The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 1908. THE ANGLO-FRENCH EXHIBITION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5, 6 January 1908, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 1908. THE ANGLO-FRENCH EXHIBITION.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that toe can <?,o.

One of the niost practical and emphatic proofs of the reality of the cordial understanding that now happily unites England and France is the proposal for an Anglo-French Exhibition, to be held in London within the current year. This suggestion was originally made by the representatives of the French Chamber of Commerce, who visited England at the end of 1905, and it has been taken up enthusiastically in both countries. A Mansion House meeting, presided over by the Duke of Argyle, put the project into working shape; and it has been heartily endorsed and encouraged by his Majesty the King and by the Foreign, Colonial, and Home Secretaries, and the Board of Trade. A site was chosen near Shepherd's Bush Station, covering 140 acres, only 25 minutes from Charing Cross, and in- close touch with all the railways. It is difficult to estimate the size that the exhibition will ultimately, assume, for the applications for space are immensely in excess of the estimates. The French Committee applied at once for one-half of the entire available space; and Canada alone wants an area of 120.000 square feet, while the French colonies claim 275,000 square feet. The Executive Committee includes the Duke of Devonshire, Earls Cadogan and Jersey, Lords Alverstone and Strathcona, Sir Norman Loclcyer, Sir William White, Sir Charles Rivers and a host of other distinguished administrators and public men, and its personnel alone is a guarantee of the importance officially attached to this great undertaking. Assuredly, never since the Prince Consort inaugurated the long series of international exhibitions, over half-a-centuiy ago, has any project of the kind been started under such favourable auspices, or with such brilliant prospects of success. In all probability the Shepherd's Bush Exposition will become a very familiar sight to our readers through the medium of the illustrated Press before it closes; and in any case it is not possible now to give more than a vague general idea of its scale and arrangement. In the four acres which form an entrance to the main Exhibition grounds will be erected eight halls, eac'i 133 yards long, and 23 yards wide, in which the arts and sciences and the chenncal and food exhibits will be housed. The Congress Hall, fronting a large artificial lake, will be a prominent feature, and the Palace of Machinery presided over by the famous naval expert, Sir William White, will cover 250.000 square feet, and will be the largest erection of the kind ever seen in England. The Palace of Women's Work and the Textile Industries Hall will contain representative specimens of French goods imported into England to the value of £26,000,000 a year. The Applied Arts Halls will include an infinite variety of exhibits in gold and silver, and jewellery, clocks and bronzes, cast and wrought iron, and beaten copper and all the countless ornamental luxuries that the ingenuity and wealth of the two great countries can supply and demand. Motor cars, which are now worth at least £ 3,000,000 a year to France in the English markets, will claim a large section for themselves; there will be a Fine Art Palace which is expected to surpass anything ever attempted before at international "shows"; and there will be a Stadium, or racetrack, for the Olympian Games contests, which will accommodate at least SO,OOO people. Some of the accessories have, of course, only a commercial significance; but the profits, if any, are to be devoted entirely to public purposes. It is to be hoped that our own little country will find some way of representing itself at this great display of England's Imperial resources. The expense of such an enterprise will, of course, be enormous, but it is confidently expected that the money will yield a handsome return in the increase of trade between England and France. And, however this may be, it can hardly be doubted that the Exhibition will do much to promote the kindly feeling and mutual sympathy that have now fortunately taken the place of the jealousy and suspicion that for so many centuries kept England and France alienated and estranged.