THE ROYAL SHOW

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 396, 25 April 1908, Page 5

THE ROYAL SHOW

A GREAT EXHIBITION. WHAT MANAWATU MEN THOUGHT OF IT. MR J. M. JOHNSTON'S EXPERIENCE. Mr Standen, who went over to judge stock at the Royal Show returned homo from Sydney yesterday, and told a "Manawatu Times' " representative much of interest respecting tho greatest show in Australasia.

Mr Standen has been there before when ho "did" it all very thoroughly. This time he went as judge and so was busy on the judges day, and left Sydney on Saturday, so that he "did not sen as much as he had seen before. But he saw enough to realise what a great show it is, and he saw Messrs S. Lancaster and H. Booth and they agreed fully with him, and he saw Mr J. M. Johnston who went down also to see him off and send messages of goodwill to his friends. Mr Johnston was not looking too well in Mr Standen's opinion, but would be better when the strain of the show was over, as he was hard at work gathering data and taking descriptions of exhibits, buildings, etc., on behalf of the Manawatu Association and the ultimate glory of our own show and grounds. Mr Standen went out to the grounds some days before the show and there saw tho showers of stock hard at work washing and grooming their beasts and generally fixing them up to look as pretty as possible, and he concluded that it was no place for him as a judge and retired to town. The greatest advance Mr Standen found from his previous visit was in the Jersey, and these both in number and quality had gone ahead decidedly. In Ayrshires aud some other breeds there was a decided tail owing to the large numbers sent with the view less of getting first prize than of making a sale. Mr Standen knew the enormous crowds that go to this dhow, but he was much struck by the numbers there on Good Friday in spite of the fact that it was raining violently all day and that, as the cable informed us, the takings fell from £3000, on Good Friday 1907, to £510 on Good Friday 1908. But at Is per head outside members, and complimentaries and exhibitors and their following £510 in shillings counts a good many people. Mr Johnston was evidently struck by the same tiling. Me s srs Booth and Lancaster were, Mr Standen understood, going down ;o Melbourne, and Johnston to Queensland.

THE MANAWATU TREASURERS' VIEWS.

Mr J. M. Johnston, in a letter to the editor of this journal, gives these incidental impressions of the big show for the benefit of all interested in show mattors ou the' West Coafet. WELL WORTH STUDYING. "The whole thing is a great exhibition, well worth seeing and studying. The quality of the stock was good but was not quite so numerous, especially in sheep, as I would have expected. The Ayrshires and Herefords were exceptionally good, and Standen, who returns by the boat taking this letter, will be able to give you more details of the stock. One of the great attractions of the show were the large black pigs, bred by Mr Garratte, and certainly th«y are magnificent animals, completely outstripping the Berkshires in size, or the Tamworths. '' The horse sections were numerous and good, with some very fine animals in the light and draught horses, but the single harness section and the double harness section were nothing like the style and number one would have expected, and to compare it with the Balls Bridge Show, Dublin, or any of the Hackney Shows of England, it would be nowhere. But the riding horses, especially the hunters, were very good. The ladies' jumping and the hunters' competitions were exceptionally good. They have to go over very stiff post and rail fences, post and rail brush, logs and a s6t back, none of which are under 4 feet , and during what I saw of it I never saw a fall. It would be really very hard indeed to beat the ladies' hunting competition anywhere. Beautiful jumpers, beautiful riding, side saddle. In this competition there were 19 entries, but in the ladies' competition, divided skirt, there was only one entry. DISTRICT AND GOVERNMENT EXHIBITS. "The District exhibits from Batliurst, New England, Hunter's River, etc., were simply magnificent, ocoupying a space of about 60ft by 80ft in baze, got up by the various districts interested at a cost of not less than £200 each exhibit. The quality of grain was very fine, especially the Fodder plants. They cut into chaff, wheat, maize, oats, buckwheat, sorghum, millett and even willow leaves, all of magnificent quality. Their driqd fruits and preserves, pumpkin?, marrows, &c., are very fine. "The greatest feature, however, for combination of products is fcne Government of New South Wales Argicultural Department's exhibit. It stands in a brick building over 100 ft long by .60ft broad, aud about 20ft high. The greater portion of this exhibit wa« at the Christehurnh Exhibition, but it certainly is magnificently got up, with every product taken from the soil in this State. It was represented in sections, the Wagga Wagga, Bathurst, aud Hawkesbnry State Farms, each sending iu their collection. I will give you more particulars of this later on as it is almost impossible really to describe such a magnificent exhibit j in such a hurry.

INDUSTRIAL EXHIAITS. "The other industrial exhibits, machinery. Anthony Hordern's, and the various merchants' exhibits, were very good indeed, and the whole thing is really one immense Industrial Exhibition, which in time will attain enormous proportions over and above its present size, owing to the fact that practically the greater part of the population of the city of Sydney go to see it, as there are no other attractions of any consequence on Good Friday, and though it was wot, coming down in torrents yesterday, all the stands and approaches were well filled. It was a perfect sea of umbrellas outside l-i, a ~,,,1 oii cover- ' iii!i:d. f . '3 told lic-'oj *.• i-Mv ;itji t he grouuds that ti.civ \\e,v -.i.-'r tiO.OOO !hero notwithfctiUl'liU}, 'ii.' Wl'i. ";,-y is city, aud as far a* i* .vh icath'."*. vy'li b- a much

greater one. Mv friend, Mr G. A. Wilson, tells me there are large coalfields right under the harbour of Sydney, north as far as Newcastle aud Mailland, a considerable distance south, also away inland to the west. This being so, and the central position of Sydney, with such a maguiiicaut harbour, must surely make it a great, place in time. Everything is (dosed, wholesale and retail, from Thursday night, to Tuesday morning, for ti 10 show and races.''