EXHIBITION CLOSING DATE

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 146, 15 March 1940, Page 11

EXHIBITION CLOSING DATE

Possible Extension DIRECTORS MAY ALTER THEIR DECISION The question of extending the life of the Exhibition beyond Saturday, May -1, the closing date recently announced, will be considered shortly by the directors. Suggestions have been made that, if the Exhibition were continued for a further week or more, many school children would be given a further opportunity of visiting it. The feeling of those desiring the extension is that many farmers were Loo busy at Christmas to take their children to the Exhibition, and that they will come in the May term holidays if the Exhibition remains open. With the schools closing on Maj - 3 and the Exhibition the following day, it is felt that many hundreds of children, in country districts in particular, may miss seeing the Exhibition altogether. The directors have sent a circular to exhibitors asking for their views and stating that it is just possible that the directors may be prepared to reconsider the whole matter. It is understood that a majority of small exhibitors favour an extension of the closing date. Iu order to get over the school holiday question, the Exhibition authorities have requested the Education Department to advance the holidays a week, and, if this were done, the original closing date for the Exhibition would probably stand. The section of the Exhibition most vitally concerned if the closing date is altered will be the Government Court. Government departments, who are fulfilling the obligations laid on them when it was decided that the Exhibition should go on after war was declared, are now, it is understood, liudiug themselves short-staffed as a result of many of their men being .required for war services. Though it may decide to fall in with any decision of the directors, the Government Court committee will doubtless consider the cost to the taxpayer involved in keeping open a court for which there is little material return, though there is value from the educational point of view and the prestige angle. CHRISTCHURCH BOYS’ HIGH SCHOOL PARTY Half the party of 75 boys from the Christchurch Boys’ High School visited the Canterbury Court at the Exhibition yesterday morning and were entertained with films by the manager of the court, -Mr. C. H. Clibborn. Today 63 of the scholars and two masters will be given a reception in the Canterbury reception room by the host, and hostess, Mr. and Mrs. R. M. Macfarlane, mayor and mayoress of Christchurch, and Mr. Clibborn.