New Zealand Agriculturist. TUESDAY, JULY 8, 1879. NORTH OTAGO AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL ASSOCIATION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1003, 8 July 1879, Page 1 (Supplement)

New Zealand Agriculturist. TUESDAY, JULY 8, 1879. NORTH OTAGO AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL ASSOCIATION.

For several years past the Agricultural Association of this district has been noted for the successful and interesting character of its annual exhibitions of live stock and other agricultural productions. At every successive annual meeting of the members the Committee have had good and substantial grounds to congratulate the Association on its progressive career of usefulness and success in carrying out the objects for which it was established. No complaint of the rules by which its business has been conducted has ever been made,, and no desire for a change in the management of its shows has been expressed. The numbers of entries and exhibits have gradually increased until at last show they exceeded those of any other association in New Zealand. The popularity and attractiveness of the Oamaru Show are practically demonstrated by financial results, for unlike some other associations —despite the annualy increased liberality of the prize-list—there is no burden of debt to hamper the operations of the Committee of Management; but, on the contrary, there is a respectable amount standing to the credit of the Association. Even if the most gloomy forebodings of the croakers in the Committee respecting the success of the coming show were to be realised—to be anticipated as they say from the existing commercial depression —the reserve thus accumulated from past years would be ample to make up any deficiency that could possibly arise. Although as we have before stated there has been no complaint about the management of the shows, it is true there has been a difference of opinion in the Committee and amongst the members of the Association as to the expediency or wisdom of continuing to award cups to the largest prizetakers in the various classes of exhibits. The objection to this system has, however, been of a very indefinite and passive nature; and an objection, moreover, less to the system itself than to the vicious principle of awarding cups of fixed value irrespective of the j value and quality of the points by which the exhibitor attains the position j of taking the largest number of prizes in any one cla;s. Remove this faulty feature of the • cup system —let the Committee arrange to give cups of the exact money value of the prizes by which they are gained, and we are of that opinion not a murmur of complaint will be heard. Our admission of the blemish in the cup system as hitherto carried out cannot blind us to the fact that by its adoption at a critical period of the history of the Association is undoubtedly due a very great measure of the success of the shows of the Association. Passing from this " open question"' —for it is a question never deliberately argued and decided, although swept away by a very small minority of the Committee at its last meeting—we comet o consider a very grievous mistake committed at the same meeting. We refer to the resolution passed that instead of there being two day's there shall be only one day's show. Why such a radical change in the rules of the Association should have ever been mooted and entertained, without notice or the hint of a notice, is difficult of solution ; but

