THE OTAGO METROPOLITAN SHOW.

Otago Witness, Issue 2231, 3 December 1896, Page 4

THE OTAGO METROPOLITAN SHOW.

The Agricultural and Pastoral Carnival of the year has come and gone, and in its twentieth annual show, concluded on Thursday, the Otago A. and P. Society has been the means of collecting in friendly rivalry the best that the southern part of the colony has to produce. To any at all able to see things below the immediate surface a show has a deeper significance than a mere collection of things incidental to rural life. To understand such an exhibition thoroughly it is only necessary to hark back to the first show held in a newly-settled district. Many such can be easily recalled by those who have resided in Otago for a quarter of a century. The settlers, still struggling in their arduous task of subduing the soil, agree to rest for a moment in order to note the progress which they have made. Each brings to the front that in which he considers he excels, and the total display affords a fair criterion of the advance made and the peculiarities and capabilities of the district. Such an event is attended with justifiable pride, and is conducted with a degree of enthusiasm that usage in after years may diminish but not totally destroy. Those who promote the first show are deserving of honour in the highest degree j those who maintain its successors year after year are not less worthy. Few but those intimately engaged realise what a show means. It means months, and perhaps years, of foresight and preparation. Every one o£ those

animals which the bystanders admire has cost the owner infinite trouble and outlay of money and skill. Does anyone think that it is mere chance which brings together such a splendid collection of machinery as that which graced Tahuna Park last week ? A moment's reflection will convince him that each machine, however insigmfi- ! cant, each product, however - humble, ' has been patiently evolved after i perhaps years of trying. It may be. for commercial purposes, for we have as yet no leisured class who* farm for amusement, but it is none the less true that the cattle, the sheep, and the. horses- have been . slowly adapted to the circumstances ofthe colony, and it is only necessary to glance back at successive catalogues of the society to learn how alert breeders are to coming needs and how ready to meet them. People who live in the country' and make rural affairs their care may not be possessed of the business activity of those who dwell in the towns, where, "as iron sharpeneth iron, so doth the countenance of a man his friend," but they have the faculty of foresight and i the quality of persistence, and it j is to them that New Zealand i must look for permanent prosperity. Primarily, everything neces- ! safy for man's support comes from the earth, therefore the plough should be as the national emblem of New Zealand. As the local show, .under the circumstances we have described, marks with a white stone the progress of the locality, so the provincial show — for that at Tahuna may fairly claim that honour— sets forth the progress of the province, and enables it to be judged by the standard of comparison set up elsewhere. It must be confessed that in some respects the people of Otago are behind their neighbours in Canterbury, where the show is a central event in a carnival wee,k. Geographical features account for a good deal of the difference. Christchurch lies in a vast plain where rural pursuits are comparatively easy. Dunedin has tributary country not less rich, but more scattered, and there are consequently difficulties in the way of a show thoroughly representative of Otago. For some reason, also, the Canterbury show has until recent years been a more popular fixture than that of Otago, and it elicited greater support from townspeople, who readily recognised that they must derive both direct and indirect benefit from it. Dunedin tradespeople now recognise the same thing, and the experience of the last winter show must have assisted the process of recognition materially. But with all these allowances no patriotic Otagon need blush at a comparison between the show at Tahuna Park and that at Addington. It is generally conceded that the stock exhibited could only with difficulty be 'surpassed anywhere south of the line. It is not necessary to specify, though mention may be made of . Mr Watsok Shemtan's enterprise in bringing from Tasmania a new strain of the useful but neglected merino sheep. In former ! days the introduction of high-class merino sheep was regarded as a matter of national concern. No doubt i Mr Shewnait will duly reap the reward i of his enterprise. If, then A the show j$ I

typical of what Otago can produce, and it is not inferior to that which other centres can produce, the credit of demonstrating this rests with the Agricultural and Pastoral Society, which is deserving of the support of all who interest themselves in progress. "Where would the colony have been without its homtly cheese and butter during the last few years ? To produce these cultivation and breeding of the highest quality are necessary, and almost everything shown at the Otago show just concluded impinged more or less directly on them. Of course shows have their social advantages also. Friend meets friend whom perhaps he has not seen since the previous show, and they and their wives and families forgather and talk of other days, perhaps when hopes were high, and when sudden fortune might lie on the turn not o£ a die but of a shovel. The show also affords an innocent and pleasant day's outing for the citizens, who meet their country friends and each other amid exhilarating surroundings. It cannot be said that such an occasion is provocative of boisterous enjoyment or frivolous amusement. A.n aspect of seriousness pervades the scene, but the evidences of assured prosperity, the reward of patient toil and-self-denial, are in themselves pleasing, and they abound on every hand. The society which is responsible for this annual gathering fills an honourable place in the industrial economy of the province and the" colony. The progress it is making has been manifested to the public. The many competitions and experiments it conducts, the summer and winter shows, the tangible sign of permanence now becoming apparent in the new hall in Crawford street, are all tokens of the society's activity, and proofs that it is prudently guided, alive to the importance of rural interests, and determined to be in the van of progress.