NEWS FROM THE PAST

WHAT I SAW AT THE SHOW

By a Visitor

When Wednesday morning broke I verily thought the show was fated. I found, from inquiry, that every year, for some years past, it has always rained at your fruit and grain exhibition. If there is any special meteorological effect in holding shows, I should strongly suggest that in any future dry season that you have you get up a show, and probably rain will follow as a matter of course. After breakfast there were signs of clearing, and about eleven I reached the grounds. I had a good inspection of all the exhibits, and I was not disappointed in what came under my observation. If your show was not so good as you expected it to be, I should like to see the one that comes up to your expectations, for I saw exhibits of grapes, fruit, and grain that would not have discredited a Sydney Exhibition – a district that is a century old. Looking at the comparative youth of your district, the exhibits were really wonderful, and as this is the first of the Downs exhibitions that I have seen, I am deeply impressed with the marvellous richness of your soil, and I echo to the fullest extent the sentiments of the Governor, that with the energy and pluck you have in your midst there is no saying to what a state of prosperity you may yet arrive. When you can grow wheat that weighs 681lbs to the bushel, such grapes as I saw from the gardens of Mr Stenner and Mr Roessler, such splendid pears and apples as were shown by Mr Mole, and those magnificent nectarines and peaches that were awarded first prizes, you may well say that you are living in a land flowing with milk and hone, and that Darling Downs is truly rich – rich in all those vast inexhaustible resources that cannot fail to lay the foundations of a prosperous settled population.

Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs General Advertise, January 30, 1877