The daily herald. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1886-1887, 1886-12-11
SATURDAY, DECEMB'R II, 1885,
THE EXHIBITIONS.

The Royal Hawaiian. Agricultural
Society has not for few years past
done much to distinguish itself as a
national institution, in the discharge of
its several functions and duties. 1t is,
however, gratifying to find that the
Society has awakened to new life and
activity, through the reviving enthusi-
asm Of some of its members who were
the handspring of its credItabe per
formances in past days. There are
few institutions for which a vigorous
state of existence should be more ear
nestly desired in this country than a
national association for the promotion
of the development Of the seifs re-
sources. Exhibitions Of art, mechani-
cal and agricultural productions are in
all countries recognized as potent
means of stimulating improvement and
progress in each and all of those de-
partments of human activity. There
have been carpers at industrial exhibi-
tons to hold forth that they have not
been worth, in practical benefit, all the
expense and trouble of holding them.
Yet this class Of objcctors probably
form enly small proportion Of the
great body of people who have had ex-
perience of exhibitions. These critics
have in great part founded their dis
sent on the immediate results to COM
pettors. One objection that, if
memory serves right, appeared in an
Eastern agricultural periodical, was to
the effect that people wasted their time
in tending with especial care just SO
much of their crops and their stock as
would be hoped to carry off a given
amount of premiums, to the neglect of
the great bulk Of their aggregate sea
sons productions. This might have
limited show of reason in some
places, particularly among people hav-
ing little ambition to increase the
quality and quantity of their productions
above what their ancestors achieved.
But even to have such people now and
then stimulated with the hope of tri-
umphs and trophies at a fair, SO that
they should by extraordinary exertions
produce some things better than the
regular run Of their productions, is no
small matter either in its influence up
on the exhibitors or their neighbors.
To show that horse or pumpkin can
be raised by one person to a certain
standard is to prove that the operation
may be repeated by Others. Thus an
agricultural exhibition is calculated to
stimulate a useful spirit of emulation
amongst the whole community wherein
It is held. II there is one thing that
this country stands more in need Of
than another to-day, it is to give its
inhabitants in general an idea of the
capabilities Of the soil and climate
apart from the cultivation of sugar and
rice. There is. no way probably, in
which that primarily essential lesson
can be better taught than by holding
agricultural exhibitions and stock shows.
Therefore, IN their purpose Of having
such events consummated here next
spring the Agricultural Society should
have all the sympathy, all the co-opera-
ton and all the assistance that the
public can afford. The details of prep
aration for the exhibitions are IN good
hands, but the committees are com
posed of men Of active and exacting
public and private avocations, who
would not take amiss but rather the