Men Who Have Opened the Whangarei Winter Show

Northern Advocate, 26 June 1937, Page 7 (Supplement)

Men Who Have Opened the Whangarei Winter Show

Whangwei Winter

Exhibition this year is to be opened by the ActingPrime Minister, the Hon. P. Fraser, whose name will be added to the list of distinguished men who have performed this important act of “cutting the ribbon’ as it were, and inaugurating the the great event.

Past exhibitions have had some prominent men to perform this ceremony, and among the number have been two Gover-nors-Generai.

In 1933 the exhbition t was opened by Lord Bledisloe, who, as everyone knows, is a keen and highly experienced farmer and economist, He,appreciated to the -full the fine display of natural wealth and it is only a pity that the national bacon pig championship was not a part of the show then, as he would undoubtedly .have been keenly interested.

Lord Bldisloe is an expert on pigs and his eommnts would have -been of great value from every point of view. ; ' Welcome From Maoris. The present Governor-General, Lord Galway, opened the show in 1935, and was accorded a traditional Welcome from a large number of Maoris from all parts of the North, who were present \for the exhibition. Although a soldier, Lord Galway has always taken a very full interest in the progress of the Dominion, and in Kis address he expressed bis satisfaction at seeing such a tine aggregation of exhibits.

Last year, the exhibition was declared open by the Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. W. Lee Martin, himself 1 a practical farm-

Who is acting as Prime Minister during the absence abroad of the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, will open this year’s Winter Exhibition. The main portfolios held by Mr Fraser are those of Health and Education, while He is also Minister of Marine, and Minister-in-Change of Mental Hospitals, Police, and Inspection idf Machinery Departments. Mr Fraser was born at Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland, and came to New Zealand in 1910 as a labourer and waterside worker. He was elected to Parliament in ' * 1918.

er. Although the exhibition is not primarily a show of farming exhibits, the industrial and farming interests of the districts are firmly interlocked, and the show is a demonstration of the wealth and progress of all sections of the community. That Mu*. Mar-

tin appreciated this was shown in his remarks at the opening which contained some helpful comment.

j Jason, I Possibly the strangest ‘ ‘person ’’ to open the show was a certain gentleman named Mr. Jason. Although Jason had a heart of iron and a skin impervious to criticism, he spoke quite well and waved his mailed fists in the approved style adopted by public men. Jason w r as a man of Wellsian character, being a robot of shining metal and his internal arrangements were composed of a mass of electric wires and other gadgets. Needless to say, Jason’s voice proceeded through a microphone, but the effect'was a novel one. Others to have opened shows in recent years have been the Mayor, Mr. W. Jones, and the Et. Hon. J. G. Coates, when a Minister of the Grown. First Visit To North \ Mr. Fraser who will officiate at this year’s event, will be paying his first visit to the North, and he will be fortunate in having before him a comprehensive cross-cut of what Northland can really produce. Nothing will present him with a better impression.

Mr. Fraser is a .brilliant speaker, who, though he can attain great heights of eloquence, and deal seriously with his subject, has the saving grace of interpolating snatches of humour into the most involved discusson. This in a public speaker is always welcome, and the hundreds who will be present to hear him at the exhibition should thoroughly enjoy what he will have to say.