Farming leaders and exhibition organisers are up in arms about the Cornwall Park Trust Board move to deny use of the premises for the traditional events. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The cancellation of the Easter Show in Auckland for the third year in a row is a threat to the survival of one of New Zealand’s oldest organisations, the Auckland Agricultural and Pastoral (A&P) Association.
It was founded under a similar name in 1843 by Auckland farmers and businessmen, including the city’s greatest philanthropist Sir John Logan Campbell.
Denied its main annual revenue-raising activity with membership involvement, the A&P may also lose its home since 1911, the Auckland Showgrounds in Greenlane West.
The owner of the land and buildings, Cornwall Park Trust Board, is reportedly going to lease the site to a film studio, having jacked up the rent considerably.
The former long-term lease holder, the Auckland Agricultural, Pastoral and Industrial Shows Board, went into liquidation last year owing creditors $4.6 million, after cancellation of major events like the Easter Show and the Home Show.
It had been advised the annual rent would rise from $750,000 to $2.3m and was in mediation.
The A&P show would have to relocate, as well as many commercial and industrial exhibitions that have used the main halls, ring, stands, vehicle parks and accessways.
The A&P Association is in good financial heart, according to one of its councillors, but does not yet have an alternative home.
Its equestrian events relocated to Clevedon some years ago and popular art and wine awards in the Greenlane halls were part of the activities suspended because of covid-19.
Farming leaders and exhibition organisers are up in arms about the Cornwall Park Trust Board move to deny use of the premises for the traditional events.
“At present, the A&P is planning its 180-year anniversary Easter Show in 2023 but we don’t know where,” past president Carl Harding said.
He thought nearby Ellerslie Racecourse could provide an alternative venue, being central for the huge urban population for which the show is a once-a-year connection with the country.
Cornwall Park Trust, a notoriously autocratic body, claims that no decision to lease out the showgrounds as a film studio has been made, but it has gone through a tender process to that end.
The trust also disputes that Sir John Logan Campbell wanted the A&P and its show to remain on the grounds in perpetuity, although that appeared to be his dying wish in 1911.
The trust’s moral position seems to be that nearby Cornwall Park was Campbell’s gift to the nation, still maintained with free access to the public and that everywhere else under its control must pay market lease rents.
Some exhibitions have been held recently and a few more are scheduled before June, when a one-year lease to former showgrounds chief executive Mark Frankham expires.
A&P Association vice-president Karen Mckechnie, an equestrian representative, said she hoped the trust board could accommodate next year’s 180-year event, including horse events.
“If you can’t stage show jumping, which most people come to watch, it is much harder to run agricultural shows and covid has demonstrated that,” Mckechnie said.
The association’s offices remain under the grandstand, along with all its records, trophies and historical photographs, until a new venue is found.
“We will start again on what may be a different event, but it is hard to motivate people and to find younger ones to take over,” she said.
The “Royal” status had been lost to one of the biggest exhibition organisers, who paid the liquidator for the naming rights.
Stud stock specialist Bruce Orr, past president of both Royal Agricultural Society and of Auckland A&P Association, said finding young and enthusiastic people was a big challenge.
“I think the covid lay-off has broken an increasingly strained connection between show associations and urban authorities like the Cornwall Park Trust,” Orr said.
Disclosure of interest: Hugh Stringleman was paid to write the book Agricultural Heritage, the history of the Auckland Agricultural & Pastoral Association, 1843-2010.
