The Press Friday, November 14, 1924. The Show.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18230, 14 November 1924, Page 12

The Press Friday, November 14, 1924. The Show.

It is not quite true that this year's Show is the biggest Canterbury has seen. All that can be said of it is that it is the best. The entries were just short of the '2l and '22 figures, and a few hundreds behind the grand total of the Exhibition Show of 1906. But they were considerably ahead of last year's Diamond Jubilee, figures/ and represent, in quality and variety, something that has never been quite attained before. It may be expected also that the attendance of tho public to-day, if the weather helds/ will settle all doubts about the prosperity of Canterbury, and about the extent to which the primary producer is eager to profit by tho example of others. : There has been a little fear in some members of the Association that the . Royal Show at Palmerston North might rob the Christchurch Show of some of j its attractiveness —for this year only, of course —and that the effect would be added to rather than diminished by the knowledge that Christchurch itself will be a "Royal" centre next year. But this fear has proved groundless. The difficulty has not been to secure entries or to attract the public, biit to j find accommodation for both, and it is a difficulty that«can no longer be met by temporary shifts. Tho Association, will not be able to stage a Eoyal Show ] —as a Eoyal Show should be staged—without extending its accommodation for nearly all classes of stock, and we' do not think it is the desire of Canterbury that it should attempt to do so. We cannot think that it is the desire of the public that there should again be such congestion at a Metropolitan SJiow, since it is the prosperity as well as the dignity of the Province that suffers when Shows languish. The influence of Shows on production cannot be expressed with mathematical accur'acy, nor could we ever, for any given year, prove that they have any direct influence at all. But it cannot be doubted by anyone that they do influence production year by year, and even month by month, since they bring the stimulus of competition to those even who never think of Show standards. The most careless farmer will not, and indeed cannot, go on breeding "runts" or "scrubs," and i nothing else, if his neighbours breed high-class stock. The worst he can do in a country like New Zealand is to rob himself and his neighbours of the full benefits of reasonably good farming. But to seo what he might and would do if there were no Shows in the Dominion, and no conscious and unconscious striving after perfection, we have to go to the backveld flocks of South Africa, or to tho still pre-historic regions of South America. - But we need not go so far afield to see what tho absence of competition can do in a comparatively short period if it is associated with, and the result of, isolation. It is sufficient to compare the animals of Westland—making some notable exceptions —with those of Canterbury to realise what happens when circumstances forbid, not so much tho holding of Shows, as tho free application of the lessona that Shows may have suggested. And if we can see what happens when Shows cease, we can imagine what must happen when they degenerate. Tho people of Canterbury have had the benefit of sixtyone Show;s, increasing in importance and instructivness to the very last; but it is not certain that tho lessons and benefits can continue without a check unless the whole community realises that the improvement of the Show Grounds is an urgent job, and a costly job, and that the responsibility for it rcst3 on tho city almost as hoavily as on the country.