The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, JANUARY 6, 1903. PALMERSTON NORTH.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 711, 6 January 1903, Page 2

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, JANUARY 6, 1903. PALMERSTON NORTH.

The town in which the bowling tournament is to be held next week is deserving of the heartiest congratulation for tko manner in which it has progressed. In an article on the subject the Wellington morning journal states • —ln the Manawatu city it seems to bo well understood that Heaven helps those who help' themselves. Strangers unaware of the fact, on reaching the agricultural ground during the famous West Coast Show, t are shown it quite overpoweringly. Much has been dono by Palmerstonians to deserve their reputation, but tho progress of this great annual function of the Agricultural and Pastoral Association stands at the top of their record for enterprising spirit, and practical, united resourcefulness. Fifteen years ago who thought anything of tho Palmerston North show ? Men spoke then of the Christchurch fixture as the only one that counted, and few thought that its attendances of between 20,000 and 25,000 would be approached by any New Zealand rival. But the show in tho northern plain was not founded for nothing by men who hewed a site for it out of the forest. The fact is typical of the difference in tho progressive history of the two islands of this country, and the world now knows that tho community which has to rely on the axe manages, however far behind it may be at first, to eventually pass the community which began the agricultural race with the unhindered plough. That is why the Premier refused to be awed by the statement made to him at the Dublin horse show tho other day that there wero actually 20,000 people thcro present —an attendance, his informants thought, not to be expected in any

part of this country. Mr Seddon politely replied that at Palmorston the attendance in 1901 was 23,000, while at Christchurch the same year it had reached 30,000. That is the measure of the presont difference between the two great agricultural functions of New Zealand, which a few years ago could not be compared together at all. The difference is in this respect striking—that whereas the agricultural and pastoral exports of the north are greater than those of the south, and whereas the populations of the two islands have been equalised, tho agricultural show—the annual stock-taking, »» it-wero—or the south is still greater than that of the north. This has evidently sttuck the

enterprising and resourceful mind of the north. Hence the agitation of which the deputation to the local Chamber of Commerce was the first public and formal manifestation. Tho deputation was from the Farmers’ Union, armed with the determined desire of that body to establish a school of dairying in the centre and-heart of the Manawatu. The deputation did not find much difficulty in persuading the Chamber. In fact, the Chamber went further than the deputation, by insisting that the proposed school of dairying ought to be an

agricultural college, well-equipped, and every bit as up-to-date as'the famous college of Lincoln. They are to be greatly commended for seeing things thus.

Without emulation there is no progress, Tho demand is eminently fair, for the great northern agricultural centre is entitled to tho facilities which have done so much for the south. In the second placethe outlay of public money on the proposed college is sure to be more profitable than expenditure in any other direetion, if properly watched over. All doubt on that score can be removed by giving the northern people a voice in the managers To a district so resourceful, determined tmq ™tcd, °. Ue , Can - h .°- P IS suggest a local conti'nufd? 11 *° uc **~ . the basis of a State gram,