Pageant of Wealth

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 695, 21 June 1929, Page 8

Pageant of Wealth

Winter Show Benefits Province

FOR 11 days next month, the Auckland Province will display its industrial wealth for public analysis. The Winter Exhibition, beginning on July 3 and ending on July 13, has each year brought producing, manufacturing and consuming interests to a common platform, and its influence is expected to assist in reconciling the controversial viewpoints of rural and urban factions.

Old-time shows in New Zealand were often regarded as places where rustics met and talked about the contagion of mammitis in their milking herd, and where endless lines of school children gazed uncomprehending at huge slabs ef butter and impressive lumps of cheese. Everybody went on the merry-go-round—that was part of the show —and when the day’s allocation of family funds was exhausted, everybody went home happy. That class of show was but the halfway house along the road of evolution from the old English and Continental fair to the present-day exhibition of intense scientific and educative purpose. The lessons of the past are encompassed in examples of the present, and education is now linked band in hand with entertainment, and the result is—the Auckland Winter Exhibition. What is the winter show for? It is not a get-together social event of the old order. It is a get-togjether function of far greater magnitude and influence. IVls, in fact, the force which is doing more than anything else to reconcile the seemingly inconceivable viewpoints of town and country. ULTIMATE BENEFITS

-First and foremost, the Winter Exhibition is a grand pageant of the production of the province, and while there is nothing superficially inspiring in a bountiful display of root crops, and a bulky mass of dairy produce, the comprehensive representation throughout the whole show of the products of, the land and the manufactures they* create brings all interests to a common basis. Directly there is no financial gain;, indirectly there is Dominion-wide benefit through the accumulation of the exhibits which reveal better and more advanced methods of production and treatment; ultimately its reflex is in the added prosperity and financial stimulus of the country through the sale of higher grade produce and by the more self-reliant demeanour of industries within New Zealand itself. Originally an agricultural and pastoral show —or fair as it was termed in the Old World —was held so that goods could be paraded for direct sale to the people. The merits of the produce constituted their selling value. So it is today on a much wider scale. By

the Winter Exhibition the people are able to discern accurately what the Auckland Province is capable of producing. Figures of production are telling in a degree; but they do not remain in the memory. The thought of an attractive display at the Winter Show is retained through out the whole year, and its lesson is learned with hundredfold clarity by the observer. The fair of the past has been brought up-to-date. The work is still going on steadily and progressively. Transport improvement has brought the lone working farmer into close touch with his manufacturing friend in the city, and the Winter Exhibition is cementing this association by showing the farmer on the one hand that the secondary phases of production mean money spent and men employed, and convincing the manufacturer on the other that the production of butterfat and root crops involves more than the scattering of grain and implicit faith in the generosity of Providence. UNITY OF PURPOSE

Class prejudice representing the town and the country is tottering before this mingling of interests. Producer, manufacturer, worker, child and parent are all displayed on the common platform for public analysis. An illustration of this comes readily. A farmer in conversation with a prominent show official at Auckland this week was asked if he were going to the show to see the display of his co-farm-ers’ endeavours. His reply was surprising. “I see enough of my own stuff at home,” he said, “but I am going to see something of the manufacThis sentiment doubtless is conversely manifest, showing a readiness :on both sides for an understanding -handclasp. But there is yet a long way to go. .Rapidity of transport is bringing the 'shows to the centres, and many of the small country carnivals are falling ■from the list, showing a universal desire for centralisation. Moreover, the sade-show element, perhaps the most reluctant to react to modern requirements, is gradually ex'olving under recently constituted regulations, from ttae one-eyed woman and five-legged caflf freak stage to the genuine plane of present-day entertainment.