Kiwi critic fails to win seat

WELLINGTON - Taranaki farmer Antonie Eggink, a vocal critic of Kiwi Cooperative Dairies over the aborted mega-merger negotiations, has failed to win a seat on the company's board.

The seat has been taken by farmer and accountant Marise James, who farms with husband Bryn at Ratapiko, 15km southeast of Inglewood.

She will replace Kiwi chairman John Young, who is stepping down from the board, and director Tony Dravitzki, who has also not sought re-election.

Mrs James is a Nuffield scholar. She and her husband won the national sharemilker of the year title in 1994.

Mr Eggink, who farms 130 cows at Ararata, 13km northeast of Hawera, campaigned partly on the basis of concerns about the "antagonistic approach" Kiwi and New Zealand Dairy Group had taken in negotiations on the proposed merger of their two companies.

As chairman of the West Coast Lessees Association, he led the tractor protest march to Wellington in December 1998.

Other directors representing the Taranaki ward within Kiwi include Harry Bayliss, Guy Roper, Ian Armstrong, Philip Luscombe and John McNeil. In Northland, Richard Booth was re-elected unopposed to the one vacant seat. - NZPA