The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1912.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3692, 29 November 1912, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1912.

It must have come as a groat surprise to most people to note the committee of the local A. and P. Association had abandoned the idea of holding a Winter Show next year. As will have been observed what chiefly led to the decision was a reply from the Government to the effect that it could not see its way to hear the cost of forwarding to the suggested display the State exhibit arranged for show purposes by the Department of Agriculture. What' the Prime Minister said in a wire to 31 r W. D. tS. 31acDonald on the subject was that as it would cost hundreds of pounds to comply with the request lie regretted that he could not authorise the sending of the exhibit to Gisborne. Now there can be no doubt but that such a display ns the State exhibit in itself affords would he til© big attraction at any Winter Showl" That

A Rather Hasty Decision.

being the ease does it not seem a very great pity that the Association simply abandoned the whole project instead of endeavoring to meet the Department in some way with reference to the expense that would he involved in bringing such an interesting and instructive exhibit here? As will he generally recognised the fact that the cost of transit of such a large collection of. exhibits to and from Gisborne would, bo so heavy is not the fault of tne government. , If our town were connected up with tire other railways of/the Dominion the conveyance of tlji exhibit would, of course, not be woarly so great. Then, again, the

■Government might reasonably expect ■under the circumstances that the Association would offer to bear a proportion of the outlay which would be involved in securing for a Winter Show such a fine exhibit which would go a very long way towards making the receipts equal, if not exceed, the expenditure in connection with any such exposition. It will therefore be a thousand pities if it be found that'the Association is not prepared to re-open 1 the whole matter. The suggestion to hold an annual Winter Show was a capital idea and as such no pains, one would have thought, would have been spared to see that matters in connection with the project reached a successful issue. For our own part we have no doubt but'that if further representations were made to the Government a suitable arrangement might be made under which the Agricultural Department would agree either to send some part of the fine State exhibit perhaps free of charge, or the whole of the display on condition that a fair proportion of the cost of transmission were borne by the Association. We may add that the contention that the Government may make a proposal to the Association in this regard is strengthened by the consents of a telegram from the Prime Minister himself. In a communication received yesterday Mr Massey, who, as is well-known, is Minister in charge of the Department of Agriculture, expressed sorrow at having learned that it had been decided by the Association to abandon the Show chiefly on account of the fact that the Government felt that it could hardly be expected to bear the whole of the great expense, which woidd be involved in sending the .State exhibit to Gisborne. (It may here be pointed out that the fact that no State experimental farm had been established in this portion of the Dominion had been impressed on the Prime Minister.) The position was, Mr Massey added, that when he got back to Wellington in the course of a day or two he would see the chief officials of the Agricultural Department personally on the subject. It could (he continued) be relied upon that he would have the cost of transit of the State Exhibit to and from Gisborne estimated and lie would then be glad to acquaint the Association of any proposal which the Government might consider itself in a position to make. The purport of this message was brought under the notice of the president of the A. and P. Association last night with the result, we are pleased to record, that Mr Witters stated that in the event of a favorable offer being made by the Government the members of the Committee would be notified so that a special meeting might be held to reconsider the decision to abandon the suggested Winter Show.