STILL THEY COME

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 16, 19 January 1940, Page 8

STILL THEY COME

CARNIVAL VISITORS

GOOD ATTENDANCES

The wonderful weather at present being experienced is undoubtedly a factor which tends to keep the Exhibition attendance figures at a high level. Yesterday was another good day as far as receipts were concerned, in spite of the fac). that many people went in the opposite direction towards Trentham. Today, being an off day between race days, should see many race visitors to Wellington turning their attention to the Exhibition where, even if there is io totalisator on which to lose money, there is plenty to cause them to be lost in admiration.

As is the case every day. yesterday's attendance did not reach its peak until the evening, and there is nothing like a calm summer's evening for a visit to New Zealand's centra] Centennial show. The Exhibition in many respects looks Nits best at night, when the coloured illuminations, the fountain tossing high its feathery plumes, and the pools unruffled by breezes

Yesterday's attendance Total, sixty-one days .

.16,156 1,054,391

combine to make a veritable fairyland. In the daytime there are of course the gay flower beds—just now particularly gay—to add colour to an already colourful scene, but most people seem to agree that the Exhibition looks its best at night, and it is at night that the admission turnstiles click fastest and most often. < •

By watching the people entering the Exhibition grounds it i& easy to pick out the visitors to Wellington from the residents of the city. The latter, having now become familiar with the Exhibition, enter with fixed and resolute purpose. They know what they want to see on this particular visit, and they make a bee-line for it, whether it be Play land or one particular section of the Exhibition. The visitor to Wellington, on the other hand, enters, and having entered hesitates. He or sh,e is bewildered by the vastness of the show and pauses to try and take it all in before venturing on a detailed inspection. _ Then, too. it is comparatively easy, to pick out yet a third class —the Playland habitues. They, of course, do not turn up until it is getting dark, and to them all other partsl of the Exhibition except that to which they are bound hardly exj.st. But it takes all sorts to make up an Exhibition crowd, and all sorts were there again yesterday. There was plenty for them to do and see, although no particularly outstanding events were scheduled for the day. An interested visitor yesterday was Mr. J Sutherland Ross, who was president of the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition which was held in Dunedin in 1925-26. Both he and Mrs. Ross intend to pay a more detailed visit later on after their return from Auckland. They were received by Mr. Charles Todd, deputy chairman of the Exhibition Company, and by Mr. C. P. Hainsworth, general manager, and Mrs. Hainsworth. * Mrs. Ross was president of the Women's Section at the Dunedin Exhibition, and she is a member of the loans committee of the Women's Section of the Centennial Exhibition. The loans committee, of which Lady Roberts is chairman, held a reception for hef this morning in the reception-room at the* Exhibition. The attendant figures have been so good to midday today, said the general manager, Mr. C. P. Hainsworth, that it is now certain that the £5 prize for the 1,100,000 th visitor will be given tomorrow evening. MUSIC AND MAORIS. The programme of music submitted by the Wellington Municipal Tramways! Band last night was highly appreci-! ated. The band, after the National Anthem with fanfares, played the following programme:—March, "Waldmere" (Losey); waltz, "Nights of Gladness" (Ancliffe); patriotic march, "Wings Over the Navy" (Mercer and Warren); vocalist, Sergeant Milligan; cornet solo, "'Bells of St. Mary's" (Adams); tone poem, "Finlandia" (Sibelius); xylophone solo, "Ida and Dot" (Losey), soloist, Bandsman Sundberg; novelty, "Beer Barrel Polka" (Brown); foxtrot, "Can I forget You" (Jerome Kern); bagpipe, "Scotch Airs," with band accompaniment (Alford); potpourri, "Radio Parade" (Pettit); patriotic march, "Ship Ahoy" (McKenzie); waltz, "Thoughts" (Alford); march, "Siegfried Line" (Kennedy and Carr), with vocal chorus; novelty dance number, "Boomps-a-Daisy" (Mills), vocalist, Sergeant Milligan; march, "Invercargill" x (Lithgow); xylophonist. Bandsman Sundberg, "God Defend New Zealand." The Tramways Band will be playing again this evening.

Taranaki and Wanganui Maoris gave a concert in the Maori Court last night, and their songs and hakas provided acceptable entertainment to large numbers of visitors. The Maoris will l>e entertaining again tonight and tomorrow. '

A Maori novelty tonight will be the staging in the Women's Section of an old-time Maori reception. Traditional ceremonial will be enacted and explained, and there will be talks on Maori tradition. The programme will be one of particular interest to those who wish to learn about the past of New Zealand's noble Native race.