PRIDE IN PROVINCE

Southland Times, Issue 23998, 13 December 1939, Page 21

PRIDE IN PROVINCE

—The President of the Southland A. and P. Association.

THE Southland Agricultural and Pastoral Association is fully appreciative of the honour which has been accorded it of staging the Royal Show in New Zealand’s Centennial Year. In undertaking this task it had the recollection of the inspired way in which the province rose to the call in 1929 and 1934 when Royal Shows were previously allotted to Invercargill. On this occasion the heartiest co-operation has been willingly given by kindred associations throughout Southland and in the nearer portions of Otago. Plans which were inaugurated many months ago have gone ahead smoothly and the stage is now set for what I believe will be a memorable effort and will long be remembered as one of the farming community’s chief contributions to the celebrations of the completion of New Zealand’s first century. The occasional allocation of the Royal Show to Southland in the past has been of great value because it has spurred breeders on to efforts which might not otherwise have been made and it has served to inform the rest of New Zealand of the great potentialities of this southern province. Too little of the farming activities of different districts has been known by New Zealand farmers in the past and a Royal Show held in a different centre each year provides a valuable means of overcoming this lack.

I well remember the surprise of many northern visitors to our first Royal Show at the magnificent stock which our local breeders were able to produce for exhibition against those

brought from outside the province. The potentialities of

this district were insufficiently

appreciated in the north and a display of the cream of

Southland’s live-stock served

to bring to the notice of the rest of New Zealand some of

the reasons for the supremacy of Southland in the fat lamb

trade and the dairying industry. I am sure the south has

benefited from a wider recognition of the farming wealth

by the two Royal shows held

'in Invercargill and there is every reason to suppose that the Centennial effort will have as good results.

This is an occasion on which we should remember with gratitude the great work of the pioneers of this and other provinces in establishing the farming industries on the sound basis which has enabled such spectacular results. In Southland a remarkable transformation has occurred within the century of occupation. Actually, the work has been done in much less than 100 years because it was in the early ’sixties that the first efforts were made to establish farming as we know it today. The first pastoral activities were undertaken earlier, but they were purely on a run basis and did not contemplate the intensive development which has followed.

This Centennial Royal Show must, therefore, be one of the landmarks to point the progress made, in this important period of New Zealand’s colonization. We will be able to inspect the stock exhibited and measure the worth of those silent but progressive efforts of past years, but we must not rest there. This measurement of the results of past endeavour must be a reminder that further progress is essential if our primary industries are to retain their present proud position. Just now there is a call from the Old Country for the New Zealand farmers to strain every nerve to increase production of foodstuffs to help in the war effort. I know our Southland and New Zealand farmers will do their part in this work with the greatest readiness. To some it might be thought that the present time is not opportune for the staging of this big show, but I am sure it will prove well worth while as a spur for greater effort in the war period which may follow.

To all those country and townspeople who have made it possible to stage this show, I extend the grateful thanks of the Southland Agricultural and Pastoral Association and I hope that the people of both town and country will rally to support the show by their presence and so make it a notable achievement in our province’s history. ROBERT KENNEDY. Drummond.