AGRICULTURAL EXHIBITIONS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2381, 19 November 1881, Page 3

AGRICULTURAL EXHIBITIONS.

That agricultural and pastoral exhibitions do a vast amount of good no one will gainsay. Besides gratifying tho desire of owners of good stock to display the choice animals of their flocks and herds to the gaze of the public, there should be some very practical results to compensate the associations for the vast amount of work imposed upon them in getting up the annual shows. It cannot be doubted that there is an appreciable benefit to all classes of the community from these public displays of both town and country commodities and productions. They are much more than a mere custom kept up for the sake of drawing country people into the town, as some not very liberal or enlightened individuals have been heard to say, nor yet for the sake of being in the fashion with other countries. An exhibition of stock, implements, produce and local manufactures is in most oases an excellent gauge by which to measure the results of past efforts, and also to form an opinion as to the direction in which the various industries of the country are tending. No man of observation and reflection who regularly visits our annual shows can help being sensible of the excellencies and defects which are gradually becoming more prominent. Yet it must be remembered that tho information to be gathered from the show ground is all that is necessary to form a correct opinion of the state of the agricultural and pastoral industries of tho country. One side only of the picture is seen by looking at the prize stock and implementa, to see tho other side we must observe the ordinary farm and station flocks and herds. Splendid animals are yearly exhibited in the draught horse class, but on looking at the every day animals that are driven on tho roads and worked on most of the farms, a great contrast is seen. The picked stock of the country may be annually improving, while the inferior classes of stock may not be improving at all. There is too much difference, as a rule, between the prize pen animals and the bulk of animals to be seen in the weekly saleyards. The mere fact of there being a small number of high class animals in the country will nob lend very rapidly to improve the character of the generality of stock, unless tho ordinary breeder and grazier recognises the necessity of good blood and careful selections, and is willing to pay for good blood.

Probably in no country in tho world are there so many good breeders as in Britain, and yet the reports of tho agricultural societies tend to show that in many districts the average character of the stock remains at a comparatively low standard. So slow are the farmers there to appreciate the value of improved blood that many landlords introduce good sires at their own expense, for the benefit of their tenants. The use of only the best bred sires will not keep up the class of horses throughout the country unless every breeder of horses takes especial care not to put any but suitable mares to breeding purposes. But the main thing is to get a good foal of some sort, which of course is a considerable gain, and to this end a good many mares are allowed to breed which are not capable of throwing a desirable class of foal, and so the supply of weeds is always kept up.

Agricultural shows are a great boon to the farming community, by enabling them to view at one glance all the most improved machinery and implements, and by this means the agricultural progress of the colony is materially aided. Doubtless a better display of this class of exhibits are to be seen in the Canterbury Association’s show ground than in any other in the colony. The general trial of implements is unfortunately not a certain test of an article for practical work, owing in a great measure to tho difficulty of obtaining suitable ground within a reasonable distance. The locally manufactured implements and machinery are of such excellence as to compare favorably with any imported article, and compete successfully with the work of England and America.

These associations never fail to encourage and advance in every possible way the development of New Zealand manufactures, and in this way do a vast amount of good to the whole colony. It is to be hoped that this year’s show will eclipse all previous ones in tho number and excellence of exhibits in all classes. For the last few years the bad times have no doubt militated against tho success of the shows ns far as the number of entries is concerned, but farmers are now beginning to recover from the effects of heavy martgages and high interest, and have more spirit and enterprise in bringing forward their stock and produce for exhibition. It is everyone’s duty to encourage and assist the association by entering whatever they honestly think is worthy of a place in the grounds. Many farmers will not always take the trouble to do this, because the prizes are not sufficient to compensate them for the loss of time and expense in taking exhibits to and from the show. This is a groat mistake, because the more money value of the award is nothing compared to the publicity given to the excellence of the goods or produce. If it wore not so, why do manufacturers and importers send their goods to exhibitions in all parts of the colony at a great expense ? But it is not making a legitimate use of agricultural shows to < rowl them with goods in no way connected with agriculture, simply as a means of advertising in the most effectual way.

TRADE WITH FIJI.

[Wellington “ Post.”]

We have recently made reference to the possibilities of establishing a profitable trade between Wellington and Fiji, and have reason for congratulation that such remarks have already borne good results. We are now in a position to add to the information already collated." Mr Edmonds, who arrived here from Fiji in the schooner Albatross, and who has had much varied experience in the trade of the islands, has brought with him a sample of Fijian-grown tobacco, his object being, if possible, to establish a tobacco factory in this city. The sample, in the opinion of experts, is of first-class quality, and Mr Edmonds says he is prepared to lay down in Wellington at least fifty tons during the first year, and to increase the quantity thereafter in proportion to the demand. His idea is, that for £2OOO a factory might be established on a small scale; that the work would be done under supervision of the Customs Department in a bonded factory; and that, as the unmanufactured leaf could be laid down at from 9d to Is per lb, a sufficient margin would be loft on current market rates to make the undertaking immediately profitable. The establishment of a local industry of this kind would not militate against the local culture and manufacture of New Zealand tobacco. We may hero add that the sample of Fijian tobacco will be left for inspection at the office of this paper, and that Mr Edmonds, who will remain for some little time in Wellington, will be prepared to give all further information needed.

Reverting to the subject of exports from this district to Fiji, Mr Edmonds has given us some valuable information. Ho has, after some trouble, convinced Fijian residents that they can get timber more cheaply from Wellington than from elsewhere, and it is, we understand, on his recommendation that the trial shipment of red pine, per schooner Albatross, will be made. Auckland kauri timber costs lls : Wellington totara, 6s or 7s ; and Wellington red pine, 5s per 100 ft. The freight from Auckland and Wellington is the same, namely, 5s 6d. American dressed timber costs 4s, and undressed 5s per 100 ft, and the freight 10s on the one, and 10s 6d on the other. For comparison, we may say Wellington red pine laid down in Fiji costs (plus the local duty of Is 6d), 10s 6d ; American undressed lumber, 14s ; and Auckland kauri, 16s 6d per 100 feet. But the difference in price is not the only gain in favor of timber sent from this district. Fijian (builders have found, to their cost, that kauri timber, out green from the bush, shrinks and warps under the hot climate of the islands, so that buildings quickly become out of all decent shape and durability; but that red pine stands the climate infinitely better, and that if regular supplies could be depended on, no other timber would be used. But this is not the only article for which there is, or would be, were supplies forthcoming, a constant and steady demand. The settlers prize New Zealand flour whenever they can get it. Beef in tierces, or preserved in tins, meets with profitable sale ; potatoes are at present worth £7 to £8 per ton; dairy produce of every kind is needed. The publicans there are anxious that New Zealand brewers should send down samples of beer in bulk to see if it will stand the climate, and if the experiment succeeds they would buy no other. In short, they are ready to take anything of good quality that Wellington shippers choose to send them. They have so long endured the annoyance of having to put up with the supplies of inferior goods from Sydney that, as our informant avers, they are only too anxious to open up new and more satisfactory relations. The proposal to establish a tobacoo factory here, in which Fijian leaf tobacco would be used, concurrently with the development of an export trade in timber and produce will, we think, commend itself among the business men of this city.