The Hastings Standard Published Every Evening. MONDAY, SEPT. 30, 1901. THE A. AND P. SHOW.

Hastings Standard, Volume VI, Issue 1639, 30 September 1901, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Every Evening. MONDAY, SEPT. 30, 1901. THE A. AND P. SHOW.

It is a matter for great congratulation that tbe entries for the forthcoming annual exhibition under the auspices of the Hswke's Bay Agricultural and Pastoral Society show such a substantial increase on those for the preceding year, though one would have thought that the energetic secretary had exhausted all his resources. But the numbers have been augmented by 134 entries and the figures for 1898 more than doubled. The Society has been carrying on in a modest manner for more than 30 years, now recording a small increase, and now a decrease; but during the past three years it has attained pretentious proportions, and despite the disadvantages which the district suffers through its isolation, the Hawke's Bay show makes a bid for pride of position with the best in the colony. This year there is a small falling-off in the entries for horses, pigs, dairy .produce, and implements, but in all tbe other classes ihere are increases—9o in sheep, 33 in cattle, and 31 in poultry. These shows are always an index to the progress of a district, and we may reasonably flatter ourselves that while we are from year to year securing more exhibits for the display of our farm produce the community must be enjoying a period of steady prosper icy. It is really in this way that one can best feel the commercial pulse, for where there is a disposition on the part of our farmers to advertise their produce it is obvious that there can be nothing suggestive of stagnation. The marked increase in the exhibition of farm stock and dairy produce is proof positive that the district is becoming more and more prosperous, and, though there may be some who fail to realise this result from other indications, it is certain that we may depend upon the issue of agricultural shows to provide us with an infallible commercial barometer.