A FARMERS’ CLUB.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 15, 13 April 1867, Page 3

A FARMERS’ CLUB.

Some of the objects of Farmers’ Clubs in England are set forth in another column, and who will say there are not many useful objects for which Farmer’s Clubs would not prove serviceable in the Wairarapa ? We put the question to the public, and we shall await until the meeting to be held at the “ Rising Sun” Orevtown, at one o’clock, on next Wednesday, for a practical answer to it. There are certainly men to be found here as much interested in the success of pastoral and agricultural operations and pursuits as there are to be found in any other part of Mew Zealand; and we feed the fullest confidence that there are some of them at least who have as much public spirit, as much energy of purpose, and as strong a desire to advance the art of aariculture as any farmers to he found anywhere else in the Colony. Apart from the advantages to be gained by improved

breeds, improved tillage, and improved husbandry, which Farmers’ Clubs would be sure to promote, they might be made beneficial in many other respects, intellectual, political, and social. Our own idea is that each settlement should have a Fanner’s Club and reading room, and the whole should constitute themselves into an Agricultural Association; but probably it will be found to be more practicable to constitute an Association for the district, and to allow it to establish branches at Featherston, Masterton, and the Taratahi. Or the whole project may be pronounced premature, as all projects are by those who cannot see beyond the ends of their own noses, as the Wairarapa settlements were when they were just founded, as the Electric Telegraph was before the line was commenced between Masterton and Wellington, and as the Wairarapa Railway now is by John Stick-in-the-mud, and those of his class who are too blind to see a-head, and too inert to go a-head without pushing. Whether the project is or is not premature the meeting to be held on Wednesday next will afford us the means of ascertaining. On Wednesday, April 3rd, a meeting was held at the Rutland Hotel, Wanganui, when it was resolved that an Agricultural and Pastoral Association should be formed, and the annual subscriptions of members should be* 10s. 6d. A provisional committee was elected to draw up rules to be submitted to a meeting of subscribers to be held at the Rutland Hotel on the 7th May. We do not see why an Association should not be formed here, and why a committee should not be elected at the forthcoming meeting to draw up rules and submit them to a meeting of subscribers to be held on a future day. We have performed our duty in bringing this important subject under the notice of the public; wc now leave it to the aforesaid public to perform i heirs. The question whether the time has not come for the establishment of a monthly market for the Wairarapa will also have to be decided by the meeting, and, if that question is decided in the affirmative, the question as to its locality and site will have to he taken into consideration by a committee to be appointed for the purpose. It will be well therefore for all persons who feel an interest in the welfare of the district to u put in an appearance.”