The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas Et Prevalebit. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1883. Jealous Otago.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1003, 19 November 1883, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas Et Prevalebit. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1883. Jealous Otago.

In writing the other day on the subject of agricultural shows we referred to the jealous feeling towards Canterbury existing in this relation on the part of Otago, and this jealousy has found its latest expression in the Dunedin Times , a copy of an article in that paper having Leen extensively circulated throughout this part of the colony. We are betraying no secret when we say that the present editor of the Otago Daily Times was for some time previous to the past three or four months connected with the press of this province, but with the proverbial enthusiasm which characterises a convert he espouses the cause of the part of the colony where he now resides, and has become plus toyal que le roi. In this, of course, he is only performing his duty, from a journalistic point of view, and coming from a district where agricultural matters are watched with so much interest, the apathy displayed in the South must have been far more apparent than it would be to an old resident. We suppose that the object of our contemporary is to show that although the best of the stock at the Christchurch Show came from Otago, the Southern breeders show a disinclination to support the Association established in their own province, and do not send their animals to the Dunedin exhibition. That this is true no one who has had the opportunity of contrasting the two shows can gainsay, but the remedy for this state of things lies in their own hands. Instead of jealously grumbling at our success, they should enter into .honest rivalry, and if they can equal or even beat us they may be assured of Canterbury’s approbation. Another point upon which the Otago Daily Times seems to be sore, is the fact that the President’s Cup was taken by a breeder in this province, and elaborate statistics have been prepared with the object of proving that Mr Wm. Boag, who was awarded the trophy, was not entitled to it. Here is the passage where this is referred to: —“We have no doubt our agricultural readers will be amused, if not instructed, by the manner in which Mr William Boag secured it (the Cup). Hitherto Mr Boag has been in the habit of showing Leicester sheep, shorthorn cattle, draught horses, and pigs only ; and yet within a week or two of the show he suddenly became possessed of all the other varieties enumerated underneath, and on the Saturday after the show several of these valuable animals were offered at auction, but an unsympathetic public declined to buy first prize bulls at the moderate price of ro guineas—or, in fact, any figure at all.” After quoting figures in support of the position he takes up, our contemporary gives the number of points scored with stock bred by exhibitors as follows : R. Campbell and Sons, 28 points; John Reid, 43 do ; Hon M. Holmes, 46 do; E. Menlove, 22 do; N.Z. and A. Land Co., 56 do. Wm Boag, 9 do. Now what is the conclusion to be drawn from these elaborately compiled statistics ? Simply this : if the President’s Cup had been awarded upon a different basis, it would not have been retained in Canterbury, but would have gone to : the N.Z. and A. Land Company, whose <

headquarters are in the South. Had . the editor of the Daily Times been commissioned to decide who was to get the prize, we have no doubt that the result would not have been the same as it is now, but the fact remains that Mr Boag was given the Cup because, according to the conditions laid down by the donor, he honestly and fairly won it. Those conditions were well-known to all the competitors, and if it was in the power of Southern breeders to secure the trophy and they failed to do so the fault is entirely their own. The truth is that Mr Boag, recognising that in many of the classes Otago would score a majority of the points, determined that the honor of carrying off the Cup should lie with this province, and accordingly he sent contributions of stock which he was not in the habit of exhibiting at former shows. How he became possessed of that stock, whether by breeding them or by right of purchase, is quite beside the question, and the judges had nothing whatever to do with these considerations. We only see in Mr Boag’s success a reason for congratulation that we have in this province a gentleman possessed of what, for want of a better word, we may call patriotism sufficient for him to gain a victory against what on paper appear such overwhelming odds. As to the appeal made to the Otago breeders by our contemporary to the effect that they should not neglect their own show, a comparison of the number of entries proves what little chance there is at present of Dunedin supplanting Christchurch in this particular. In the latter there were this year no less than 1,529 entries, while the Southern metropolis can get together only 800, or little more than half. By energy and perseverance the Canterbury Association have established their annual show as the most successful in the Australasian Colonies, and it stands to reason that breeders will rather send their stock where larger prizes are awarded 1 and greater kudos gained, than to Dunedin, where the show does not much exceed in size many up-country local gatherings.