THE SYDNEY ROYAL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1107, 21 April 1911, Page 8

THE SYDNEY ROYAL.

'AN INTERESTING REVIEW.

This year's Sydney Royal Show is reported to have been the finest show ever hold in Australia. Every year the showhas been growing, but this year the exhibits number thousands more than ever. 11l 20 years tho gate receipts have increased from i£l2SO to .£ll,osl—the sum of l'JlO—and the. prize-money paid by tho Royal Agricultural Society-irom JUWJO.to When tho mail left, the showwas not concluded, but it was expectcd shat the gate receipts would bo a record. Mr. James Dunlop, of the Scotch Agricultural Commission, expressed his opinions 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. tho very largo number of, secondary and inferior animals brought to tho show. At the na-' ti'onal shows in England and Scotland only tho 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 nn expert to recognise. But here in Sydney tho difference between tho first and the last . . . must bo fairly evident to tho dullest comprehension. "The jumping here is excellent. There is nothing 1 have seen at home to equal it. You also have some'very fine trotters. Your light horses are generally very purposeful-looking. I 1 think you aro very sensible in not adopting the prancing, high-stepping style with hackneys. Your horses go along. They make go.od; you get speed. I like that. "But I can scarcely congratulate you on your type 'of draughts. In the Clydesdale section tho wiu'ners would not get a second look at Home. While I recognise we have carried tho 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 sidebone. There is.a happy medium in the draught, between the showyard 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 tho farms in Scotland. The fact of tho 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, SO years.ago. Since then there'has bebn a very-considerable-improvement ,in the size and soundness of the Scottish draught horse." Mr. Dunlop said that he was disappointed. with the -Ayrshire's shown. The Ayrshires and tho Holstcin were "not up to. much." He considered that the~.Tersey and Guernsey breeds were represented-by the best specimens.