PM opens Winter Show

The opening ceremony of the Otago Winter Show took place at 2.15pm in the Brydone Hall.

A staging was erected in one corner of the hall and a very large crowd assembled round it, chiefly no doubt to hear the Prime Minister.

The Rt Hon Mr Massey, who was received with applause, thanked the association for inviting him, for the second time, to open the Winter Show. He had pleasure in complying with the request, for it always gave him pleasure to come to Dunedin. (Applause.) The show was not a mere local institution; it was a dominion institution, and ought to be supported accordingly. It was an excellent show in itself, but it seemed to him the best part of it was the people who came to see it. 

(Applause.) He knew he was talking to agriculturists and pastoralists, and he wished to say a word or two about the season. The working season, as far as the farmer was concerned, was coming to an end. Many of them had seen better seasons, but they were not complaining. So far as cereals were concerned it had not been a good year, and the statistician in Wellington had told him if would require a million sterling to be spent in oats and wheat to keep the country going in those lines until the next harvest came in. That of course could not be helped.

A Voice: We’ll get over it.

Mr Massey: Yes, we will; and the price of wool will help us to get over it.

Continuing, he said the sheep-farmers had had a good time, a particularly good time. Of course they had a bad time in the days of the slump, and the seasons they were having now would help to make up for the lean days. There were one or two things upon which he wished to congratulate the people, not only of Otago, but of the dominion. After the war the number of sheep decreased rapidly. When the war came to an end there were 26 and a half million sheep in the dominion. Then the number, unfortunately, went down to about 22 million. Last year, however, we gained 800,000 on the previous year, and this year, it was expected, we would make another gain of half a million, and he hoped we would soon get back to the 26 million mark (applause) — because without doubt, the prosperity of the country depended on its flocks and herds.

— ODT 4.6.24  (Compiled by Peter Dowden)