COMPARISONS IN 60 YEARS

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22936, 5 February 1940, Page 8

COMPARISONS IN 60 YEARS

CENTENNIAL AND OTHER EXHIBITIONS IMPRESSIONS OF VETERAN VISITOR Among visitors to the exhibition at Wellington last week was the. veteran, Mr D. Harris Hastings, of Dunedin, .1* aged 82. He has been connected with, --1 several previous international exhibitions in New Zealand. Mr Hastings, who has been spending two weeks in Wellington on holiday from Dunedin, has spent much of his time at the exhibition, and spent many interesting _ hours comparing present methods with those he was acquainted with in 1889-90, when he was secretary of the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition in Dunedin. This exhibition was the third of an international scale to be held in New Zealand, and it was promoted in commemoration of the jubilee of the proclamation of British sovereignty over New Zealand. The attendance at the 1889-90 exhibition, which opened on November 26, 1889, and closed on April 19 the following year, was 629,478, nearly 18,000 more than the estimated European population of the colony at that time; the largest attendance was on the closing day, when 18,434 was the total. The population of Dunedin and suburbs at that date was 45,898. Mr Hastings was keenly interested in the Christchurch International Exhibition of 1882, organised by Messrs Joubert and Twopeny, Australian exhibition promoters. His greatest interest in the Centennial Exhibition has been the engineering sections, and he found interest in many courts —from the aero engines in the Air Force display in the Government court, to the motpr exhibits and the great variety of industrial and farming machinery in the engineering and electrical court. “Considering the circumstances, he said, “there is no question that the exhibition is the best ever held in New Zealand, and I am glad to have had the opportunity of seeing it thoroughly.”