Ixxxvlii  (jfeneral  Meeting  of 
went  practically  out  of  one  pocket 
into  the  other.  Of  course,  the  profits 
on  football  and  any  other  use  of  the 
ground  at  the  “dead”  time  of  the 
year  would  come  in  as  payments  to 
the  Society. 
Mr.  R.  A.  Lister  said  that,  although 
he  had  been  an  exhibitor  at  the  Shows 
of  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society  for 
nearly  thirty  years,  that  was  the  first 
occasion  on  which  he  had  taken  an 
active  part  in  their  deliberations.  He 
came  there  that  day  as  one  of  those 
whom  he  thought  conduced  very 
largely  to  the  success,  such  as  it  had 
been,  of  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society 
— he  meant  the  agricultural  imple- 
ment exhibitors.  He  thought  that 
they  ought  not  to  go  away  without 
expressing  themselves  candidly.  He 
was  one  of  those  who  did  not  approach 
this  question  with  the  desire  to 
criticise  or  unduly  find  fault,  but 
rather  to  deal  with  the  question  of 
what  was  best  to  be  done  to  place 
the  Royal  Agricultural  Society  once 
more  on  a working  basis.  It  seemed 
to  him  that  there  were  two  aims  that 
they  ought  to  have  in  view  at  the 
present  moment  in  order  that  they 
might  not  be  reaching  out  in  the  far 
distance  for  something  which  did  not 
immediately  concern  them.  What 
could  they  do  to  ensure  a Show  being 
held  in  1905,  and  with  that  object  in 
view  how  far  were  they  going  to 
support  it  ? While  he  had  not 
answered  the  printed  circulars  sent 
round,  it  was  not  because  he  had 
nothing  to  contribute,  but  because  he 
wanted  to  come  up  to  the  Smithfield 
Show  and  hear  what  his  brother 
exhibitors  had  to  say.  He  would  be 
glad  to  subscribe  25/.  towards  next 
year’s  Show,  and  also  to  increase,  if 
there  was  a general  expression  of 
opinion  in  that  direction,  the  charges 
for  space  for  next  year.  With  regard 
to  the  reduction  of  the  expenses  of  the 
establishment,  he  was  not  one  of  those 
who  wanted  the  Council  to  go  on  their 
knees  and  humiliate  themselves,  and 
he  was  quite  content  to  leave  matters 
in  their  hands. 
The  alteration  of  the  Charter  was 
imperative,  because  if  the  Society  was 
to  be  really  representative  of  Agri- 
culture it  must  be  elected  in  a demo- 
cratic spirit,  and  from  the  various 
Governors  and  ^^elnhers, 
counties  that  went  to  make  up  the 
success  of  the  Society.  He  had  care- 
fully considered  the  matter  of  Park 
Royal  (and  he  had  had  a great  deal  of 
experience  of  Shows,)  and  he  was  not 
yet  convinced  that  Park  Royal  was  a 
mistake.  At  all  events,  after  the  large 
sums  of  money  that  had  been  spent  on 
it,  he  thought  it  woukl  be  absurd  to 
give  it  up  without  further  trial.  As 
an  implement  exhibitor,  he  had  taken 
some  trouble  to  find  out  the  number 
and  class  of  people  who  visited  his 
firm’s  stand  at  the  Park  Royal  Show. 
Of  course  that  was  a matter  which 
concerned  the  interests  of  the  imple- 
ment exhibitors,  but  as  the  money- 
finders  of  the  Society  he  thought  it 
quite  right  to  press  this  point.  It  was 
true  that  the  implement  exhibitors 
had  to  get  the  money  out  of  the  agri- 
culturists in  the  long  run— (laughter) 
— but  still  for  immediate  purposes  they 
were  the  jieople  who  really  found  the 
money.  It  was  an  undoubted  fact 
that  the  most  profitable  Show  that  the 
implement  exhibitors  had  was  the 
Smithfield  Show,  which  was  being  held 
that  week.  Why  was  that  ? Because 
they  could  get  the  people  together 
under  one  roof  in  what  was  practically 
the  metropolis  of  Europe. 
He  had  made  careful  inquiries  and 
found  that  the  class  of  people  who 
visited  his  stand  were  mostly  men  who 
came  with  the  intention  of  doing 
business,  and  he  believed  that  if  the 
Society  could  stick  to  Park  Royal  a 
little  longer  it  would  be  visited  by 
large  numbers  of  buyers  from  all  parts 
of  the  continent  of  Europe. 
He  did  not  think  that  the  Society 
had  ever  fully  made  use  of  the  great 
influence  it  possessed  by  having  con- 
nected with  it  the  aristocracy  of  the 
country,  the  farmers,  and  the  great 
implement  manufacturers.  They  all 
knew  that  advertising  was  a very  ex- 
pensive item,  and  was  one  of  those 
things  which  took  away  the  hard 
cash  quicker  than  anything  else.  He 
ventured  to  think  those  responsible  for 
the  advertising  of  the  Show  should 
make  use  of  every  Member  and  every 
exhibitor  by  asking  them  how  many 
circulars  they  would  distribute  in  their 
own  districts  or  counties.  It  would 
be  a sufficient  inducement  to  circulate 
these  advertisements  if  the  exhibitor 
