld were obt aine d . Tab l e s 5 , 6 and 9 in
Chapt er IV were c onstruc t ed from the re sult s obt ained from thi s pro gramme .
Analysi s of the numb er of re spondent s answering a que s t i on ac c ording t o a specific c ode was done by hand from l i st print ings of e ac h c ard , b e c ause the t o t al numbe r o f r e sp onde nt s was not l arge and thi s also gave some
opportunity to check any unusual c odings .
St ock rat i o s and ewe e quivalent figure s were c omput ed using a programme prep ared by the author . The