THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 1923.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18761, 15 January 1923, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 1923.

TAHUNA PARK. The general public is hardly less directly interested than the members of the Otago Agricultural and Pastoral Society are in, tho proposal for the sale by the society of Tahuna Park and for the removal of tho location of the Summer Show to Wingatui. The transfer of the Show to the Dunedin Jockey Club’s racecourse may be described as “temporary,” but it must be perfectly clear that if it were once effected it would constitute a step that could not be retraced for an indefinite number rf years. We have published two or three letters condemnatory of the proposal which the committee of thq society fa submitting shortly to a meeting of its members. Elsewhere in this issue appears a letter to which authority is attached from tho fact that, ns the signature shows, it is written by a member of the committee responsible for tho proposal, and in it is advanced the argument that financial considerations have influenced tho committee in advising the sale of Tahuna Park. It is rather difficult for us to see how it can be expected that the finance of tho society will be improved by a removal of the Rummer Show from Tahuna Park to Wingatui. It seems to us to bo obvious that if tho> Show were transferred to Wingatui the immediate effect would be to deprive the society of an important source of revenue through the loss of a very large amount of tho patronage which is accorded to it at Tahuna Park. It docs not follow, because the public is attracted to a race-meeting at Wingatui, that it will bo attracted by an agricultural show at the same place. Even if people should have no reluctance to pay the difference between the cost of attending a show at Tahuna Park and attending one at Wingatui, they would bo likely to think twice about spending the extra time that would be required. It does not seem unreasonable, in fact, to suggest that, removed to Wingatui, the Summer Show would with difficulty maintain any identity from the popular standpoint with the Show that has been peculiarly a Dunedin fixture for so many years past. Leaving tho matter of the sale of Tahuna Park out of tho question, the finance of the society is certainly not going to he assisted by a change to Wingatui. The annual diminution in the gate receipts would inevitably be considerable. If, therefore, tho proposal for the change is based upon considerations of finance, it is not likely, wo imagine, to ho one that will carry much weight with members of tho society when they come to vote upon the question. A better argument is surely needed to commend tho committee’s proposal than any that can he founded upon the question of finance. If the facilities available for the trans-

port of stock to Tahuua Park are uct what they should be, or if more room is needed on the show-ground, these are surely matters in respect to which it is not impossible that improvement can be brought about. The question of the effect which a removal to Wingatui would havo upon the Show itself must require consideration from points of view other than the pecuniary; and not from all of them certainly will a migration to the Taieri commend itself. It_ seems to require nc demonstration that* the Summer Show cannot retain more than a semblance of its character as a metropolitan fixture if it is held at Wingatui. The arguments that have so far been advanced in favour of a change have by no means impressed us with the wisdom or the necessity for the proposals of the committee.