CALIFORNIA’S FESTIVAL SEASON STARTED

Wanganui Chronicle, 3 June 1950, Page 8

CALIFORNIA’S FESTIVAL SEASON STARTED

Much Fun For The People (By a Reuter Corresponlent) SAN FRANCISCO.—The fair, fiesta, and Itstival season is under way in California and will continue until the new year with an unestimated loss Df manhours from productive occupations—but much fun for the people. Favourite events are horse shows, including rodeos that feature human contests with animals; flower shows that give suburban matrons a chance to shatter beautiful friendships when garden club winners are announced; and county exhibits of products and produce of the communityq—in which everyone, it seems, goes home wi£h some kind of an award ribbon.

One of the most spectacular community events is the sea inspired Annual Grunion Run at Huntington Beach in Southern California. This is so popular that sometimes even the Governor takes time off from official business to seek the mysterious fishes, attired in swimming shorts. The hunt requires the hunters to race along the tide-washed beach in the moonlight, seeking the sand bubble clew of the Grunion’s hiding place. The locale then is jabbed with fingers or sticks until the prize, utterly worthelss in a material way, is captured to be thrown back into the sea.

While the Grunion is the event most distinctive of the personality of the modern Californian, the favourite summer shows concern the rodeos, combinations of livestock display and an exhibition of man’s determination to subdue animals by skill and trickery if not main force. In displaying enthusiastic support for this type of show, the native son—natural and by adoption—are carrying on a tradition of the first Spanish settlers of the State. The contests are, in reality, modern play versions of what was work on the ranches a century ago, breaking horses to saddle and bridle, branding calves, and moving a roundup food, wagon in record time without spilling the beans and bacon and salt into the sand.

The county fairs, that exhibit everything from replicas of the State capital made out of so many thousands of burnt matches to the finest livestock and the latest broadway singing star, and financed largely from revenue obtained through the state s horse racing system. This pari-mutual fund, totalling 16,001,808 dollars during the last fiscal year, is accumulated on the theory that every bet is a contribution toward improving the breed of horses. The State takes a cut from the total “handle” of each race and allocates the money to subsidise State fairs. Thus, by encouraging exhibits, improvement in the breed is encouraged. While the State university and general fund take a small share of the race money, the fairs received 13,865,190 dollars during the last accounting period. None received less than 65,000 dollars.

The State Fair, held each autumn in Sacramento, the capital city had an attendance of 695,235 last year, a record. At the other end of the scale was the San Francisco Floral Show—there are no farms within the 47 square miles of corporate San Francisco so a display livestock and produce was* impossible—which drew more than 2000 floral entries and almost as many spectators. The State attempts to keep something of an inquisitive eye on the fiscal affairs of the State’s 70-odd fair districts but in many cases the task is more than the force of inspectors can handle. The Local Fair District Directors always want to spend more than they receive and sometimes project their plans years into the future always depending on an increased take from the race track betting. Recently they were advised .by Fred W. Links, Assistant State Finance Director; “Your Boards of Directors and Managers had better get your houses in orser as rapidly as possible so you will hot be .dependent on this State mpriey.” The Managers considered Links’ advice about ten seconds and replied they had more important to consider. Just how many "free passes should be issued to whom was one of them. One individual suggested that the Governor be required to pay for himself and wife because he has a State expense account. Others pointed out the Governor must approve the fair allocation fun bills so the subject was dropped without further discussion. The managers also were concerned with their own salaries. “I’m tired,” said SecrearyManager Stuart B. Wait of the Yolo County Fair, of “Writiig checks for the carpenter that average 75 dollars a month more than my own.”