MELBOURNE EXHIBITION.

Evening Star, Issue 7473, 17 March 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

MELBOURNE EXHIBITION.

[Fbom ovs Melbourne Correspondent.] Additional applications for space continue to be received by the secretary of the Melbourne Centennial Exhibition, and the available area has been exceeded considerably. On Friday an intimation was received from Sir Jameß Hector, president of the New Zea'and Commission, that 15,000 ft instead of 10,000 ft would be required for New Zealand, while the Premier of Tasmania telegraphed that 20,000 ft would be required for that colony in place of 3,500 ft. In consequence of these and other unexpected demands for space, the Exhibition commissioners have decided to erect another bay on the northern side of the temporary annexes to contain 50,000 ft of Bpace. At the last meeting of the Executive Commissioners the tender of the Australian Electric Light Company was accepted for lighting the buildings in the sum 0fL32,000, the commissioners supplying the motive power. The tender of Messrs Johnson and Co. for making and erecting the boilers and engines which are to supply the motive power was accepted in the sum of L 25.000. Mr Frederic Cowen, who is to act as musical conductor during the Exhibition, is willing, it is understood, to compose the cantata for the opening ceremony; but it has been decided to adhere to the original intention of accepting the best yielded by competition. The general opinion of musicians is that the lines of the prize cantata are singularly inadaptable to music, so that composers are likely to he shy of entering the contest, and it will not be surprising if a result is achieved which is not altogether satisfactory. Mr Cowen is to be requested to write an orchestral piece, and a telegram has been sent to him to at once prepare the programme for the first three months of the Exhibition, and to procure the music neces: sary for a chorus of 750 voices and an orchestra of sixty-six. The Musical Committee have received promises of assistance from the various Melbourne musical societies. An interesting portion of the Exhibition will be the armament court, which it has been decided to form. The various arms and instruments of modern warfare which were presented some months ago to the South Australian Government by the Imperial Government, and which were recently exhibited at the Adelaide Exhibition, where they attracted considerable attention, have been secured for the forthcoming Exposition, and will shoitly be sent oyer to Melbourne. The commissioners are also making exertions to form an historical collection of arms, comprising samples of small arms from those of the earliest date, and specimens of oldfashioned muskets and swprds, as well as cannon of various types, illustrating the progress of manufacture of these weapons from thp earljest days to the development of the present efficient and destructive Armstrong gun and Martini-Henry rifle. A telegram has been sent to the AgentGeneral, asking him to procure, if possible, the loan of the arms referred to from the Tower of London, the War Office, or the United Service Institute. Sir Graham Berry has also been asked to obtain a number of specimens of the uniforms and accoutrements used by the British Army during the last century, as well as of f-e complete dress of many of the leading and well-known regiments of the British and Continental armies, including the uniforms and arms of the Life Guards, the Grenadier Guards, the Lancers, etc, The Minister of Defence has been apprised of the aotion of the commissioners, and he has been asked to aid them in making the court a success by allowing several of the modern breech-loading guns mounted on disappearing carriages, which are now in the colony, to be exhibited,