The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1883. PASTORAL AND AGRICULTURAL PRIZES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1486, 18 September 1883, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1883. PASTORAL AND AGRICULTURAL PRIZES.

Wk have heard that the annual show of the Wairarapa and East Coast Pastoral and Agricultural Society is not particularly popular with farmers, and if they have a grievance against it, the ventilation of it may do more good than harm. The ground of their objection is, as wo understand it, that the loaves and fishes of the Society go to the pastoral interests, and that very poor pickings are offered to the agricultural section of the community. A small farmer if he makes up his mind to send a horse or a cow to the show incurs an absolute outlay of one or. two pounds for expenses of travelling, entry, &c, and assuming that his animal is approved by the jndges, he gets not a small purse of money, or a gold or silver medal, but merely a paper certificate, which he regards with a certain amount of disdain. In the first place it may be said that the total amount of money distributed in prizes at each annual meeting is miserably small—say something less than is given at a second class race meeting—and in th& second it must be admitted that the lion's share of this small collection of gold and silver medals, together with a little handful of ten shilling prizes, does go to the pastoral interests. Last' year the pastoral interests swept up the principal awards in purebred cattle, in grade cattle, in fat cattle, in Merino sheep, in Cotswold sheep, in Lincoln sheep, and in fat shoep. The farmers managed to make a few points in horses and pigs, but the number of medals they carried off were few and the money prizes they obtained were nominal in amount. For the coming show fifteen gold medals and thirty-three silver medals are •ffered, and it is almost an absolute certainty that out of the fortyeight, over forty will go to the pastoral interests, and that some four or five will be the outside number won by small farmers. Those who will receive the bulk of the medals are already overstocked with similar decorations, and it may bo said that the medal business is played out in this district, and that money prizes ought, to be substituted. But while we admit that the lion's share of the prizes goes to the pastoral interest, and that the residue which comes in tho way of the small farmer

almost invites the contempt with which it is regarded, it is only right to point out that there is another uspect of the question, It is the pastoral, and not the agricultural, interests which are the main support of the Society. The small farmers of the district in yery many instances don't subscribe, to its funds and don't assist in its management, We quite agree that more substantial awards should? be put in the way of farmers and that they.should not be deterred from exhibiting by conditions of competition which are unfavorable to them, as is the case when the best prizes are given for collections of points and gravitate inevitably to the largest holders of stock. But, on the other hand, we would contend that farmers should become members of tho Society, attend its annual meeting, elect some of their number to its committee, and so secure a prize schedule which would meet their wishes. It is desirable that the Society should study the interests of farmers a little more, and that the farmers on their side should study a little more the interests of the Society.