SUMMER SHOW.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 279, 24 November 1928, Page 12

SUMMER SHOW.

THE PEOPLE'S DAY.

CROWD FLOCK TO EPSOM

SHOP-WINDOW OF PROVINCE. DIVERSIFIED RING PROGRAMME. "It's bound to bo wet," was a popular prediction at one stage of Auckland's history when a summer show was on the tapis, but of late years more than an average sharo of good fortune has favoured the Auckland Agricultural and Pastoral Association in staging their annual fixture. With a blue sky and brilliant sunshine, "People's Day" at the show was marked by a record attendance to-day, and old and young in the multiplicity of attractions found much that was both educative and attractive.

The "country quota"—quite a legitimate one on this occasion—seemed to gravitate by instinct to the well-filled stock pens, there to inspect the aristocrats of dairy herds with iong lineages, sheep of large frame, which protested meekly against the prevalent high temperature, and great pigs, which, in the main, slumbered and did not seem to care one scrap at the unending scrutiny they received.

j It was the ring programme which caught tlio fancy of the crowd. It was , diversified and interesting. There were equestrian competitions, displays by trotters and pacers, barebacked riding, driving competitions, high jumping, leaping events—the most applause was for an unlucky competitor who finished in tho middle of the waterjump—and steerriding, in which competitors displayed an extraordinary degree of skill, and— those who managed to stay mounted — balanced themselves with an insecure grasp on plunging heads and horns. Skill of the Axemen. Variety was the keynote of the day. That woodchopping in addition to being a domestic necessity—usually a Sabbath morning job with a blunt axe—can be a highly specialised form of athletics, was demonstrated in a depression far from the madding crowd, where some of New Zealand's brawny backwoodsmen showed their skill in axemanship. It was all very interesting to the townsmen, whose knowledge of the ways of the forest is usually limited. Big and brawny was tho average competitor, with sun-tanned arms and powerful hands. Axes, with edges whetted to a razor - point were tenderly lifted out of special leather cases; and after trial with a moderate touch on a hairy forearm were reverently laid on the ground. Some of the big backwoodsmen dug holes near the block to get the stance and ''play" they wanted, and when the starting signal went huge chips llew in a. shower. In a matter of seconds a champion axeman hewed out enough kindling wood to last the average suburban home for a fortnight. Grand Parade of Stock. One of the most spectacular events of the day was the grand stock parade, when mammoth bulls of various breeds and sleek cows and heifers suffered themselves to be led round the ring with an outward air of complacency which suggested that prize ribbons and the plaudits of the multitude were everyday happenings. To the average Aueklander "canvastown" was the prime attraction. Although there was neither a chairoplano to lend thrills nor a roundabout with gaily painted horses and an organ to grind out operatic and sentimental airs, there were attractions in plenty, benevolent gentlemen who offered handsome prizes to those fortunate enough to land a dart on a "lucky number," a soul who was most entertaining with sleightof hand tricks as a prelude to an invitation to see something freakish inside his tent, a real pigmy from South Africa— the showman said it was a real one and tho proof could be obtained for the expenditure of one shilling—to an endless array of vendors of soft drinks and similar refreshments.

Early in tlie afternoon the crowd fairly streamed into the .Show Ground, and the moving throng made a colourful picture. To-day the Epsom ground was the shop window of the province, with a wealth of things both instructive and entertaining.