WAIKATO WINTER SHOW.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18412, 30 May 1923, Page 8

WAIKATO WINTER SHOW.

In opening the .Winter Show .at Hamilton, the Prime Minister declared it to be of national as well as local importance. There can be no doubt of this. - Its promoters have spared no pains to make it, in,* one respect, the supreme exhibition of New Zealand's capabilities as a producing country. That distinction belongs to the Show's dairy section. In the early days of New Zealand's butter and cheese industry the Waikato was not remarkable for dairying activity. In " the 'eighties Hamilton had only one butter and cheese factory, and the industry was but lightly esteemed throughout the Waikato. Now Hamilton in early winter is the Mecca of the milk producer. Attendance at this Show is an essential part of his education. From far afield, too there come visitors across the sea to be present at it. In the competitions of its dairy classes there are decided annually the championships of the several North Island provincial districts, and also those of the combined. South Island districts, in the two staple dairy products. When this Winter Show was first projected, in 1906, its institution was largely an act of faith. There were then many, even in 'agricultural and pastoral .circles, entirely sceptical • about its utility and prospects. -At the first Show, in July of 1907, the dairy classes elicited only two entries of butter and one of cheese. Since then the Waikato, with the rest of New Zealand, has shared a marvellous development in dairying. Lands hitherto uncultivated have been turned into luxuriant pastures, new methods have displaced primitive hand-milking and crude ways of treating the primary product, and the whole business organisation of manufacture, transport, and marketing has been put on a good footing. In this development the Waikato has led the rest of New Zealand. With climatic advantages, the fertility of its soils has been put' to good account, and there has grown up in consequence a thriving district and a vigorous town. The Show's promoters did not wait for this development. They anticipated it, they prepared for it, they did much to bring it about. They have ever striven to keep ahead of immediate demands. Especially have they contrived to make the Show educative. In keeping with this motive, they have this year secured exhibits of Canadian cheese and Danish butter, with a view to their analysis and weighing in comparison with competing New Zealand products. This motive has also induced a widening of the juvenile departments of the Show in order to elicit the competition of scholars in the primary and technical schools. The effect of this educational policy is manifested remarkably in the increased juvenile entries this year, in token of the responsive co-operation of teachers and administrative I authorities. In other features the Show ranks high, but in its dairying section it has made an inestimably valuable contribution to a staple industry of the Dominion. For their achievement, which manifests no sign of waning, but rather of waxing strength, the Show's manaI gers are to be congratulated, and I for their service to a leading j national enterprise they merit the ttanks of the whole community.