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Wairarapa Standard, Volume 8, Issue 791, 30 November 1878, Page 2

We trust that the adjourned annual meeting of the Horticultural and Industrial Society, which is convened for this afternoon at the Institute, Greytown, will be well at tended. It is expected that those who take an interest in the educational, moral, and material progress of the district will be able to realize the fact that such societies have a direct tendency to promote these important objects, for if they are they will feel it to be their duty to attend the meeting. Horticultural exhibitions not only afford the means of innocent and agreeable recreation, which are necessarily too limited in all new countries, but they encourage the cultivation of and emulation iu au art which iu its effects combines more thau any other tho useful with the beautiful, They moreover afford evidence not only of the industry, enterprise, and taste of the exhibitors, but of the progress of the district. With reference to this latter point the Wanganui Herald makes some remarks which are worth re-printing, though they have special reference not to Horticultural but to Pastoral exhibitions. “ Among the many pleasing proofs which we see arouud us of the progress and advancement of the Colony, few,” says our contemporary, “ are more plotting than those afforded by the various pastoral, agricultural, and horticultural societies which abound in either Island.” After pointing to the improvements which had been effected by means of these exhibitions the Herald proceeds:— * ■ Tbe improvement noticeable in each of these directions during the last few years is surprising, and mainly due to the spirit of emulation engendered and fostered by these shows, that which has been done by the Canterbury Association on a large scale having been achieved, though in less degree of course, by our local societies. The various Horticultural Societies have also done good service in another direction. Onr local Show tbe other day afforded ample proof that we are not content with, physically speaking, the beautiful and the good, but taut we must have tbe most beautiful and the best. This

is a healthy tone to encourage, and will prove 'in the long run a source of true economy. The various Acclimation Societies, although their | operations in some instances bare not been I regarded as having been productive of unmixed

j benefit, have nevertheless rendered us signal ' service in a less obtrusive way by stocking our waters with fish. Most of our rivers have been stocked with salmon an trout, which will afford us pleasant and healthful recreation, ; and at the same time table luxuries such as . the pioneers of the colony never dreamt of possessing. We might also mention the establishment of various literary and scientific societies, of working men’s clubs in populous centres, the reclamation of land in various parts of the Colony, and our railway, harbors, and other public works, as evidences that New Zealand is not lagging behind in the race of progress.”