CORRESPONDENCE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume IX, Issue 1785, 21 November 1887, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

♦ [We do not. hold ourselves responsible fo the opinions expressed by our correspondents. To ensure publication, however, it will be necessary for writers to avoid personalities.! EGMONT AGEICULTUBAL AND PASTOBAL ASSOCIATION. To the Editor of the Star. Sir, — Now tbat the annual meeting of the Egmoat Agricultural and Pastoral Association is about to be held, and the association, Us uses, defects, and future prospects are forming topics of conversation among farmers and stockowners, I think it would not be inopportune it a little discussion was raised on the subjects. As an outsider, it has struck me that the association is more or lesß a private affair, or, as some go the length of expressing it, a clique. If such be the case, and this association wishes to keep itself select and free from the rude interference of the regular herd, of course, the members' actions, wishes, losses or gains are purely matters for their own consideration, and not for the discussion of the general public. But if, as one naturally infers from the uses of other agricultural associations, it is for the encouragement of well bred stock generally, and for the benefaction of the Egtnont district in particular ; a society in which every member of the general public is interested or should be interested, either directly or indirectly, then I think it is time the public stirred itself into something like enthusiasm and action over an object calculated to benefit everyone, more or less. The impression has got abroad, through the reports of the associations general meetings and through the expression of some of its members, (.hat the general public are not desired as members — only the upper crust of society are desirable ; that it is better to carry on work in debt than by obtaining more subscribers to progress with head above water with enhanced usefulness, for by an influx of new members some of the present rulers would bold less sway. If these outside impressions are founded on insufficient grounds, let the association prove it by endeavoring in every way to add to its members ; let present members canvass for new ones, but first of all let the subscriptions be reduced ; let the object of the association be made to make itself popular, to draw within its bounds as many people as possible; let the show be spoken of as our bhow, give every man a chance of feeling interested in its welfare, of opeaking of it as our work, so that he may tell au'outsider of what we did last year and what we intend doing next year. Nothing so deeply tinges humau nature as egotism ; give a man the chance of getting the " I " and " we " into conversation or action, and it is like applying a lighted match to a gas-jet — the lucidity produced then only depends on the quality of the gas. The guinea subscription, as at presentfixed, is too high in these times, and the &rst tbinfir to be done is to introduce lesser ones, say half & gumea, and even go the length, oi having one as low as ss. There are maoy inea living some distance from Hawera who take sufficient , interest in the association to attend the shovr annually, but who, through distance do not now care to take exhibits or being on new bush sections have not yet anything to exhibit* would look several times at a*: guinea before giving it towards an as9ocia : tion which is doing them very little good, if any ; but they might easily be induced

|o*sri>icnbe b^a giiine4i^^||i)|9ro shilling subscription, thai'onoe;harinfj(bt va man* to subscribe fchat amount,rhej^rill 'take^an interest in the doings %tjßdrpro^ pects of the association, and as bi\ enthusiasm increases bo will his subscrip- .-' tion ; it is the thin end of the wedge. These subscribers of the lower amonnta ' will then begin to talk about our association and our show ; they will feel interested ■ in its advancement, will take exhibits if only "just to fill up a class, you know, to make the thing a success." Such exhibits ot lesser merits will soon develope into ones of greater merit, and so produce •tha... object every agricultural aud pastoral , association should aim at, namely, tha . dissemination of an enthusiasm for ro« - perior stock and products. Different rates of subscription would naturally carry different privileges with them/and regula* tion might be made that only subscribers of one guinea would eligible as officers or members of committees ; but the modut operemdi I leave to the association, my object being only to urge the introduction of lesser subscriptions and every meant >>• used to increase the popularity of tha : show. Let Buch be done, and let tha present members canvass far and near for subscribers of the firat, second, and tbird orier, leb them laj- before fcb« settler the objects— present and future —of the association, with its present support on one side and its augmented support on the other side, and I would bet a "monkey to a mousetrap" that nearly every man addressed on the subject would subscribe (if. it were only five shillings to get rid of the canvasser). Let this be done, and I feel iure from the generally-expressed opinion of those I have heard discuss the subject tbat many more will help to make the association a successful one. Do not turn up your noses, oh. je autocrats! at the -idea of a mean five-shilling subscription; 'remember it is the thin end of the wedge '. which will hoist the show into a solvent aud useful institution, for until these humble, budding "crowners" develope into full blown guinea peonies you will Dot be called upon to rub noses with ' them. True at the general meetings the crowner may be cheek by jowl with the peny, but in this democratic country we are well accustomed to such an occur* rence, and the most honest of ns glory in the fact that such is the case. I have spoken ; let another take up the word—* "Amis." To the Editor of the Star. Sib,— ln reply Ao Dr. Obilton's letter of the 17th mat., I beg to state that the nuisance complained of bj him was a few boys with kerosene tins greeting Mr. • Bobbins on bis arrival home with bia bride. Mr. Bobbins took the boys into his parlor, and refreshed them with - ginger beer and cake. The whole affair . did not last five minutes, and the boya dispersed to their homes quietly and orderly. Now, sir, I fail to see the pnblie scandal complained of by Dr. Ohilton. I am a resident in Regent-street and live a few doors from Mr. Bobbins, and heard .; the whole " infernal din." I wonder was the doctor ever a boy. If so he must have been the white-headed boy we* read ' about. It is a great pity he did not remain a boy, and he then conld find something better to do than write letters to the paper about bors' innocent amusement.—l am, &c,, Once a. Bot. ; Hawera, November 18. .