OUR INDUSTRIES

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 136, 10 June 1924, Page 7

OUR INDUSTRIES

GREAT DOMINION SHOW A RECORD EXHIBITION. OPENED BY THE PREMIER. FIXE DISPLAYS IN DISTRICT COURTS. "ALL THE PCX OF THE PAIR." Streams of people and A'ehicles of all kinds, laden with all manner of manufactured things. floAvcd down to the neAV Prince's pier this morning, and quickly out of chaos in the big new sheds the hive of workers produced the biggest and most extensive show AA-e have ever had in Auckland. Starting out a couple of years ago as a "Winter ShoAV," after the manner of the great annual event at Hamilton, the Auckland event at once leaped into popular favour, and for ten days last year the slioav Avas the focu3 not only of a city popularity, but of a provincial interest. When that energetic body the Auckland Industrial Association joined forces Avith the Auckland Agricultural and Pastoral Association (which originated the idea of the shoAV) a neAV character Avas lent to the event, and the showing of local industries Avas a Avonderful revelation to Aucklanders. Day and night the shoAV was thronged Avith people, and one was reminded of tlie memorable period of the 1913-14 Exhibition on the Domain. The industrial character of the show is so pronounced that the name has been changed to be more in accord, and so this year Aye have the "Dominion Industrial Exhibition." Hitherto provincial, the event is to-day Dominion in character, and as such is so much more important. AA'orkcd up by Mr. ,J. Findlay (secretary of the Industrial Association) as general manager, and with Mr. A. D. Stanley (of the A. and P. Association) as secretary, this Dominion shoAV marks very high Avatcr indeed. There has been nothing like it in Auckland before, and we may look forward to Prince's pier being the popular. rendc7.A _ ous for as long as the Harbour Board (Avhich kindly lend the sheds) can spare them. Street after street of shops has been arranged in the fine neAV sheds of the wharf, and so comprehensive is the collection of trades of industries that no one could possibly take it all in in one visit. ' AA'hilc the industrial side of the exhibition is most marked the agricultural side is by no means a mere appendage. There are fiA-e "district courts," as they are called, each showing, the produce of typical districts of this ferti'.e proA'ince of ours. Included in the courts, Avhich cov~er a much larger floor space than last year—are all the things that have made NeAV Zealand's Avealth, and also interesting collections of all sorts of manufactured things and things good to eat and look upon. Tons of cheese—big fat felloAA-s that AA-ould make any housekeeper envious— and hundredAveights of the golden butter ' upon which so much of our prosperity depends, are on show, and town people will note AA-ith no little wonder the enormous specimens of mangel-wurzles, some of AA-hich are so large as to be almost ludicrous. Also, in the agricultural line is an exhibit of 'beautifully dressed flax v so fine that it looks like pale yellow silk. School children's classes are a great feature this year, and the exhibits make a very extensive and interesting ; show in one of the upper floors. In, addition to the thousands of interesting exhibits in the trade stands, many of the stands haA-e mechanical exhibits, and there is always plenty to engage the attention wherCA-er one .Avanders. "Side-shoAvs" this year are so numerous that the flat roof of the sheds has been allotted them, and they are also scattered about betAveen the sheds. The exhibition is in reality one great fair, and as such is bound to eclipse even its wonderfully -successful predecessors.