The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1917. OUR AGRICULTURAL SHOWS

Taihape Daily Times, 16 October 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1917. OUR AGRICULTURAL SHOWS

(With, which is incorporated The Taihapo Post and Waimarino News).

It. has been decided by our Agricultural and Pastoral Association that the war offers no reason why the annual Agricultural and Pastoral show should not be held as usual next February. This district is so essentially a farming district that it would be difficult to see how any other decision could be arrived at, and it is rather surprising that any thought of abandoning the show during war time should have found expression. If our annual exhibition were regarded as wholly and purely entertainment there are very many forms of entertainment that, in the best Interests of this country, should be closed down before it is; even if it is classed at all as amusement it certainly should be the last in such a category, and then it would be out of place. An agricultural "and pastoral exhibition in a large agricultural and pastoral district like this is as necessary as fertilisers to land. While the demand for farm produce is strong and prices are enticing farmers should guard against anything creeping in that they might not feef immediate injury from, but which would prove something'of a calamity when markets became weaker, and much less attractive, In focussing the production of this country down so that it is well covered by our vision, and is easily grasped by our trading instincts, we find it a small business compared with similar businesses in other parts of the world. We see ships going to other lands because there are two carcases of mutton to our one to be carried away, and of better quality. We need' the annual gatherings of our producers so that they may be reminded of the importance of coming together to discuss the prospects of their industry, to compare progress and vie with each other in their efforts to attain the best, for it is the best that is going to make a mark on the markets of the world after the extraordinary war - demands leave us to sell our produce in our own way, as best we can, and at the highest figure obtainable. It is difficult, in fact, to over-estimate the value that agricultural and pastoral shows are to the industry, and one is occasionally surprised at the far-reaching effects, which were not anticipated and had not been thought of. Unfortunately, there are men amongst us who seem to think markets grow like blackberries, or rise conveniently like the

sun, without any* exertion fen part. Sueh men are in "the wrong vocation, they had no right to ever have been farmers and the sooner they get out of it the better for the industry. They are the drones whose market-food is found for them "oy the men who view farming more intelligently; they ride to success on the shoulders of their fellow producers, and have not sufficient commecial nous to realise what a clog and hindrance they are to putting production on the very best possible business footing; but all businesses arc troubled more or less by such men, who, when they find they can no longer be carried with the ruck, sell out and go to something for which they were more naturally adapted. When high prices with little work and business ability are things of the past these men growl and fume at everything but their own neglect in assisting to keep markets for prois only the best on the farm that can duce up to a gratifying buoyancy. It maintain anything like a supremacy for New Zealand produce. We know that well enough and we also know that the best, is not attainable by an occasional visit to a stock sale. We must learn from adjudications of acknowledged experts on the exhibited materialised opinions of breeders in the show pens; we must compare, perhaps compete, but at least exchange opinions at gatherings of the most enthusiastic breeders and farmers at our annual exhibitions. It is forced upon us that farming is the business backbone of our country, and that above all other businesses, it should be the subject for exercise of the business eptitude in it. Farmers arc rapidly changing from being diggers and delvers to something much more important; they have realised the danger of leaving their industry to the mercy of all sorts and conditions of men in Parliament and to such as only succour them to fleece them. Farmers are rising from business torpor to a business activity and fame that seemed almost an impossibility only thirty years ago. How has it, been accomplished, what is the transformation due to? Meetings and meetings first, then associations and associations, have put a new face and meaning to farming, and these meetings and associations arc .fast raising the producing industry to it's legitimate plane, that is at, the top of all industries.. Earoners are doing so much to bring producer and consumer together to-day as to cause one to marvel at what they have accomplished. The middleman is fast being eliminated and the profit he took is being shared by farmer and consumer. A shareholder in the New Zealand Farmers' Co-operative Association of New Zealand, whether he be farmer or ordinary workingman, can, in these days of the high costs of living, purchase his requirements no matter what they are, whether it be a steam engine, a motor ear, or a packet'of needles, a knot of tape, or a pound of sugar, at anything from seven to ten per cent, less than other people. It is a fact that associations of farmers are achieving that which Parliament and Boards of Trade have failed in. They are cutting out the middleman both ways, in buying their requirements and in selling their produce. Meetings, discussions, comparisons, and associations have brought about this economic change, and it is the realisation of this fact that is responsible for the erection of a splendid, spacious building at the seat of government where meetings of farmers from every corner of the Dominion can be held when legislation is under consideration which vitally affects them. It was the Agricultural and pastoral show gatherings from which all other meetings assemblages and associations, sprang and nothing could be more fatal now than to cut away the ladder by which farmers have climbed to greater heights. Shows are the base upon which the admired and valuable superstructure has been erected; they are the practical foundations from which have arisen more academic and abstruse considerations. It is largely at agricultural and pastoral shows that the questions arise that are to be subsequently dealt with by other and more widely representative gatherings of men in the industry. Shows are such a prolific source of improvement in the producers' highly complex business that they cannot be dispensed with. Let us make our annual show all it should be in our best interests.