DELAY OR APATHY?

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 38, 14 August 1939, Page 10

DELAY OR APATHY?

DILATORY EXHIBITORS

A PATCHWORK IMPRESSION

WHO IS AT FAULT?

Will the Exhibition be complete for opening day? The answer, from what can be seen of space filled or space Jupon which work has begun today, is th:.t some of the courts and exhibits | will merely need the final polish to- j wards the end of November, but that | 'others will be hard put to it to do j their work with muffled hammers j while the Governor-General is making j j his speech. To contrast the Centennial j 'Exhibition with the Wellington Winter i i Shows seems a little undignified, but i everyone will remember how the ham!- --! mers rang for a day or two after their | I opening. There was little notice taken; of that, but it was not like this, a< national occasion. The tragedy of such a state of affairs on November 8, when the Exhibition will open its doors, would be the intense effort, time, and expense undertaken by the Government in its own displays and those with which it is closely associated, and also by many other exhibitors, to have impeccable exhibits ready and splendidly display-} cd. After all, an Exhibition is pri-.j marily to draw the attention of visitors;* to industrial exhibits. Judging froiVA what can be seen today, such exhibits will not be of the most striking Claris or numerically large. This does n<rt i mean, perhaps, that the manufacturea?s or agents of the goods do not interad to represent themselves adequate ;ly j both in space and by high-class < exhibits well displayed, but. unless those who have so far merely waited get) to work there will be some empty spaces on the opening day or, at the best, an unattractive muddle of haste to crttch I up. Space is, of course, still being let. It is so with every exhibition. There are always those who like to see an exhibition in the making before they ! decide whether it will be of val ac to, them as exhibitors to take spacer and there are always +hose who leave everything to the last minute. Few large exhibitions were filled and 'ready on opening day. This, howeveij, is a national shop window, on a verjy rare and important occasion, the Dorrrinion's Centennial, and it will be a reproach to the country if it is not reasonably presented to the world on opening day. NOTICEABLE BLANK Fi. Looking round, one sees tha<t so far, except for a corner which hias been used as a studio for the sculptor entrusted with the groups which will | grace important position, the;i?3 is nothing' at all in the Motor Coijrt. It is true that Canada will take 8000 feet of space there with what promises to be a huge prestige and development record superbly presented. It may? also be true that it will take little tu#ie to run in the motor-cars, raise standards, J thread them with violet rope, and have what will be one of the bipjgest of the exhibits ready in time. 'I,'his cannot apply equally to the General Exhibits Court, where so far practically nothing at all has been done. Thei :e are large reserved spaces where the flooring has not yet been laid, perhaps jfor foundations to come. It would *be reassuring to see the whole of ithe eastern wing of the Exhibition tiding filled more rapidly by exhibitor?-/ The New Zealand manufacturers' section, though there are some very ii nposing and modern stands, would look more attractive if some of the vacant spaces held at least a hint of impending activity. The import control?, restrictions j seem to the novice to have sadly' affected the engineering amd machinery I displays. The general inactivity there! is emphasised by sev>ej-al very fine i stands surrounded by large voids. It has been the fate o?f a good many exhibitors to be overlooked by the very sections of the community for whose benefit exhibitions are h eld —the industrial and commercial —a rod, in view of the very fine lead by th c Government, and of the considerable financial aid it has given, it is to 'be hoped that the Centennial Exhibiti on will not be one of these, because its total cost to the country, to exhibit ars. and to the city of Wellington, wlhich has man- •■ fully assisted in countless ways, will be j very large indeed. In many ways, as the public will realise when they see; the work and money that has gone into the Exhibition, it is unique in the painstaking way in which only tbte very best was I good enough. This is particularly so in [regard to the share of the State; indeed, there are people wPm say that the whole thing is on fan: too great a scale for a country of New Zealand's, population and resources. This will not be so if the Exhibition fulfils its object, the presentation in all its aspects of a miniature Dominion for the education of the world. If, hortvever, local manufactures make a poor showing, it will be asked what it Is, all for and why iso much money wras spent to bring people to see something that is not there. The Centennial Exhibition will be the most wonderful playground ever seen in the country, but in the audit, hard things will bje said of any class of exhibitor whidft does not pull its weight by getting Jm work immediately.