WILLIAM ROLLESTON Words: John McCrone Photo: John Bisset
gentleman farmer
Federated Farmers president Dr William Rolleston looks a trifle offended when I mention the state of his roof. We are admiring Blue Cliffs station, his historic 1890s homestead that sits half an hour inland of Timaru, at the end of a winding road which turns to dirt track as the rolling valleys become steep hill.
Rhododendrons. It turns out his aunt planted 1500 varieties around the house. High oaks. Planted even earlier, in the 1870s.
A longboat anchor hanging by the front door tells another story of proud settler history.
Forget the Johnny-come-latelies of Canterbury’s first four ships. Rolleston (pronounced ‘‘Rol-ston’’, and first name always ‘‘William’’) has a lineage that is pre-Adamite.
He says the anchor belonged to an 1840s whaling forebear – a Rhodes on his mother’s side – who first saw the farming possibilities of the land around these parts.
Rolleston is the gentleman farmer. Christ Church Cathedral’s spire, collapsed in the earthquakes, was a family contribution. His grandparents used to quip about being charged to climb it.
We enter the house and, inside, the 30-room jarrah weatherboard mansion is in a surprising state of disarray. Books and furniture all over the place. Gloomy ancestral portraits. The stair carpet is looking worn down.
Well, it is over a century old, says Rolleston. Bought at Harrods. The family knows to protect it by walking up the wooden margins of the staircase.
We are soon happily having a full tour of the home’s history. That splendid chest there belonged to Captain Cook. In this glass case is the last known specimen of a laughing owl – found on the roadside by his botanising grandmother.
And the house itself is in great nick, he protests, with the guilt of being its sixth generation custodian. It’s only a tip at the moment because Rolleston is in the middle of renovations.
The tin roof with its paint peeling like psoriasis? It actually is tin, he answers. Zero corrosion. Not cheap perishable stuff like corrugated iron.
And the workmen will have to get a wiggle on. In December, the house plays host to a meeting of the World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO).
On top of being Fed Farmers’ boss, Rolleston is acting president of its international equivalent, the WFO. The board will be here in New Zealand for a week’s educational tour.
The thought seems wonderfully incongruous. The collision of world politics and the transplanted Englishness of this tranquil 5000 hectare South Canterbury sheep and beef farm.
Quite an honour? Rolleston says his sudden elevation in September came after the WFO’s Zambian lady president was arrested at home on corruption charges.
He gulps and changes the subject. But clearly these are exciting times for the 55 year old.
As Federated Farmers president – a three year position he relinquishes next June – Rolleston has not made the public impact of some of his predecessors.
And he says this is deliberate. Farming politics has changed.
There used to be the tractor rallies and dung-flinging of the fart tax protests. Nowadays Fed Farmers works from inside the tent. ‘‘If we’re protesting in the street, it means we’re not really managing to be effective,’’ he says.
Rolleston is a man of science. His mother’s side is Blue Cliffs – the romantic mansion up in the green hills. His father’s side were a prominent medical and political family.
His namesake, the William Rolleston who was Canterbury Superintendent in the 1860s, had a statue outside Canterbury Museum until the earthquakes toppled that too.
Rolleston in fact grew up in Timaru and trained as a doctor, only finally giving up part-time GP work in 2002. The move into primary sector politics came after starting a biotech company with twin brother, John.
Their business, South Pacific Sera, sounds icky. It bleeds cattle, sheep, goats and horses for the blood products used in cell culture and other laboratory applications. ‘‘There was a market opportunity because of Mad Cow disease in the UK’’.
The company now employs 70 and is as much his main interest as Blue Cliffs with its 30,000 stock.
Through South Pacific Sera, Rolleston ending up fronting the genetically modified (GM) debate for the industry. And he was drafted into top science policy positions by the National government as a result. Then followed a swift rise to Federated Farmers president in 2014.
His motto for Fed Farmers is to be ‘‘the dripping voice of reason’’.
He says New Zealand agriculture understands it has to behave responsibly and accept environmental limits. But those must be based on evidence rather than emotion.
‘‘What’s different now is that we say, yes, we are affecting the environment. And if science can show there is an issue, then farming is prepared to stand up and deal with it.’’
And change is happening. Rolleston says while New Zealanders are upset by every photo of a cow stood in water, his WFO colleagues’ eyebrows shoot up when they learn Kiwi dairy farmers have to date invested $1 billion fencing off the nation’s waterways.
Message over, we get back to looking around the house, talking about the restoration of its original wallpaper and its wealth of family memories. Then reluctantly, Rolleston says he should be getting on with writing a speech he will be giving in Rome in a few days.
Already spending half his week in Wellington, Rolleston is now a proper globe-trotter.
His run up to Christmas included the big one of COP22 in Marrakesh – the global climate conference where world agriculture has its own scheduled day – as well as a World Trade Organisation meeting in Geneva.
What about the WFO presidency after Fed Farmers? Its general assembly election happens next June too
Rolleston says you know international politics. Unpredictable. Besides if his ride ends in 2017, he has more than enough on his plate with the farm, the serum business and the family home.
‘‘There’s a lot to catch up on around here,’’ he says worriedly, perhaps thinking now he has to get on with tidying up that flaking tin roof too.
‘‘If science can show there is an issue, then farming is prepared to stand up and deal with it.’’ William Rolleston