HUKERENUI AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION.

Northern Advocate, 25 April 1921, Page 3

HUKERENUI AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Mr T. Hedley, retiring president, was in the chair at the annual general meeting of the Ilukerenui Agricultural Association held in the Towai Hail last Wednesday afternoon, and he gave a resume of the past year's work. ,

The report, prepared by l .a secre tary, was read as follows.—

"1 would like to review ;.ft? financial position of last year n.\d showwhere losses have occurred. The loss on the show account amounted to £8 13s 9d. If it were not for the liberal manner in which the tradespeople responded to requests for donations the loss would have been much more. The thanks of the Committee and of the members of the -Association are due to the generosity of tho donors. Cash donations for the year amounted to £52 12s Od. entry fees £31 4s 6d, a total of £83 18s 6d, less 14s entries returned, malting a total of £83 4s 6d. Prize money paid away was £61 18s fov 1921 leaving an apparant credit balance of £21 6s 6d, from which ha 3 to be taken a proportion of the secretary's and the treasurer's salary, and the account in connection with food, etc. for stewards and judges, stationery and printing, judges and pipers' expenses and canvassing commission. The loss on the last aural dinner was greater than I have intimated to the committee by £4owing to omitting the. charge of £4 lor Whitelock's Orchestra, the loss being £11 19s. Dances in 1919-20 realised £27 18s Od, for 1920-21 £31 4s, the dances for 1919-20 being net returns and for 1920-21 gross returns, nothing being charged against the dances for provision. Entries for this year totalled £31 4s 6d, for last year (which was a record) 3s 4d, a loss of £12 l&s lOd, the'average return for the last nine years being £33 18s 2d, the entries being £1 130 8d .below the average. There is no doubt if the show morning had been fine that the entries would have been above the average. Gate receipts show a deficit of £6 10s 9d and weight-guessing of only £2 15s below last year, which speaks well for the energy of the steward. Mepabevs' subscriptions -for the year realised £41 10s, and as the average from this source from 1913 to 1920 was £28 10s, there was thus a gain of £13. A lot more members' subscriptions will come' to hand, as the rain prevented many members from attending the show, and will be placed to the present credit balance of £72 13s 7d. From this has to be taken the sum of £46 18s 6d passed by the retiring committee to-day leaving a credit balance of £25 15s Id for the new committee to' start the financial year. No . alteration has been made in the valuations of the assets, with the exception of the yards, the sum of £7 7s 6d being written off them. If a valuation of assets were made I think it would be found they would be worth more thai double the amount at which they appear on the books of the Association. In conclusion I would lik<? to thank the retiring officers for the consideration shown to me during the

past year." ELECTION OF OFFICERS The following official appointments were made. —Patrons, Hon. W. Stewart, M.L>C., Messrs V. H. Reed, M.P., F. Mander, M.P., and Tau Henare, M.P.; President, Mr P. S. C. Going; Vice-Presidents, Messrs E. Brock, J. Brock,' G. M. Ross, W. F. Boese and R. 0. Cotterill. Committee—Messrs J. G. Pattison, J. Callaghan, T. Hedley, N. Mason, J. Atkins, W. Wallace, W. E. Bartlett, H. Ferguson, T. C. King, R. W. Brydon, C. Yorke, S. Girvin and C. Going. Secretary, Mr A. Dawson; Treasur'er, Mr F. J. Wyatt; Auditor, Mr A. M. Rust; Bankers, Bank of New Zealand.

■ ANNUAL DINNER In the evening the annual dinner was held, at which it is said that the efforts of the ladies in catering excelled any previous occasion. Anyone who may have attended a dinner at Towai will know that it was "some" dinner. The torsi ilst was .3 follows. — Mr P«-$. C. Goia/ ;nv : c: "I'he King" (National An .no a . Mr F. Tebbutt proposed the "Army and Navy,'' responded to by Mr G. M. Ross. He stated that for a short period of his life he h?.d served with the forces, but that be felt more nervous that night than he had ever been at iho front. If there had been no army we would not have been at' that night's function. We had a good army and navy and good ones at the head of them. Mr Packer proposed "The Association.'' He said he regretted that he was not in a position to propose the toast adequately as he knew ab solutely nothing* about the Association, but after what he had seen of the Association that night he would make it his business to know more about in it future. In response Mr Going said the Association was worth a good toast. He condemned the lack of interest taken by members, not only at this Association, but at all shows generally. He trusted that

i members would came forward and i help to make a record of next show. It was hard to estimate the value to the district and the country of a ' good show. He had to thank the ladies and the thanks of the Association wei-e due to them, and he trusted by their help to make the next year's show a record one. Mr Dawson pi-oposed the "Agricultural, Pastoral and Dairying Industry,'' and outlined each head at some length.

Mr McKeiuie, dairy instructor, responding, eulogised the ladies for the 'banquet they had put before them that night. During the two years he had been in the district ho had seen great improvements effected; more ploughing was being done and herd-testing was started, which would help the country to progress. He would like to say a few words about Towai. He had heard many persons coming through by train speak of the land as poor. He thought that was a mistake, as by proper methods of working and manuring he was confident it would make good land. He would like to thank the ladies for the pleasure they had given him that evening.

Mr Boese proposed "The Visitors." he hoped they would all enjoy themselves that evening. Previous speak ers had spoken of themselves as nervous. He personally had only been nervous once in his life and that was when he proposed to his good wife. They had had illustrious visitors to their shows in the post. On one oc casion they had the pleasure to meet the Hon. R. J. Seddon, when Prime Minister of New Zealand, but he could assure them all that they were as welcome as Mr Seddon was.

Mr F. McDonald (chairman of Directors Hikurenui Dairy Factory) responded on behalf of the visitors. He thanked them for the pleasure they had given them that evening. He spoke of the value the shows were in improving breeding. There were .valleys in the district equal to the best in New Zealand and he saw no reason against breeders here producing- the equal to anything shown in New Zealand. With the possible exception of England, New Zealand had some of the best cattle in the world From the social point of view he was much impressed at the way the Association combined the two things, and the value from a social point of view was very great. It was only right that the older people should find amusement for the younger.

Other toasts were—"Retiring ,Officers." proposed by Mr Rutherford, responded to by Mr T. Hedlev; "Kindred Associations," proposed by Mr F. Elliott, and acknowledged by Mr J. J. Whimp. Concert items interspersed in the toast list were —Vocal trio, Mr and Mrs Packer (Opahi) and Mr Hammond; vocal duet, Mr and Mis 3 Rhodes (Tapuhi); song, Mr C. D. Yorke. The items elicited great applause and were severally encorde-d At the subsequent dance Messrs H. Ferguson and N. S. Mason actesd very capably as mastefs of ceremonies The vocalists at the banquet contrib uted several items, while the accompanying -dancs- music played by Mrs Empson of Kawakawa was all that could be desired. 7