THE EXHIBITION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 81, 7 April 1910, Page 7

THE EXHIBITION.

DILATORY GUARANTORS. NO GUARANTEE, NO FAIR. On 29th March, Mr. H. F. Allen, secretary of the Wellington Industrial Association, sent out about a hundred circular letters to representative citizen*, including manufacturers, merchants, and business men in general, inviting them to guarantee £10, £15, or £20 to assure the association against any loss oi\ the proposed exhibition during winter. Mr. Allen has repeatedly explained that the guarantors will stand practically no risk of incurring a lose, but this assurance has not yet stimulated many receivers of the invitations. They were urged to send in their replies before llth April, but very few had sent an answer up to to-day. Th 6 nine days have produced some guarantees, but they make only a small fraction of the hundred to whom the request was posted. Mr. Allen to-day expressed disappointment, especially at the manufacturers' lack of response, but mentioned that delay might have been caused in some cases by the fact that the proposal for a guarantee would have to be referred to the directors of such firms as limited liability companies. The association, he added, was not promoting the exhibition for its own benefit, but on behalf of local industries — for the sake of the manufacturers. He was very confident that no money would be lost in the venture, for it would bo conducted on strictly business lines, but he would not recommend the association to undertake the work unless guarantees were given. He remarked that four or five years ago, when it was proposed to have an industrial exhibition here (crowded out, eventually, by the International Exhibition), some £3000 was guaranteed in twelve hours to one gentleman who approached a few leading citizens. In the present case nothing like that sum was required by way of guarantee. Even if £500 was underwritten, he would recommend the association to push on with the project. If the letters failed to bring in a reasonable sum by Monday, the members of the association's Financial Committee would make a personal canvass.