THE EXHIBITION.

Evening Star, Issue 13014, 8 January 1907, Page 2

THE EXHIBITION.

TO THE LDIXOUi Sir.—ln connect am with tfcie numbers re-co.-uui a- having been admitted to tho Eximiitioc. and the facilities of travel which are open t£> residents of other parts of the colony, il'r Koch, an exhibitor and representative from Copenhagen, is reported to have said:. "This is the seventh exhibition 1 have attended, including that ai Dunedin in ISSO. during the last eighteen years, and I am more than ever convinced that r.o country can. make an exhibition pay its way, but avh.it it can. ;tnd should do, is to grasp the educational possibilities of a groat exhibition like the. one ave have hero, and Jo all it cam to offer facilities to foreign visitors, and particularly to its own people, ’to attend in the greatest numbers for the greatest possible 1 ngtii of time. 'there are thousands and thousands of people in the country who have never seen it at all. although living a, ithin a hundred miles or two. and these are the people whom the tlnvemment. should study at- the present moment. The present reductions in railway and steamer fares are useless. However, there is still four months to nm, and if only the problem of netting the people there from the North Cape to'the Bluff is grasped adequately and intelligently. the Exhibition may yd prove a source id lasting benefit to this young and progressive colony.” With that opinion I thoroughly agree. T:m main objects of tho Exhibition are educational. chiefly from a commercial and arpsric standpoint, and while its success may lv assured so far as visitors from the other .Monies and foreign parrs are concerned, and no doubt thousands will visit our shores to sec the great and expensive show, it is an undoubted fact that many thousands of ~n- colonists, young and old. will be debkiri' i from seeing the Exhibition unless in-.ali greater inducements are offered ni thc ui..tier'of i ail wav and steamer fares. The llme is fast slippnng away (already over two month* have gone since the Exhibition was 11. ncdl. and only a. very small percentage ....-;. v 0 f x\w population of Southland and U-a.'o have as vet seen the show. And „hrf Simply because by far the greater cumber of us do nor belong to the wealthy and cannot afford the luxury which the prerent alleged facilities for cheap travel i-c-sort to ns. Steamer fares should be ro;.n„;i io such a rum that everybody could • ”|-e advama-’o „f that means of travel if v so wished, but we cannot expect our ■i-ippin- couipanic.s to nm their steamers at i;.s-< ' These' companies are not going to 1, .'sr "micJi large profits out of the Exhibi- ; - n at present fares, hence it would be . 1 -11111 to expect them to make still further ions ; hot the reductions should be red bv the Rovernment for the pnri o of lollin'- the Exhibition, and at the ,mi. time to enable the colonists to sec v. ii.-.t is io be seen in Christchurch. Hus ...uM < arilv be dime by subsidising the I nmsitin companies. provided their fares v. 'n reduced to a nominal sum. and it voiild be nionev well s-pent. Again, with ott State-owned railways it is ntnply ah■•ii 1 to suppose that any large number of . „- p-opie cat! afford to pav the fares tit present charged. Do you bn™., sir. mat rwrr :nirtv vears ago :n A ictoria it was Hite a common thing for excursions, to bo arranged bv rail from Ballarat la city no 1 - ... - than Dunedinl to Geelong, fifty miler, • , ~f , -hilling icturn. and from Ballarat ; i Melbourne, one hundred miles, for two -■•rMiiigs and sixpence return. ~ \.., v -ir. the Rovernment are respnnsime ; At,,- for the results of the Exhibition, >■ needs verv little argument lo ;,nv unprejudiced pcison that it . -i | 'tiic Railway Department first, .- cotidlv the Exhibition authorities, who ...... leallv* the Rovemnient. to provide r,’-;.,., cheap travel from Invercargill. !'-if.-’ditt, etc., to Christchurch and return, i. ,-,-t v j. n„t an extravagant estimate to ... .pit provided cheap fares arc given by . r n Rust 50.000 people could t... t cuv.ved to the Exhibition from this I iif the eolonv before the first of April ,~1 i.' ac h person must expend money in , • .t.;,nod if the m-Unite sum of ill tier head were taken this would give a i, 'p{t to the Christchurch show, and • aid the people of Christchurch, .--v ~; . p.-.i.-.’i fat--- were ivdmed to 10s i-T'-tt and the nibsidv paid, by the Go,.,nt M-1.- sufficient to make up to the .•otuptiui.-'s mi equivalent to tne , ....to vtix-tagc retnni fate- ,’trcly, the - .ui-'.-d- <( I, nlinics would W found willing i'..’ I ;.’..or'to lb.' public .111 these terms; or, .- -ip.; ti,.g it would bo possible for the R.‘,vi rnnient to chart or :• suitable steamer n- two for the purpose of nmniug excur-~-a.::s from the Bluff. Dunedin, and Oomaru. rh* l -.dlwav fares, all "ti 1 cuiss. could be lived it 5-- Vetum with trains three times a v.ck each wav, such fare to apply from ih.-w.iii.'atid stiff ions as far as Timaru to I ! iw-church, and from Timaru and stations t~' i -'iiristciiurcit say 3s 6d. The tram fares •••, ct" litven-iri’il' ’and stations to Rove to Cciudirr.-h to be 10s.,and from Gore as f. r to Christchurch 7s 6d return. xiv ‘question is. of course, only one of i.c-nd'-. shillings, and |»nce. that it ( ,r(.i 1" nrcrsstirv for the Exhibition autho- , trh’s—i.c., the Government—to make tip ... in. Railway Department, al-o the Rov. -nincut, a jwntnn of the difference bo•wc'n tha suggested fares and the 'arcs now mitre. Unless some such srl: • “ JII *“ foregoing is tnlopted wo, shall suiely hnd • i.,1 r-.unv- thousands of onr ro'.qiiiFts who are entitled to the privilege, of visiting the Exhibition will be debarred from doing so '-o’elv because the fares now being charged are' 'prohibitive, and we axe not the only people who recognise it. as is nroved by the statements of the visitor quoted above. IVe .io not have many exhibitions m tins or any r-Scr cnlnnv \t is mariT. T<*ar? the 1..V- n , l( . wa s held in New' Zealand, and on that account, as well as because of the im-1-uRTce and magnitude of the present, one, ir is the detv of those in authority to make tbr. Wav easy for ibe majority of us to visit it. If similar concessions are given in Other parts of the colony, and equal facilities are provided, we should find a tremendous influx of visitors to the Exhibition, shntilil also probably find Teasonable croands for expecting the prospective loss mi tho Kxbflirt ion would not come to pass. Mr Donne, of the Tourist Department, also has something to say on the question of providing the means for visiting the Exhibition. but as this letter is already too Rng I will content myself by simply refemne to the fact, that he is in favor of increased facilities being offered. Apologising hi- tho length of this communication —I am, . “ E, R- Grat. January 5.