THE PLAINS DOMAIN.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4404, 21 April 1922, Page 4

THE PLAINS DOMAIN.

A DESIBABLB BESBBVB.

A AND P. ASSN.’S PROPERTY.

The County of Hauraki Plains has been -fortunate beyond , most others in respect to its agricultural and pastoral show grounds!, vested in the Hauraki Plains A. and P. Association, inasmuch as some 34% acres were set aside for show purposes by the Crown Lands Department. Added to this are 7% acres/ of ris.ing ground, secured by. the Association, and which forms a natural grandstand wherefrom to view what takes place on the “billiard-table flat’’ below. This addition will also provide a separate stock entrance to the ground.

Interviewed by a representative of the “Gazette,” one of the prominent officials of the Association (Mr P. Henry) said formalities in regard to the transfer of the property from tin Crown to the Association were about complete. It would now be necessary to drain the property, Which could be done by tile or ti-tree subsurface drains, so that there Would be no open drains to impede events taking place in the competitions. The flow would be to the Lands Department’s drain on .the southern boundary, which in turn empties into the Awaiti COMMENT. The land at present is overgrown with bullrushes—a sure indication of sourness— needing drainage, but the area is beautifully flat, and once in good order would be an ideal e place for /outdoor fixtures, There is, unfortunately, an honest: difference of opinion as to Where the Show should be held, the -progressive people of Ngatea, where the fixture has taken place hitherto, desiring, in company with others further distant from Kerepeehi, that the Show should be held permanently at Ngatea. This is a matter -which the parties concerned must settle for themselves, but it goes without saying that the people of Kerepeehi ani district are bound in self-respect to fight staunchly for the utilisation of the ground for the purpose for which it was donated.* It ia a difficult enough matter to run a Show successfully even when all are pulling together, and it will be a thousand pities if dissension continues to the detriment pf the 1923 Show. How-' ever, the position must be faced, and if there is to be a break, the sooner the better, for it would be disastrous if, when next Show time arrived, the matter in dispute was not already definitely settled onqe and for all. Two successful Shows have already been held at Ngatea, and the people thereabouts want to keep the fixture there; but the grounds are at Keropeehii, and the people of that district look on the grounds and Show as rightly belonging to that area._ It is a difficult problem, but, like all-other questions, can only he solved by' goodwill, a public-spirited attitude by all parties, and a desire to do what is deemed bes,t in the interests ofi the whole In all such matters the Hauraki Plains should be one and indivisible, for progress greatly depends upon the achievement of what the labour. union .people call "solidarity*”—undivided interests and whole-hearted co-operation