The Press WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1963. The Show And Its Varied Attractions

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30287, 13 November 1963, Page 16

The Press WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1963. The Show And Its Varied Attractions

The special character of the Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association’s spring show, held in a city, has strikingly influenced the development of the programme of ring events. Though still reflecting the essentially rural backx ground of the show, these events over the years have grown into spectacular open-air displays that attract and enthral huge crowds. While admirably serving the association’s purposes, the ring thus gives a wide public a form of healthy and satisfying entertainment that it cannot find anywhere else. But although patrons from town and country enjoy the ring displays, including the greatest event of them all—the grand parade on People’s Day—they should not overlook the more fundamental purposes of the show. It is one of the finest livestock exhibitions in the

world, which can be appreciated as much by town people as by their knowledgeable country cousins. For town children, particularly, it is an increasingly rare opportunity to see something at first hand of the very foundations of New Zealand society, to see in the flesh and not in the pages of a book the animals that are a source of provincial and national pride. Another notable feature of the Canterbury show is the exhibition of agricultural machinery, which every year becomes more sophisticated; and even those not directly concerned must be impressed by the evidence of growing mechanisation. Events of the last few years should have made all of us aware of our dependence on the land. The Canterbury show, opening at Addington today, is the best chance most of us get of renewing our contacts with the land and with the people who tend it.