J. F. KNIGHT

Mt Knight was Chairman of the Provisional Board in 1901 and resigned in favour of Mr Edwin Ford.  He was a Director for six years thereafter. 

Mr Knight was a retired Garrison Sergeant Major of the Indian Army - he moved to Taranaki about 1908 about engaged in storekeeping there.

EDWIN FORD

Mr Edwin Ford's tenure of the Chairmanship lasted for only part of the season 1902-03, being cut short by his sudden death in Wellington, where he was involved in political activities.  He was accorded a State funeral.

Mr. Ford originally from Oxford, was manager of the Brynderwyn Estate and with several associates, engaged on a large-scale programme of land clearing.  His energy and business ability hastened the establishment of the Company and his death was deeply regretted.

HENRY CULLEN

Was Chairman from 1903 to 1916,  He was a first settler, arriving in the "Tyburnia" in 1863 when he was eighteen years old.  His father and he erected the first house (palings) and did the first bit of cultivation in the settlement.  His first essay into dairying was the felling of twenty acres of bush for the pay of two cows.

Mr Cullen was a man of ambition, great energy and enterprise.  When the writer first met him in 1903, he was then Company Chairman, storekeeper, postmaster, boarding house owner and Sunday School Superintendent, all those activities additional to his farming.

In his own words, this is how his residence-cum-boarding house of fourteen rooms was built: "There was a big Kauri on my land.  My brother, Will and I bucked it into logs and jacked them into the river.  We towed them to Matakohe, two tides, with a row boat.  Later we towed the sawn timber home with another two tides.  The whole house came out of the one tree and it was built with our own hands."

Mr Cullen was a great success as Company Chairman, but his greatest contribution to the district was the large family he raised to carry forward the development he began.

FREDERICK CULLEN

Mr Fred Cullen is a native son who farmed for a short time on the land where he was born.  In 1903, he moved to a 300 acre section of Tain's Estate and built a seven-roomed house with timber pitsawn by himself and a brother.

He was a first supplier and served as a Director for 29 years, which included 21 years of Chairmanship.  We are of the opinion that this record is unequalled.

Mr Cullen inherited his father's notable energy.  Possessed of an amiable and cheerful disposition, he was a natural leader, competent in guiding the Company through its development years.

He introduced the first pedigree Jersey's to the district.  A Director of the Farmer's Freezing Coy. for fourteen years; served as a district member of Rural Intermediate Credit Board.

At age 81, he is still young and still a dairyman - as a hobby, he runs a sawmill on his property.  The Jubilee celebration on the 16th of  December will be, to him. a red letter day, marking the great success of the enterprise to which he has contributed in large measure.

VICTOR G. JUDD

Mr Judd has been a Director for 26 years and is Deputy Chairman of the Board.  For three years during the period when Mr. D. A. Finlayson was called for service in the armed forces in the Second World War, he was appointed Chairman. Mr Judd has to his credit the longest period of office of any sitting member of the Board.  He is a descendant of the early settlers of the district and has been associated with dairy farming all his life.  Mr Judd is also a Director of the North Auckland Electric Power Board.  In his younger years, he was occupied with timber milling in this area.

DONALD A. FINLAYSON

 Mr Finlayson is a descendant of the original settlers of Waipu and was born in the Jordan Valley, Hukerenui, on 23rd December 1894.  He was engaged in both World Wars serving overseas in 1914-1918, and in the N.Z. Permanently Mobilised Forces during 1939-45.

In the period between the two wars, he took a keen interest in the dairy industry and became a Director in 1931.  He was elected Chairman in the year of 1937 and at this date is the sitting Chairman. Mr Finlayson does not confine his interest to the local company; in 1937 he took office in the Executive of the Northland Dairy Association, and became its Chairman in 1948.

He was elected in 1949 to the New Zealand Dairy Board as its Northland representative.  He is the said Board's nominee on the Veterinary Services Council and also the recently formed Dairy Industry Loans Application Committee.  Interested in the promotion of the Auckland Co-operative Farm Producers Ltd., he became one of its Provisional Directors in 1950.