The Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 23, 1923. THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION.

Evening Star, Issue 18334, 23 July 1923, Page 6

The Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 23, 1923. THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION.

The “scrap of paper” charge made by Mr Jonkin, president of the Canterbury Industrial Association, in regard to the change of scopo from Imperial to international, decreed for tho Dunedin Exhibition. has been answered, and it requires no further answer. The essence of the matter is that the question of the exhibition's comprehensiveness had never been authoritatively considered —it would be fair to say that it had not been considered at all—when a deputation from Dunqdin waited on tho Industrial Corporation of New Zealand five months ago. The Canterbury Industrial Association, if it feels aggrieved, is quite free to withhold its official support from the big Fair when it is held, though we hope that it will think better of that attitude. No injury has been suffered by the association, and we have no doubt that its individual members will tako full advantage of the exhibition, when it eventuates, to secure an advertisement for their productions which they could not otherwise obtain. Tho Christchurch ‘ Star ’ has warned tho Canterburybody not to make itself ridiculous, and tho excited outbursts of Mr Jenkin and propensity ho continues to show for tearing an unwarranted passion to tatters make that warning particularly relevant to its president. No one desires or is going to allow this country to be swamped with, cheap German goods because an exhibition to bo held in Dunedin may be more than Imperial in its scope. If an international exhibition, however, which it was the natural thing to hold when Christchurch hold one a few years ago, must be reckoned now as unpatriotic and improper, it is a sorry pass to have reached a f ter a five years’ war, fought by tho British Empire with great Allies. “ Open the gates as wide as possible, let tho nations of tho earth come,” tho motto suggested by a correspondent who writes to us to-day, breathes a better spirit surely for a now time. Tho thing of most importance at the present stage is not whether the exhibition is to be international or not. It is that those who have been placed in charge of tho organisation of it should make much faster progress than they have hitherto made in getting something done. When tho scheme was first suggested, six months ago, it was common to hear it said that it would bo better for it to be carried out by the citizens of Otago than by the Government, because local committees, being formed of business men who were directly interested in making tho greatest possible success of a local, project, would know how to push matters*’ ahead, avoiding tho delays which are apt to bo inseparable from Government management. They would bo loss likely to waste either time or money by their methods of handling tho big scheme. The committees have worked more slowly, however. than any Government department could have done. On July 3 their control was handed over, or presumably handed over, to tho provisional directors of tho Exhibition Company, and there is no sign yet of faster progress being made by them than was characteristic of the earlier record. Tho most urgent matter that required to bo concluded when the first provisional committee gave up control—the procuring of another dredge ter the reclamation of Lake Logan—has not advanced one step, to tho public’s knowledge, under the directors’ management; a natural conclusion might bo that it had been forgotten. If anything else has been done by them in throe weeks beyond tho disposal of a certain number of shares in the company, tho public has not been informed of it. A little of the zeal which Mr Jenkin haa been showing for destruction would bo invaluable if it were shown hero for construction by those most responsible. Judging by tho rate of progress which has been made up to this time, the exhibition would bo best fixed for 1533. General enthusiasm for the project has left no room for complaint, but it is wonderful how its promoters con tinuo to act as if they had all eternity before them. The directors must bestir themselves if it is not to bo Otago that will be mado ridiculous.