The Daily News WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28. THE TARANAKI SHOW.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81895, 28 November 1906, Page 2

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28. THE TARANAKI SHOW.

To-DAV is the opeiinig day of the , laranaki Snow. Aiany people are , unaware of the very narrow escape of t'-e Society from total extinction a luw years ago, and the piesent seems a fitting time i-jt a short retrospect. The Society was instituted 111 1572, and was an alternally increasing unci uccreasiug quantity for many year--, ckc me eventually supervening about '067, and no snow was held lor three veaij. liicn a tonic was administwed with tinting benefit only, for inhere tlio e.reugtti of the socio,y ft. naiiciuil) and tne entries and momLetship were numerically sUong, tne 1 •timers',interest fell away to within a lev. points ut zero. The 1903 showwas such a wretcuod affair that criticism and castigation were mete' out wholesale, it was of no use. The annua, meeting held in February, 11)04, "as attende'd by a handful of people, most cf whom had to be laked in from the street. Nearly everyone was "down in the m..uui," and a resolution was carried unanimously to the effect tiiat unless greater interest was snown the committee would proceed to wind up the Society's affairs. The meeting was adjourned for some weeks, and in tne meantime some interest, was beaten up. . A goodly number of fanners and others set up a committee to enquire into tne best manner of imprjving the show.. Tile appointment of Air E. P. Webster as secretary can be taken as a sort of landmark in the history of the Society, for from that date the cry has been "forward," Ihe Society, wan ing members,''went out into tne highways and J>yways, as it w'ero, under the wing of captain i cuilg*. Plans for the improv. rnent of the farmers' lot were discussed, the farmers saw what tli c Society might be made to accomp ish, and decided to help. They have/ ommeneed to take a real live interest in the Society, and it has flourished. Its membership in 1904 was about a hundred, niustiy townspeople. Today there ale between four and five hundred members, of whom the majority are tillers of the soil. 'lne committee managing the affairs i the institution are enthusiastic. The entries for this year's thow, L. keeping with every other phase of t.,cSociety's existence, are a leccu. The arrangements now made for Ut accommodation of stock exhibited and fur the entertainment and amusement of the general public are 011 big: ger iines, than ever, and uerg seems naming at picsent to prevent the njoo show from proving a rccotd success. And a word to townspeople. If the success of the Society's working means as much to the farming community ; if it means increased efficiency, bigger returns, and easier working; if it means that two pounds of butter-fat will be drawn where, only one is obtained now—and this, we are assured, is the case—then it is not hard to see where the townspeople's interest in the show comes in. or difficult to see why we expect an increase of that interest. The success am! prosperity of the fanning com munity will be l'ellectcd in the busi-nc-s of the town, and this is a strong reason why the NcAv Plymouth folk

should attend in latge numbers and give an energetic and up-to-date Society a good lift along the way ol progress.