The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE MONDAY, JUNE 17, 1918. THE A. AND P. SHOW.

Taihape Daily Times, 17 June 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

MONDAY, JUNE 17, 1918. THE A. AND P. SHOW.

(With which is Incorporated The .Taihape Post and Walnramo News).

There is a decided falling off in entries for the Agricultural and Pastoral Show, which is to take place in the Town Hall on the 26th and 27th of the' present month. Owing to widespread grief at loss of members of so many households it was expected that home industries and classes that ladies were more directly interested in would not compare favourably with similar classes in previous yeaTS. Then there is a falling off in the poultry industry right throughout New Zealand owing to the high price of poultry food. With wheat at nine shillings a bushel it is impossible to conduct poultry farms at a profit, and if we are to have poultry farms in the future men will have to know how to grow grain crops as well as to be experts in poultry. There is one other alternative, and that is, that, as the cost of poultry food has doubled, and as laboui, and all poultry appliances have ine eased to impossible prices, the charge per egg should be raised to sixpence,' and the table bird to five shillings Those poultrymen who are not going out of the business entirely are reducing their stocks so that they cannot longer be regarded as utility poultrymen, but mere fanciers. Here we have another instance of high prices in one industry completely strangling another industry, for were the poultrymen to raise the egg price to sixpence there -would be little demand for eggs. The Taihape Show is not singular in suffering from fewer entries than hitherto, indeed, its falling off is nothing to be compared with the falling off in some other Shows. This effect of the high price of poultry feed should, however, be brought under the notice of the Government and the Efficiency Board, as it is not. yet too late to avoid an egg and poultry famine. As thousands of men return to New Zealand with broken health and depleted strength the demand *f or eggs will increase enormously/and this will arise when eggs will be unobtainable. The

poultry stocks will have become so small that birds will be unprocurable except at fabulous prices, yet the Government will, in their usual wisdom, probably grunt "Nitchevo" and trust to chance. The Government is aware that quite a little army of men have put then all into poultryfarming; that they have adopted that industry, encouraged by the Government so to do, • as their life's work. Are these men now being left to the deadly influence of increasing costs without a hand being stretched to save them? As we tefore stated, all poultrj- shows, even the great exhibition at Palmerston North, which takes place on Wednesday, is suffering from" a great falling-off in poultry entries despite the great efforts made by special advertising and otherwise, to keep this popular section up to what it has hitherto been. The position is that poultrymen .who have not yet given up cannot afford the expense of travelling their stock to shows, and the Taihape Show, as well as all others, will reflect the severe struggle that poultryment are now going through. Although Taihape is fortunate this year in not feeling the falling-off to any appreciable extent, if conditions do not change before another winter show, this year's exhibition may be the last really good one that people will have the pleasure of seeing. With respect to the Home Industries and cooking classes, we trust that our ladies will not allow these intensely interesting and important sections of a winter show to be anything less than they were in previous years. We hope that they will respond to the Committee's extension of time for making entries till tomorrow (Tuesday) evening. The Winter Show is largely a competition amongst ladies, and the public will naturally be disappointed to find that they have not honoured the occasion.- The splendid exhibits entered by ladies at previous shows have been the means of improving the cooking in thousands of households, and we trust that Taihape ladies will not overlook the everlastingly good services they are rendering their country in putting specimens of their cooking into shows. It is a mistake to regard shows as nothing more than mere competitions of one household against another. There are indeed few women who will not admit to having learned something at these shows, and that the cuisine of the household has not been improved accordingly. We do not hesitate to appeal to our lady readers to keep their 'side of this annual exhibition up, and, if possible, make it an improvement on all previous efforts. The sterner sex may view your hardiwork with seeming casualness und shyness, but do not imagine that, although their talk is as casual as" their observation appears to

be. they are not inter.sely interested, for they certainly are. Let all those who possibly can make their entries before to-morrow night.