ROYAL SHOWS MENACED

Southland Times, Issue 20396, 27 January 1928, Page 6

ROYAL SHOWS MENACED

The Committee of the Royal Agricultural Society evidently is bent on restricting Royal Shows to Christchurch and Palmerston North, for it has decided to confer with the Manawatu and Canterbury A. and P. Societies with a view to arrangements along these lines. This means the elimination of every other centre and it means, too, a decline in the interest attaching to the Royal Shows. So far as Southland is concerned it means the death of any hope of a Royal Show. If this province, which has through the quality of its stock exhibitions made good its title to be considered when future Royal Shows are being sited, is prepared to allow its ambitions to be stifled well and good, but if it wishes to protect itself it will not hesitate to make a vigorous protest and join with any other centres which are lodging objections to the Royal Agricultural Society's scheme. A decision to confine the Royal Shows to Palmerston North and Christchurch means that Southland stock will always be under the serious handicap of having to travel to the shows ; and breeders here must face the expense without having any opportunity of exhibiting at a Royal Show close at hand. Breeders in Canterbury and in the Manawatu, two rich and influential communities, doubtless will be well satisfied with the advantages to be bestowed on them by the Royal Agricultural Society if it carries through its scheme, but the other districts, some of which are developing steadily and threatening to eclipse both places with the quality of their stock exhibitions, will be seriously hurt by these restrictive proposals. The interest in the Royal Shows will not be maintained and they will deteriorate if they are confined to Palmerston North and Christchurch, and it is, therefore, the duty of the other districts to save this valuable institution from the danger threatening it through its governing body.