Farming in New Zealand

A YOUNG man graduated from the University of New Zealand with a degree in journalism. His first assignment for the newspaper who hired him was to write a human interest story. Being from NZ, he went back to the bush to do his research. He went to an old farmer’s house way back in the hills, introduced himself to the farmer and proceeded to explain to him why he was there.

“Has anything ever happened around here that made you happy?” the young man asked.

The farmer thought for a minute and said, “Yep! One time one of my neighbour’s sheep got lost. We formed a search party and found it. We all rooted it and took it back home.”

“I can’t print that!” the young man exclaimed. “Can you think of anything else that happened that made you happy?”

After another moment, the farmer said, “Yeah, one time my neighbour’s daughter, a good looking girl, got lost. We formed a big search party that time and found her. After we all rooted her, we took her back home too.”

Again, the young man said, “I can’t print that either. Has anything ever happened around here that made you sad?”

The old farmer dropped his head, looked up timidly at the young man and said, “I got lost once.”