The Evening Post, undated, 1996.
In recognition of the long and distinguished services to the New Zealand Agricultural Economics Society and the Agricultural Economics Profession in New Zealand and Australia, I move from the Chair that Dr Johnson be awarded the very first life membership of the New Zealand Agricultural Economics Society.
Dr Johnson served in the inagural committee of the New Zealand branch of the Australian Agricultural Economics Society in 1976 and assumed the Presidency of the Branch in 1978. He bas been a member of the Management Committee on many occassions, the last being in 1992-1993. He has always been very perceptive and constructive in his feedback on Committee matters.
Dr Johnson's record of professional service in New Zealand dates back thirty years to 1965, when he arrived back at the Lincoln College Agricultural Economics Research Unit (AERU) as a Senior Research Officer, following a seven-year period as a lecturer at the University of Rhodesia.
After seven years at the AERU, he was appointed Deputy Director of the Economics Division at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) in Wellington in which capacity be served until 1985. He then served as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies at Massey University for a three year period before returning to MAF in 1989 as a Senior Policy Consultant attached to the Rural Resources Group.
Dr Johnson retired trom MAF in 1993, which also coincided with his assuming the presidency of Australian Agricultural Economics Society (AAES), the first New Zealander to hold this position. He also took up the responsibility of hosting the AAES Conference in Wellington, New Zealand. Simultaneously, he assumed the editorship of Review of Marketing and Agricultural Economics (RMAE) in which capacity he would have served for a four-year period, when he completes his tenure at the end of 1996.
Dr Johnson has had several journal articles published in the South African and the Rhodesian Journal of Economics as well as the Australian Journal of Economics and the Review of Marketing and Agricultural Economics in Australia. He has also edited numerous reports and books during his long career and has presented countless papers at the New Zealand, Australian and international conferences over the years.
He has always been a driving force and a guiding light for many members of our profession throughout his service in New Zealand, particularly at MAF.
We wish him continued success in his undertakiings when be actually "retires" in 1997 with the relinquishment of his role as the Editor of RMAE. We also wish Robin and his wife, Ruth, good health and a long productive life together.
Ram SriRamaratnam
1996 President
On behalf of the entire NZAES membership