BIGGER STILL

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20274, 7 April 1934, Page 21

BIGGER STILL

Sydney Show Set* New Records. OVER 900 HORSE ENTRIES. (Special to the •‘Star.'’) SYDNEY, March 29. Inkster week, when the Royal Agncul coincides with Randwick’: meeting, is a time of festivity people of Sydney whose numben just now by at least 50,0<X iijHV'* from the country districts ant surrounding States. Before thi depression came upon us the people wh< take count of these things were accustomed to estimate the returns from tin Kshow and the Easter race meeting at £1,000,000 each—of course, -includ feihe turnover with, ‘'bookies’* and HSator. This year it is believed tiiat the show returns alone may mount toward the “superior limit** of £1,500,000. which has been attained only under tht most favourable conditions in the past. Ten days ago all the largest hotels in the city reported that they were almost completely “booked out** for the holidays, and thousands of visitors are said to be searching in vain for accommodation 234,000 on Improvements. Of course the show this year is “bigger than ever.’* Year by year the R.A.S. is compelled to spend more and more money to provide the required accommodation and to cope with the constant increase in number of exhibits and the ever-rising tide of spectators. During the past 18 months about £34,000 has »een spent in improving the ground. A new horticultural hall for £SOOO, a floodlighting plant for £4OOO, a brick wall enclosing the whole great area, new roads, repairs, painting—all these are substantial items. But the outlay might have been doubled.with advantage had the funds of the R.A.S. permitted It. For this year the number of entries has increased vastly, and the number of exhibits, and their estimated values, have how, as an exhausted secretary complained this week, “grown beyond the power of human reckoning.** And we piay accept the considered judgment of the experts who have been examining the exhibits that both the stock and the products of the 6oil measure up to the highest standards of excellence attained here in the past.

There is one special feature of the show that seems to deserve special mention: the remarkably important part plavcd this year by the horse. The entries of Clydesdales have doubled as compared with last year, and the entries of stallions have risen from 50 to 105. Altogether more than 900 horses claimed admission, and the officials were at ’.heir wits* end to find room for them. Every *tsll in the horse pavilion occupied last year was booked months ago. A new l*avilion was put up, but other entries <.*ame in “with & first night box office rush,” and in the fend hundreds of'horses had to be put up outside, some of them aa far away ns Kandwick.