Manawatu Evening Standard. Circulation, 3,500 Copies Daily FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 1908. MANAWATU A. & P. ASSOCIATION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8539, 20 March 1908, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. Circulation, 3,500 Copies Daily FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 1908. MANAWATU A. & P. ASSOCIATION.

At the meeting of tho Manawatu A. and P. Association on Tuesday last a sum of £300 was passed for urgent extension of building accommodation in connection with the forthcoming dairy show, this sum providing the barest minimum of space tliat can be put up with. Building extension, as far as the Dairy Show is concerned, is not by any means settled ; the best that can be claimed is that it has been shelved for another year when the question will have to be faced again. To adequately deal Avith the position at present, double the amount would be required, from £600 to £700. This is not the only important extension required by the Association. For three or four seasons past we have pointed out—and prominent exhibitors have dono likewise—the necessity for covered accommodation for the horses. This alone, it is estimated, if done according to requirements, and nothing less would be useful or wise, would appropriate between £'SOO and £1000, and again, another sheep pavilion is absolutely necessary, while the cattlemen are clamouring for improvements in their division. In round figures the Association requires fully £2000 for expenditure on immediate stock necessities on the grounds. That sum, with the natural advantages and the buildings already there, would provide appointments that would make the grounds absolutely superior to any in the Dominion, and at the same time place it in the position of being able to cope with all the requirements of a few years to come. The salient point is how to get hold of the necessary capital, and in this connection several suggestions have been made. They include a spirited canvass for life members at £10 10s per head, special donations and extended membership operations. It is on this latter idea- we imagine the Association will have to depend for its building fund. It ; is somewhat remarkable how little use, comparatively, has been made of this mode of augmenting the Association's resources; indeed, argument has been heard at committee meetings against greatly extended membership on the ground that the ordinary visitor to the show paid better than a member. The fallacy of such an argument has, it is to be hoped, been perceived even by its strongest and most persistent advocate.

It is strange, however, how the membership proposal is neglected, only a. few of the Committeemen giving it their consideration, and no general and definite attempt is made to improve the Association's funds in the manner stated. To show how opportunities have been neglected, a

glance at the membership list reveals that within a radius of four miles of Palmerston, with its large and personally interested population, only twenty-five per cent, of propertyholders are members of the Association. There appears no reason why a systematic canvass of the town and immediate district should not x'esult in fully 400 or 500 more members being obtained, prople who are perfectly willing to pay 20s per year for membership of the Association with its attendant advantages and privileges, and yet who would not be prepared to donate sums of money towards the object in view. The apathy of tho average resident of the district in matters appertaining to the Association is somewhat remarkable in view of the object lesson of years past of the good that has followed the Association's operations. It is a fact that the importance and power for good of the Association appears to be more correctly gauged by outsiders than by residents with whom proximity, apparently, does not weigh largely. The benefits that have accrued since the inception of the Association are innumerable and incalculable, while there can be no doubt whatever that the offer of a site on the showgrounds was one of the principal reasons for the selection of the Dairy School site in Palmerston. The work of the Association benefits every section *of the community, and it is therefore the bounden duty .of both settlers and townspeople to assist in that wo One direction in which this can be done is by swelling the membership of the Association, and we hope the public will recognise their duty by supporting this splendid institution in tho manner it deserves.