A PRECIOUS TROPHY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22209, 9 September 1935, Page 10

A PRECIOUS TROPHY

SHOW GOLD CUP LOCKED IN BANK VAULT TOO VALUABLE TO EXPOSE [from our own correspondent! PUKEKOHE, Saturday How the soaring price of gold has made a trophy so valuable that, instead of gracing the dining room or drawing room of the winner each year, it remains locked from view in a vault of a bank, was related at the annual meeting of the Franklin Agricultural and Pastoral Society last evening. As its memorial to the late Rt. Hon. W. F. Massev, who represented Franklin in Parliament for nearly 30 years, the society had a magnificent gold cup made with the late Prime Minister's profile in relief on the bowl. It is presented to the winner of the champion hunter event at its annual show each year to hold until the next show. The winner is required to insure it before taking it from the show ground. The secretary, Mr. G. R. Basham. explained at the meeting that the cup cost £lO5, but was now valued at £2OO. Full insurance had accordingly risen from £3 10s to £7. Winners in late years had been content to leave tho cup with the society, taking onh the £2O prize money and the miniature of tho cup that became their own property.

Recently, when a winner wished to have a photograph taken of his horse with all the trophies it had won, arrangements were made for the cup to bo sent from the bank in which it is kept to a bank in the nearest town, to be handed to the winner and returned to the bank before it closed for the day. The winner was required to givo a written undertaking to bo responsible for it during the time it was out of the bank's hands. In this way the insurance fee was saved.