NEARING THE MILLION.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 10, 13 January 1926, Page 12

NEARING THE MILLION.

EXHIBITION ATTENDANCE. (By Telegraph.— Press Association.) f DUNEDIN, Tuesday. l Great interest is being shown by the public in the promised presentation by the Exhibition directors of a gold watch i to the millionth visitor to pass through , the gates.' Yesterday morning, when the f ninth week of the Exhibition opened, the : grand total was 943,858, and it is _ ; expected that the first million will be j reached on Thursday. Although the outward trains have .been j taking away thousands of Christmas ( visitors, just as many thousands throng the city and the Exhibition. Railway ( returns so far have shown a steady balance on the inward side. Many yisi- ( tore, even from long distances, before leaving Dunedin went round to the Exhibition Accommodation Bureau and re-, i booked the rooms they had occupied for * a second visit. Repeat bookings for • February have, been very heavy. There has "been a marked absence of complaints to the Accommodation Bureau. Exhibits from Wembley's second year for the Army and Air Force galleries in the British Government Court have arrived, and are expected to be in place by the end of the week. CREDIT TO NEW ZEALAND. : Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) DUNEDIN, this day. • Stating that the Exhibition "was a \ credit to New Zealand in general, and to ' the people of Dunedin in particular," the ] Hon. Boyce, of Sydney, declared at a reception tendered to him at the New Zealand Government Pavilion, that the i educational value of the Exhibition, . demonstrating the growth of the Dominion in trade, population, industry, i art and science, was very great. He ] added congratulations "as an Australian/ to both Captain Smallhorn and Mr. i H. W. Mobsby, Commissioner of Queens-1 2 land, Court, on the excellent show they j had made with the somewhat limited i resources at their disposal. j . Mr. Boyce stated that what had struck j him most was that the settlement of the < country only dated from 1840—some . 85 years ago—the space of one life, | * as it were, and that from nothing, in that brief time, there had arisen large and prosperous cities, seaports had been opened' and improved, and 3000 miles of railway, with modern rolling stock, had been built, while there had been developed vast areas of agricultural country 1 with wonderful herds of cattle 1 and ■; millions of sheep. One paused before ■ one would dare to forecast what another 85 years would do.. One could only stand and marvel at the progress that had been made. Although not a commercial man, be was acquainted with a number of Australian exhibitors, and he would tell them of the good work done in Dunedin. What struck a stranger,'in New Zealand most was the extraordinary expansion in every direction.