THE WINTER SHOW.

Observer, Volume XXVII, Issue 37, 1 June 1907, Page 22

THE WINTER SHOW.

example Bbould bring new competitors into the field at next Winter show. For after this year's experience there can be no doubt at all that the winter show has come to stay.

A Successful Exhibition

IT was Auckland's first Winter Show, and therefore somewhat in the nature of an experiment, but the splendid result scored gives sufficient assurance that it will certainly, not be the last. From whatever point of view it is considered, the exhibition made at the Drill Hall last week was a thorough success. To the casual wayfarer of the city it was an agreeable pastime to stroll through the various courts, and there was a good deal in the way of actual entertainment ; to the practical farmer and grazier who flocked into town in his hundreds to learn from exhibits and lectures what was to be learned as to the directions in which his operations on the soil could be improved, it was a valuable educational means ; and to the person who had only a vague idea of what Auckland province, in particular, could produce, it was an eye opener. Also, one and all were warm in their praise of the Auckland Agricultural and Pastoral Association for the enterprize that produced the show, and in encouragement to its officials to keep up their good work. That they will do so hardly needs saying.

If the exhibition served no other purpose, it has done admirable service to the district in calling attention to the prominent position into which Auckland province has sprung within a few years among the dairying districts of v the colony. Not so very many years ago Auckland cut a very modest . figure against Taranaki, Hawkes Bay, or the Wairarapa as a butter producer. To day an Auckland factory (Whitford Park) carries off the championship for butter, upon a judgment given by impartial experts, against a large field of competitors from the proudest southern districts, and another Auckland factory (Te Puke) was placed second, with three Taranaki factories (Pihama, Kaponga, and Midhurst) close up, but not quite close enough, while exhibits from the Far North, the Waikato, the Baj of Plenty, the Upper Thames, and intervening districts testified to the wide ramifications of the industry. Small wonder if the patriotic Aucklander is inclined to swell out his chest a little when he contemplates the startling figure, £346,000, s-et forth as? the value of Auckland's contributions to the butter exports of the colony in the season just ended.

Of the other features of the show, the most attractive were in the section provided by the Department of Agriculture, with its magnificent displays of classified products of the Experimental Farms in the provincp, its tempting tables of apples, canned and bottled fruits, aad, perhaps most practical of all, the collections of poultry dressed for export — birds of a sizß and quality that set watering the mouths of others besides bonvivants. The court for Maori and South Sea arts and crafts suffered a little from want of space for effective display, but its collection of curios was one of the most popular in the whole exhibition. Elsewhere there were field and garden products of a size and quality that set the casual callers gaping/ and the industrial exhibits, necessarily in the nature of advertisements, were both extensive and varied.

Probably another year will see keener competition in the district courts. Franklin, Ohinemuri and Northern Wairoa led the way with very creditable displays, but it ought to be possible to get a -wider representation of the districts of the province. There is a challenge shield, given by the Auckland Farmers' Freezing Company, to stimulate emulation amongst the districts, in addition to the Association's money prizes. Ohinemuri, with its varied assortment ranging from dairy and farm products to mining specimens, has secured the .rophy for this year, and its excellent