THE SYDNEY ROYAL.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 3, 25 April 1911, Page 4

THE SYDNEY ROYAL.

AN INTERESTING REVIEW.

This year's Sydney Royal Show is reported to. have been the finest show ever held in Australia. Every year the show has been growing, but this year the exhibits number thousands more than ever. In 20 years the gate receipts have increased from £I2BO to £ll,os4—the sum of £l9lo—and the prize money paid by/the Royal Agricultural Society from £1990 to £4537. When the mail left, the show was not concluded, but.it was expected that the gate receipts would be a record. Mr James D.unlop, of the Scotch Agricultural Commission, expressed his opinion of the show to a Sydney ''Morning Herald" reporter. "As far as the stock is concerned (said Mr" Dunlop) you have some good specimens of British breeds of cattle, but what strikes a Scotchman is the very large number of secondary and inferior animals brought to the show. At the national shows in England and Scotland only the best of each district is exhibited. It is a battle ground for the winners in the country shows, and the difference between the first and the fourteenth or fifteenth competitor in a class would take an expert to recognise. But here in Sydney the difference between the first and the last . . . must be

fairly evident to the dullest comprehension. 'The jumping here is excellent. There.is nothing I have seen at home to equal it. . . . You

also have some very fine trotters. Your light horses are generally very purposeful looking. I think you are very sensible in not adopting the prancing, highstepping style with hackneys. Your horses go along. They make good; you get speed. I like that.

"But I can scarcely congratulate you on your type of draughts. In the Clydesdale section the winners would not get a second look at Home. While I recognise we have carried the fine bone and silky hair, and what is known as the 'tall type,' too far in Scotland, to the detriment of the draught qualities ; your draught horses here are much too straight, too round and soft of bone, and straight to the pasterns, with all the indications of unsoundness, such as siclebone. There is a happy medium in the draught, between the showvard type of Clydesdale in Scotland and your showyard type here. A happy medium that is to be found in the streets of such cities as Glasgow and Edinburgh every day, and on the farms in Scotland. The fact of the matter is that your show of Clydesdales puts one in mind of a country fair in Scotland—not a show, mind you —" explained Mr Dunlop, "but a fair, when they sold horses, 30 years ago. Since then there has been a very considerable improvement in the soundness of the Scottish draught horse."

Mr Dunlop said that he was disappointed with, the Ayrshire?, shown. The Ayrshires and the Holstein were "not up to much." He considered that the Jersey and Guernsey breeds were represented by the best specimens.