Auckland Show Has Seen Many Changes

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 519, 23 November 1928, Page 1

Auckland Show Has Seen Many Changes

FIRST HELD IN ’FORTIES , JORMER FESTIVALS RECALLED The Agricultural and Pastoral Association, proudly celebrating its Jubilee Show to-day, is an inheritor of a fine lineage. Auckland City was barely three years ■ >ld when enterprising citizens carrying with them the memory of shows in the Old Lands, organised the Agricultural and Horticultural Society, which held a show in the Exchange Hotel premises, Shortland Crescent. In 1848 the show idea was revived, and the next year’s show was held m a .rope works in Mechanics’ Bay. Agricultural products, stock and wheat ! especially prominently, the prize ! for wheat growing being won by an I Orakei native. | The annual ploughing match took | place on a farm at Tamaki. NEW ULSTER SOCIETY By 1850 the New Ulster Agricultural 1 and Horticultural Society was formed, | New Ulster being then the name for Auckland Province. The great attrac- ! tion was the show dinner, a motley of | flowers, fruits and vegetables from the | exhibition giving grace to the festal iboard. Owing to the growth of country j population there was an agitation to I shift the show to Otahuhu, and Mr. W. j Buckland, well-known to the farming ! community, became president. In his I presidential address he advised farmers to look to Lngland for a market for their staple exports—wool, flax and tallow. This was the first suggestions for an export trade that has since become New Zealand’s most valuable asset. By 1877 the shows were being held at Ellerslie with Dr. Logan Campbell as the president. Show dinner tickets were priced at 12s 6d, and value was forthcoming, since ‘‘dinner” commenced at 3 p.ni. and lasted until 8 p.m.; all prominent politicians speaking. AT NEWMARKET AND OTAHUHU For many years before this the shows had been held at Newmarket, and in 1858, at Otahuhu, an exhibit that drew great attention was a portable steam engine fed with coal from the Drury pic. In 1862 the name had been changed to the New Zealand Agricultural Society, and in 1877 the show was held in. the Albert Barracks, now Albert Park. At the 1881 shows a harvesting machine was a novelty. The horse Musket, exhibited at the 1883 show, was a considerable “draw.” His progeny had won the Melbourne | Cup and the Victorian Derby, i In the late “eighties” the show so- ! eiety had lapsed, but in 1890 the Manj gere Farmers’ Club revived the idea, the late Hon. W. F. Massey being president of the show committee in 1890 and the name. Auckland Agricultural ■ and Pastoral Association, that had been i adopted in 1885, was reaffirmed. i In 1892, still under Mr. Massey’s ■ guidance, the show committee moved 1 its annual fixture to Potter’s Paddock* • where it since has prospered*