A. & P. SHOWS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 May 1939, Page 6

A. & P. SHOWS

CONTRASTS OF A CENTURY. For the Centennial year, 1940, special preparations are being made throughout New Zealand by the A. and P. Associations to make their shows outstanding in importance and interest. In many cases they have arranged their dates to coincide with the other celebrations in . the district. Therefore, it is appropriate to consider the possibilities of pageantry in connection with those shows (states an article in the “New Zealand Centennial News”.). Farm life through the last century provides plenty of picturesque material on which to build pageantry —material full of contrasts which can be made both entertaining and instructive. A parade of farm implements, beginning with those of pioneer days, showing the progress made through the century, and finishing with the latest machines available today, immediately suggests itself. It may be that some of the early machines would be hard to find, but it should not be impossible to reconstruct some of them. The Canterbury Museum, for example, has a model of one of the original McCormick reapers which could be reproduced easily. If the idea could be carried a step further with some of the implements shown in action the contrast between the old and the new would be even more striking.

Farm transport throughout the hundred years also suggests spectacular opportunities. A pioneer familyfather, mother, ' and children —could lead the way. With them would be their packhorse laden with all their goods and chattels. Then could follo'\/ the bullock-wagon, the sledge, and the various farm carts and drays that nave played so big a part in farm transportation since Europeans came to New Zealand.

It has been suggested, too, that there are numerous early crafts and industries which might be demonstrated in a similar manner, such, for example, as hackling flax, the manufacture of roof-shingles, and pit-sawing. The various methods of churning could be demonstrated.