The Hokitika Guardian MONDAY, NOV. 14th, 1921. CARNIVAL WEEK.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 November 1921, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian MONDAY, NOV. 14th, 1921. CARNIVAL WEEK.

i Tun Canterbury Carnival week long ago i ceased to Via merely a provincial in- ’ stitution. It is now n national holiday festival to which visitors Irom all the provinces flock at this season of the vear to wnjoy the highest class exposition of the siKirt ol horse racing and | the best display of live stock and agriculturul and pastoral products to be found in flbe Dominion. This year, judging from tlie accounts that already have readied us, these two great features of carnival week oiler every reason for congratulation in which Westland as the sister province of Canterbury may join with hearty good will. It is true there was a large falling off ill the totalisator investments at Riccftrton, but this was expected in view of the financial stringency everywhere, and is to lie deplored only beenus«s it may restrict for a time this enterprise of the Canterbury Jockey Club. Tim totalisator is an indispensable adjunct to racing as we have ; t in New Zealand, hjut the volume of the gambling at a race-meeting is not necessarily a measure of the quality of

the sport, or of the enjoyment and Matislactioa of the holiday makers. The racing is the thing alter all and in this respect tie 1 visitors to Itieeartuti during Carnival Week seem to have fared extraordinarily well. In Amyllias they saw probably the greatest racehorse next to Carbine yet produced in the Dominion, in Winning Hit a Derby colt containing all the traditions that exalt stamina above speed and in Epitaph a phenomenal two year-old that proved herself a veritable Hying machine. Nor did these three brilliant performers exhaust the attractions of the meeting to the student and to the lover of tin* thoroughbred who does not depend- for his t njoyment upon the amount of money lie may win. The racing throughout was ot a very high class and showed ('antei bury in most of til,' things that matter, to be holding steadfastly to the supremacy in sport it won in the seventies and eighties of last century. As to the Show, ii was a revelation to the visitors who had come down liom the Ninth Island with the notion that Miiiuiwat.il laid supplanted Canterbury it- the head of exhibitions of this Kind, in New Zealand. The Canterbury Shot, i- as far aloud oi the Man.iwaln Slum in lie (pialit\ and range of its exhibits, with I lie exception of dairy cattle, as if i,. In years and traditions. Even in dairy cattle it made such progress this year that. Mannwatu will have to look seriously to its laurels if it. is going to retain its one distinctive feature. In sheep, beef, eat tie, draught horses and pigs. Canterbury is so fur ahead that the North Island "ill have to alter its whole system of farming to give nn v of its shows a chanee of equalling to say nothing of surpassing, the southern exhibition, and Westland naturally takes a warm interest that lias attended the efforts of the sister province in developing its enormous agricultural and pastoral resources, and it hopes that next year wjtli the Coasts of the two islands finally connected by rail, to assist in maintaining Canterbury Carnival Week as tin* greatest holiday festival of the