LITTLE THEATRE OF LIFE

Taranaki Daily News, 8 June 1932, Page 9

LITTLE THEATRE OF LIFE

CURTAIN LIFTED ON SHOW

NORTH TARANAKI IN EMBRYO.

COURTS OF INDUSTRY AND FUN.

The life, customs and .work of. the people of North Taranaki are staged at the annual winter show of the Taranaki Agricultural Society, which was officially opened at New Plymouth yesterday. The winter show is the theatre where the play ‘‘The Life of the Province,’’ is showing for all who care to

see, The life of the country is shown cheek by jowl alongside that of the town. The main theme of the play is seen in the staging of the produce of the land, the butter and cheese and root crops. Interwoven with this are the themes of the life of the town. The milking machines and separators that the farmer needs, the motor-cars that both farmer and town-dweller desire, the home industries of needlework and cooking on which both depend for their health o and comfort, the manufactures based on modern scientific principles that give efficiency, the inventions that give interest and amusement, the arts that give pleasure, are all portrayed. Each will play its part in this wellappointed theatre before the fall of the curtain on Friday evening. Light and ■ activity and brightness jump to the eye as one enters the first hall. • White ribbon , streamers loop across the ceiling, with bright pendant streamers of red, yellow and gold. Facing the entrance is a stall which glows with colour where puff balls of yellow and pink surround tiny dolls and the walking stick, attractive to the youncr and debonair, wears a gay ribbon collar. Nearby are stalls of native ferns and flowers where . maidenhair hangs in wire baskets and quaint bowls and jars shaped like pitchers are made from punga trunks. On the right-hand side chinchillas and snowy angora rabbits look out from wired cages. AGRICULTURAL EXHIBITS. One passes or, if one is a farmer, stays to admire a stall of pipes for drainage and comes to the central display of the Department of Agriculture and the Taranaki Agricultural Society’s experimental' work at the Katere farm; Turfs, neatly labelled to point • a moral and adorn the tale, are shown after various treatments and in various stages. One turf is an ideal sward for high fertility, another is a weedy turf from impure seed. The idea of the display is to bring out some of the more important points in grassland farming. There are exhibits of the grasses such as Hawke’s Bay rye, Canterbury rye and Danish cocksfoot. Each point is illustrated by • exhibits of representative turfs. The stand tells the whole story of grassland farming from the time of sowing until the grass is turned into butter-fat.

By means of an illustrating lantern compressed lecturettes are given at the stand, dealing with ensilage-making, top-dressing, grassing, drainage, boys’ and girls’ club work and the small farm scheme.

Mangolds and turnips particularly round are exhibited nearby, and what looks like a carrot labelled Holmes’ Improved, so gigantic that the visitor pays a silent tribute to the creative genius of the late Mr. Holmes. ° The sound of a model milking machine at work conies from across the way, and alongside is another stall of flowering shrubs and native trees. Here and there among the evergreen foli-

age of the native trees are. the alien trees, their autumn leaves tipped with red and gold. There is a glassware stall hung with pretty beads where one may buy a muo- with one’s name engraved upon it or °a brooch which spells in twisted metal, Helen, Fanny or Mother. Alilkincr machines and separators shine in a background of punga'ferns close by and next door are millions of seeds for grasses and crops. Here and there a huge root crop spreads itself by the side of one of the tiny seeds from which it has sprung. DIVERSITY OF DISPLAY. Needlework and- handcraft of a high order are exhibited at the stall of the Red Cross Society; there is a stall where one may buy a “pearl necklace, my lady,” and at the end of the hall are small squares of ensilage. No distance behind the other eections in the art of self-advertisement is the poultry section, where sleek birds and birds with ruffled feathers, red-combed roosters, bantams and ducks parade behind the cages. Pigeons are on show, and the entry of canaries is considerably larger this year than before. -In this hall again the decorations are-not-able, red streamers and white hiding the iron roof. The fruits of the field are laid out further down the hall, where giant pumpkins, marrows and beet, cabbages with enormous hearts, lettuce,, potatoes, smooth-skinned onions, parsnips, leek and silver beet, artichokes and parsley are massed on the tables. are

lemons, apples rosy and striped and green, guavas as big as bantam’s eggs, capo gooseberries, passion . fruit and pink tree tomatoes. The court cries out the fertility of the soil. Pleasure dances in the show this year with the inclusion of the cabaret hall. There'the brilliant streamers hang'over a polished floor enclosed for dancing, and nearby the radio broadcasts music. Behind a trellis wall is the afternoon tea and supper room. The walls are hun<r with Empire posters. Gayest of all the halls is the home industries section. Green streamers are petalled with rosettes of white and red, and posters cover' the walls. On one side are the exhibits of needlework, tray covers and cushion covers beautifully worked, knitted cardigans and children’s clothing and fine pointed lace. On the other side is the home cooking exhibit, packed with all the good things for the table—new-laid eggs, scones, tarts, sponges, cakes, girdle scones and homemade bread. There is a stall which shows choice ferns under glass, a radio stall, a decorative stall, a furniture stall and a fur coat stall. The" Plunket baby stall has a nurse in attendance and a bassinette where a life-size doll sleeps on its side. The arts and crafts exhibits are displayed on -the walls at the farther end of the hall. • - - Canvas .town Las sprung up in a night alongside the hall, and all the fun of the fair is there. Hoop-la and ringulet, the horses that carry one madly round in a circle, and all the old fay-, ourites have their stands. Even canvas town keeps abreast with the times, and this year one may drive in. an. aeroplane as well as ride on a horse. There is comedy, the fruits of har'd work and fun, and education to be found in the theatre of North Taranaki. The' Taranaki Agricultural Society has raised the curtain and the show is on. .... " ' ' . UNSEEN WORK; BLIND INSTITUTE DISPLAY. Housewives especially will find a great deal of a utilitarian nature to occupy their attention in .uie stall of the Jubilee Institute for the blind. This is situated in the.motor' hall, end is being conducted by the Rotary Club in the interests of their less fortunate fellows. Without exception, every article displayed is the result of patient hours of weaving, while sightless eyes peer ahead and -visualise a future made bright perhaps for someone because, of the article steadily taking shape beside them. They make all kinds of baskets — lunch baskets, dog baskets, butchers’ baskets, clothes baskets, all being turned out in a workmanlike -manner. Then there are cane chairs, dolls’ prams, stools, and unique teapot stands, with attractive tiled centres, while the novelty flower and seedling pots so popular last year are again on sale. Prices for all articles are very reasonable.