WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 101, 23 January 1926, Page 8

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

With an attendance at over the. million mark, the Dunedin Exhibition has still a little distance to go before it reaches the Christchurch Exhibition record of 1,967,032 visitors, but it has already well eclipsed the 870,000 attendance at the Auckland Exhibition of 1913-14. The millionth visitor at Christchurch arrived on January 26, and, as at Dunedin, was a lady, Mis® Alice Jennings, who duly received a gold watch as a memento. Miss Jennings was the first millionth visitor at any New Zealand exhibition, for the total at the Dunedin show of 1889-90 was but 618,000. The next best attendance seems to have been at the Christchurch Exhibition of 1882, when 226,000 visitors passed the turnstiles. ,

The proposal that Wellington should have the next exhibition seems to be a sound idea on the basis of turn about, eyen if it does mean looking ahead considerably. There have been over a dozen exhibitions in this country, but only two in Wellington, and of tljese only that of-1885 was of more than a local character. It would thus appear to-be Wellington’s turn next time, and as the exhibition bee always begins to buzz every few years the suggestion that an area of 130 acres at Lyall Bay should be earmarked for the next show and gradually prepared for it has a good deal to commend it if the capital city wishes to do itself proud next time as is urged by Messrs. Stuart Wilson and Nimmo, who just returned from stocktaking at the Dunedin Exhibition. .

It seems to have been the French who started off the modern industrial exhibition idea with a show in Paris in 1798, a year when one would have thought them much too busy with other exciting affairs. They had the running to themselves for about half a century with a dozen exhibitions and a big and brilliant one in 1849. Then. Britain got busy and had its great' Crystal Palace show in 1851, and ever' since then the world at large has been bitten with the exhibition fever at intervals. New Zealand’s first attack was in 1865, when Sir James Hector organised an exhibition in Dunedin. It ' seems to have been quite a creditable show, considering that the population of the country was-only 200,000 at that time. Australia- was well represented, there w’as a good Indian exhibit, the 'United States sent a display of machinery, and France, Germany, . Austria, Holland, and Canada also participated. r . ■ Canterbury, not to be outdone, , followed with a small exhibition in 1872. It had been decided to send a Canterbury provincial display to the Vienna Exhibition, and before being shipped a local exhibition was held with the exlnbit in view. Then eight years later another show restricted to New Zealand goods was held in Christchurch, and 24,000 people turned out to see it. Thus encouraged, Canterbury launched put an international exhibition in 1882, and, this, like the later one of 1906, had its' site in Haglev Park. It was- purely a private enterprise by Messrs. Joubert and Twopeny, Put was well supported by everybody, and in the- fourteen weeks it was open had 226,300 visitors.

Three: years later Wellington had its first exhibition—the “Exposition of j>ew Zealand Products, Manufactures, and Industries.” Of that turn-out there remains to-day a relic in the old tin building in Maginnity Street, with its semi-circular roof,-, and visible also from /Stout Street. This was the concert hall of the exhibition, and for long afterwards Was used as a drill-hall, and let occasionally for circuses and such-like performances. The chief promoter of this exhibition was Sir Julius Vogel, then Colonial Treasurer, and it had the distinction of being the first exhibition in New Zealand under State control—the others all being local option; so to speak. The relic remaining of Wellington’s first exhibition is not notable architecturally, and the rest of the exhibition premises seem to have been on the same lines—corrugated iron throughout. However, the, exhibition attracted 133,000 visitors in its three months of existence, and was voted a great success. ; * * * I Four years later Otago, the initiator .of exhibitions, decided to look to its laurels, and had the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, 1889-90. . This was intended to mark the jubilee of the proclamation of British sovereignty in January, 1840.- ■ This exhibition was far and away bigger than anything previously attempted. It covered 12J acres of ground, the buildings alone extending over ten acres.' After remaining open 125 days, the exhibition closed with a profit balance of £579.

Tn 1895 Canterbury held an Art and Industrial Exhibition, yielding a profit of £l7OO, and then in 1896-97 Wellington had its second flutter with an Industrial Exhibition on the site of the present Town Hall, and with a cycle track extending across Mercer Street—to meet the’ demand for - push-bicycle racing, the-craze of that period, when all Wellington spent its week-ends pedailing against the northerly breezes into the country. This exhibition was purely local- in character, but during the two months it was open yielded a profit of £7,700.

Otago followed with a Jubilee Indus--, trial Exhibition in 1898, 1 and Canterbury had its Jubilee Industrial Exhibition in 1901, finishing up with £3OOO to the good. In 1903 Mr. Seddon announced that it was time New Zealand had another international exhibition and that the Government had decided to hold one in Bagley Park, Christchurch, and a year or two later the largest building up to that time erected in the country was under construction to house the exhibits. This great show was a success in every way except financially, for it finished up with .a deficit of over £BO,OOO, which the Government made good. Auckland s Exhibition of 1913-14, if less ambitious, was more successful financially, for after running four and a half months it was closed with a profit of over £2l 000 So it seems that having an exhibition does not by any means necessarily mean losing money’.

If as rumoured, the Pope intends to visit Assisi this vear in honour of St. Francis, it will not be the first break in the tradition, established in 1870, of the Pontiff’s confining himself to the Vatican. Leo XIII, who was apt to be a law unto himself, broke the rule at least three times. On the evening of his election he went incognito to the Palazzo Falconieri, where he had previously lived, to remove some private tetters and relics. Twelve years later he drove in secret to see his brother, Cardinal Giuseppe Pecci, on his deathbed. Customer: "Have yon anv eggs that have no chickens in them?” Grocer: “Yes, ma’am; duck eggs.”