A SOUTHLAND SHOW.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 6, Issue 313, 14 December 1883, Page 2

A SOUTHLAND SHOW.

Now that the Show season is about over, it may not be out of place to | glance retrospectively at what has been done, with the view of improvement in the future. Now that settlement has developed and become general over the whole of Southland, every centre assumes to itself the right to have its Show, and in every case, this season at leaar, the result has justified the desire. Tapanui, Gore, Southern Ma., taura, Riverton, and Invercargill all have their local Shows, and very creditable efforts indeed they are. The number of exhibits does not materially vary in each, and each has its special excellence. Thus Tapanui this year shone in Ayrshires and dairy produce ; Gore in horses, Wyndharn in cattle, and fnvercargili in agricultural implements. Riverton appears to be retrograding, and according to the published reports does not appear to have had any pro minent feature. -Sow, to those who woulJ abolish these local $h/W3, %£& merge 'hem in one peripatetic Sliovv, we answer that they are filling pro perly their destined functions. If there be any value in a fcbow, it suffijy i R * 1; e foe ity of pompurfsoM it gives farmers and other. ' It enables them to see fche virtues and faults of other prod ws, and presumably, gives them tho opportunity of onmlatinff the one and avoiding the oth <\ That ono large show in Jieu of a L«mberof smaller ones would draw a large number of exhibits is no doutit certain, but \vhether the good tims obtained v?ould equal the sum total of that of *he present number «f small PD€>s is by no means so certain. There are many obstacles in the -way of its success, the principal being the

Southern neighbors. What we should suggest would be this : There are now five well-established societies, or, as they sometimes style themsflve3, associations, in Southland. Let them remain as they are at present, purely local ones. Let representatives froai them form a grand association and hold annual peripatetic sho#s, to lie held in rotation at the headquarters of the suhai diary bodies. Let this grand show be- held late in the season, and it would attract not only th^ cream of the exhibits from the local shows but probably many from a distance, ihe winners would have upon them tho representative stamp of excellence, and tho effect would be that Southland would soon assert its equality with, and probably its superiority to, other le.-ss productive provinces. All the towns where shows are. now held are easily accessible by ! rail, so that exhibits can bo easily eon- ! centrated. The want of a thoroughly representative Show cannot bo dia- , puted, Invercargill has long ceaßed to hold that title, and should relax the tenacity with which she clings to the tradition. Her society has been the ! only stumbling block in tho way of federation, and wo trust the suecusa of the country Shows this year will awaken her to a sense of what is best for tho whole of Southland and enable her to ignore tho few shillings annually spent in the town.