Geoffrey Sylvester Peren & Francis William Dry

Geoffrey Sylvester Peren & Francis William Dry

[Dry] was sometimes at odds with the College’s principal, Geoffrey Peren, and its council, particularly when his flocks threatened to overrun the campus.

From AL Rae's biography of Francis Dry, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography

Geoffrey Peren was at heart a traditionalist, a countryman who believed one should understand the ways of birds, animals and the weather, and who happily devoted his energies, his skills and his sense of style to improving the quality of life in what when he first arrived was still in many respects a pioneering society.

From Roger Peren's biography of Geoffrey Peren, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography

In a country which has built its economy ‘on the sheep’s back’, there can be no greater legacy than having a namesake amongst the country’s 40 million sheep. Two agricultural scientists, Geoffrey Peren, who bequeathed his name to the Perendale, and Francis Dry, whose work resulted in the Drysdale breed, have that honour.

Geoffrey Peren migrated to New Zealand from England in 1924 to take up the chair in agriculture at Victoria University College. But he was soon involved in establishing a North Island agricultural training institution. A School of Agriculture had been established in Lincoln in 1878 but many wanted a northern equivalent. Peren helped select a site near Palmerston North and, in 1927, the Massey Agricultural College Act was passed and Peren was appointed acting principal. One of the college’s early successes, under Peren’s leadership, was the development of a test for hairiness in wool using benzol, rather than the more expensive glycerine.

In the late 1930s, Peren and the sheep husbandry staff turned their attention to developing a breed of sheep that would thrive in poorer North Island hill country. The trials showed that a Romney-Cheviot cross could handle difficult North Island conditions. After his retirement, Peren became involved in promoting the breed, which was named the Perendale.

Francis Dry, described as the epitome of the absent-minded professor, had arrived in New Zealand from England in 1928 to become a senior lecturer in agricultural zoology at Massey. At the time, wool buyers and manufacturers were fretting about excessive hairiness in New Zealand crossbred wool. To find out what caused this, Dry developed a hairy flock. He decided the hairiness was caused by a gene which he named the N-gene after a particularly hairy Romney ram lamb donated to him in 1931 by a Mr Neilson.

Not everyone was pleased with Dry’s efforts, and some urged the college to dispose of Dry’s sheep ‘for fear that they posed a threat to the purity of New Zealand sheep stocks’. Especially offended were Romney breeders. Writes Tom Brooking, ‘Dry’s sheep had to be placed well out of sight whenever an official party of Romney men visited the College’. Dry’s efforts paid off and wool from the Drysdale turned out to be ideal for carpets.

Today there are about 2.3 million Perendale and 600,000 Drysdale in New Zealand.  

By Kim Griggs

Medals and awards

Francis Dry: OBE 1973

Geoffrey Peren: CBE 1953, KBE 1959

Further reading

Francis Dry biography – Dictionary of New Zealand Biography website

Geoffrey Peren biography – Dictionary of New Zealand Biography website

Dry's article 'Mendelian Inheritance in Romney Sheep', co-authored with A S Fraser and published in the Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, is available online:

Francis Dry article – Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand website

Tom Brooking, Massey: its early years, Massey Alumni Association, 1977

Image courtesy of Massey University

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