that it should be effected by a miniature coup d' etat with only the feeblest remonstrance and opposition on the part of the minority present, who knew, or ought to have known, that such a retrograde proposal is fraught with the most injurious consequences to the Association —is altogether incomprehensible. That the proposal should have come from the Hon. M. Holmes, a conservative in all his principles and actions, is another curious and mysterious feature in the transaction which we will leave our readers to account for as best they may. The reasons adduced in favor of the change were not only feeble, but were opposed to facts. It was stated by the proposer and his seconder that there was on the second day of last year's show a lack of interest, and that the proceedings on that account dragged heavily. If any fault of the kind could be raised at all —which we do not admit—it would apply more forcibly to the first, and not to the second day of the show. Setting aside the display and competition of shorthorns, the unsurpassed exhibition of draught horses, whether as regards number or quality, gave such zest and animation to the proceedings that the public manifested the keenest and most unflagging interest throughout the entire day. Strangers from all parts of the Colony unequivocally testified their appreciation of the grand show of horses which took place on the second day of last year's show. To pass such a resolution after the experience of past years is not creditable to the memory or judgment of the Committee ; but it is a departure uncalled for and opposed to the objects of the Association; uncalled for, inasmuch as no one signified his objection to a continuance of the rule until the day of the unfortunate meeting of the Committee, and detrimental to the objects aimed at, for to limit the show of such a large number of exhibits to one short day is to lessen the educational benefits of the exhibition. To take the lower view of the subject—a return to a one day's show will inevitably result in a large pecuniary loss to the Association, for it is only reasonable to suppose that a far less sum will be realised by the sale of the privileges of the gates and booth's, while the expenses will not be correspondingly reduced. On the contrary, the assertion may be confidently made that a very large outlay of money will be necessary in the erection of cattle pens, See., to carry out the show in one day with the smallest degree of convenience and order on the very limited area of the present show ground. Is it not known to every member of the Association that the show ground has been considered inadequate in size and arrangement for the proper conduct of such a show as that of the North Otago Association —even while there was not the remotest idea of going back to a one day's show 1 By what process of reasoning it is now assumed as expedient or possible to concentrate the work of two days into one. while the geometrical area of the ground remains the same, and while the same extremely faulty and deficient appliances for the display of exhibits . continue, it is impossible to conceive. We cannot entertain the thought that any one of observation or of practical experience in shows believes the ground to be large enough; and we most certainly deprecate the idea of expending any large amount of the funds of the Association in fitting up yards or sheds on a show ground that must sooner or later be abandoned for a larger and more suitable site. But after this brief reference to the evils attendant upon the proposed change, we have the consolation to know that it is not likely to come into effect, for the resolution passed by the meeting of the Committee is illegal, being opposed to the rules of the Association. The 13th rule states that the annual show shall be held on the third Thursday and following Friday of November in each year, clearly signifying that there shall be two days. No rule of the Association can be altered unless at a special meeting of the members, of which 14 days' notice must be given. It is therefore evident that the Committee exceeded their powers in overriding one of the rules of the Association —rules passed in the year 1875, and never since abrogated or changed. It may be argued by some that as the Association is now incorporated under the "Act for the Incorporation of Agricultural and other societies of a similar nature, r877," the Committee are set free from the trammels of all rules and bye-laws previously in force. This is not so, as will be seen from the following extracts, which we quote from the Act: — " Section 9. —The members of every society incorporated under this Act and their successors, at their general meetings, assembled from time to time, shall have power to alter or annul any of the bye-laws, rules, and regulations in force previously to their incorporation, and to make such other bye-laws,

rules, and regulations, or orders, as they or the majority of them present shall judge proper and necessary for the better government and direction of the society ; and afterwards to alter or annul the said rules, &c., hereinbefore recited, as well as the bye-laws, rules, &c., to be made in future, or any of them, as the members of the society so assembled, or the major part of them present at such general meeting, shall deem proper and requisite. " Section 10. All such bye-laws, rules, regulations, &c., or any of them, and every alteration thereof, shall be notified at two meetings of the General Committee of Management to be appointed as herein provided, previous to the general meeting of the society at which they are proposed to be made, declared, or altered ; and shall also be confirmed in and by the next general meeting of the society held and kept after they shall have been respectively made as aforesaid.

" Section 11. All the bye-laws, rules, regulations, and orders made as aforesaid, or in force at the time of the incorporation of the society, so far as the same are not inconsistent with the provisions of section 12, shall, until altered, be duly observed and kept, provided that the same are noways contrary to this Act." All the rules inconsistent with section 12 have been modified and altered so as to make the constitution of the association consonant with the provisions of the Act—a course which was followed at the annual meeting of the members. The alterations rendered legally necessary by incorporation refer to the appointment of the general committee and to the number of members required to form the Committee. There is not a single paragraph or clause in the Act that can by the wildest interpretation be brought forward as an argument in favor of the revolutionary course of the Committee at its last meeting. We think we have made it apparent that there is no course left to the Committee but to rescind the resolution then passed. It is an old and sound, saying, " Let well alone," and we trust there is enough of conservatism amongst the members of the Association to adhere to the rules under which the Association has prospered, and not seek after a change in the delusive hope of attaining greater prosperity by a crab-like motion of retrogression.