The Oamaru Mail FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 3 December 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1880.

Ix another column, we publish the letter of the gentlemen who acted as judges of the dairy produce at the late Agricultural and Pastoral Society's Show of this district. So impreseed were they with the inferiority of the exhibits in this class that they not only addressed their comments upon thera to the Society, but requested it to publish them, in order that our producers might have their eyes opened to the inferiority of their products, and be induced to effect improvement. The Association's Committee, however, attached so little importance to the suggestions of these gentlemen that they refused to render them any assistance in the performance of what they viewed as extrajudicial functions. We, too, think that the course pursued by these judges was somewhat unusual. So far as we know, the duties of judges end when they have handed in their decisions to the stewards. In refusing to recognise the letter, and comply with the request that it should be published, the Committee did no lay themselves open to anything approaching a charge of breach of etiquette. They only evinced a disinclination to give currency to criticism which was not expressed ex cathedra, and thus declared their opiniou that their correspondents had ceased to be judges when they wrote. We shall not say one word in praise or deprecation of the manner in which these gentlemen performed the duties properly appertaining to an unthankful task. They were chosen by the Association to perform those duties, and whatever may have been the nature of their decisions, we must respect them a3 those of the appointees of the Association. We, of course, refer to those decisions only which come within the province of judges, and not to expressions of opinion as to whether an exhibit is worthy of a first prize or not. It is here that the judges of the dairy produce appear to have acted with indiscretion. We feel bound to say, in justice to tta judges, that the opinions of far-seeing and capable men differ on this point. Yet, with a full recognition of the deference that is due to the judges and ofchew who approve of their action, we Gontend that a judge has no right to settle the question whether an exhibit is worthy of a first prize or not, when it is understood that the article which isselectedby the judges as the btst exhibited shall be awarded the first prize. We are inspired with confidence to assert this opinion from a remembrance of the fact that the only judges who ventured to act in opposition to this principle were those who were entrusted with the dairy produce class. If the judges of some of the other c.asses had taken a leaf out of their book, cheese would not have been the only exhibit that would hare been passed by as unworthy of any other notice than a lecture which is intended to fce But we see nothing in the letter of the judges to call for the suppression of its publication. It contains nothing more than the opinions of persons who occupy the position of ordinary correspondents. The only question ia whether the Committee considers, or does not consider, that the publication of such a letter comes within the range of the Society's operations. We think that they would not have exceeded their duties had they handed the letter to the local Press for publication. Moreover, we think that they would thus have acted with expediency. We are sure that the producers of this district are not afraid of criticism. That which the judges have said of their productions might be said of those of almost any part of the world. A leaf out of any old agricultural paper might have supplied such comments. The most extraordinaryfeature of the letter is that the buttar which contained the admixture of wax came from a place south of Dunedin, and not a hundred miles from Milton, and that certain of the exhibits of the hams and bacon were the produce .of a celebrated Dunedin firm. Does this not corroborate our view that the strictures of the judges might have been addressed to tho people of any other district with equal force ? It appears, in fact, that the letter should have been sent to the Otago Society.