1866: Northern Agricultural and Pastoral Association
December 28, 2020
By AHNZ
This day in history, 28 December, 1866, the first Rangiora A&P Show was held by the Northern Agricultural and Pastoral Association. The Association and the Show are still going today. However, the 2020 show was cancelled due to the COVID-19 Moral Panic.
“Canterbury Superintendent William Sefton Moorhouse, and several other Christchurch dignitaries arrived by way of a large, six-horse Cobb and Co. coach…including the chief Pita te Hori..who won a prize for his hand-dressed flax.”- Worthington (2016)
It was a swelteringly hot 1860s day yet 1200-1500 visitors attended the successful event. Curious to note that the Maori Chief¹ (who now has a $85,000,000 office building named after him down in Christchurch) dressed his own flax. Other sources say Maori men wouldn’t want to be caught dead doing this women’s work.
There had been other such associations and shows before this one. The Kaiapoi Island settlers formed their Mandeville Farmers’ Club and held annual events from 1860 before deciding² to expand into a wider North Canterbury association: The Northern Agricultural and Pastoral Association.
2 I have my opinions and suspicions that the settler’s more informal community was, in reality, captured by politicians. What started off as friends and family gathering became institutionalised as an organ for power and revenue. This is worthy of further research in order to establish for certain.
Image ref. An amazing and well-equiped building once housed the Northern A&P in Rangiora, Waimakariri Libraries
Ref. Rosettes and Ribbons in Rangiora: 150 Years of the Northern A&P, Philip Worthington (2016)
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