TAWHIAO AT MELBOURNE EXHIBITION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXI, Issue 7227, 29 April 1884, Page 6

TAWHIAO AT MELBOURNE EXHIBITION.

(From the Argw, April 16.) The Maori embassy visited the Exhibition yesterday. A four-horse drag was despatched to Williamstown by Tattersall's Company for King Tawhiao and his suite, who, dressed in their best, in blue frock coats and shiny silk hats, and. wearing large bouquets in their button-holes, made quite an imposing appearance as they drove through the city. The President of the Exhibition, Mr L. L. Smith, and Mr John Woods, M.L.A., were in waiting at the porch of the Exhibition to do the honours to royalty. The King salaamed low, raised his hat with courtly grace, and shook hands warmly all round, including the doorkeeper, who was taken for another potential magnate. The machinery annexe was the first to enjoy the presence of royalty, and the doctor, acting as cicerone and lecturer, was full of zeal in his congenial fashion. King Tawhiao, with a giant stride and a blasd, languid air, stepped briskly past the wonders of European civilisation as if he was anxious to get the show over—past the different courts, like Jack the Giant Killer in his seven-leagued boots—past his retinue and interpreter—a long way past everyone but the doctor, who, trotting breathlessly in his rear, strove to keep on speaking terms with His Majesty's coat-tails, while he lucidly explained everything in an unknown tongue to his unwilling listener. The King traversed the entire building, and was coming back in the quickest exhibition time on record, with the doctor visibly distressed with his exertions, when the interpreter managed to catch up, and broke the spell. " I couldn't keep up with him," was Mr SMdmore's truthful lament in reply to the remonstrance of the doctor, who now became aware that he had been wasting his breath; but there was no time to spend in words, for the King, like Miss Killmanseg's irrepressible golden leg, was up and off again, and to try and stop him was all in vain, till he pulled up abruptly in the main building, before the first object of interest he had seen in his travels. It was a tricycle, and the King, with a fascinated gaze, gloated over it, and evidently thought the proprietors (the Melbourne Sports Dep6t) to be the people most to be envied in the world. All the ennui and indifference which he had shown in the annexe vanished in a moment. What was a steam engine compared with a tricycle ? He touched it tenderly, with his eyes all a glow with a fond eager light. "We've fetched him at last," exultantly exclaimed the doctor, who had had time to recover his breath; "we must get some one to ride this tricycle." • And when it was ridden the King's joy knew no bounds. He laughed, and crowed, and chuckled; he rubbed his hands, and followed the machine up and down the track by himself, for no one could pace a yard with him. But the culminating delight was the bicycle. When he saw this Tawhiao was quite ecstatic in his pleasure, and his teeth shone whiter and broader with every turn the rider made ; but a cloud came over him in the midst of his bliss. He was touched on the shoulder. He looked towards the door, and saw an apparition which chilled him. It was only the well-known, figure of the genial Town Clerk of Melbourne, come en regie, on hospitable thoughts intent, and to pay his respects to the distinguished visitors; but His Majesty visibly shrank from the ordeal of an official interview, as from a presentiment of evil. The Town Clerk, with the graceful self-possession which never deserts him, even in the presence of royalty, advanced with his hat deferentially raised very high above his head, and bowed very low. His dignities were made known to the King, who heard them sadly. He appeared to be afraid that he was going to be presented with an address, and melancholy settled upon him. But little re-assured by Mr Fitzgibbon's benevolent glance, His Majesty bowed gravely, and awaited the worst. The Town Clerk took the dusky monarch by the hand, but stood a respectful distance from him, as if he feared that King Tawhiao would want to seal the bonds of friendship by rubbing noses with him. Then, while the King listened with an anxious brow for Mr Fitzgibbon to declare his mission, the first words of the interview were spoken. The interpreter translated the words, and, as it gradually dawned upon His Majesty that, instead of a dreaded oration from the fluent civic representative, he was cordially invited to dine with Mr Fitzgibbon at South Yarra, the cloud rolled away until the last shadow of gloom departed from his face, and he grasped the Town Clerk's hand with so much greater warmth than before that that gentleman apprehensively stood further off than ever. By this time, the entente cordiale had been thoroughly established with all the King's retinue, and, with much vivacity, they cheerfully accepted Mr Fitzgibbon's welcome invitation for Thursday. All save one, the impassive Te Wheoro, who was impassive to the last. As usual, he was as unmoved as the finger of fate, stony and expressionless. How King Tawhiao finished his Exhibition sight-seeing is easily told. He was very eager to study everything, and showed an independent taste. He liked some things, and was disdainful about others, even if they were pointed out for his especial admiration by the President, who found that it was more than he could do to keep his protege" in leading-strings. When Mr L. L. Smith wanted him to look with veneration upon the first plough mado in Victoria, he turned aside to cast his gaze upon a statue of the female form divino, and when his kingly interest was solicited on behalf of a bronze representation of an Australian aboriginal in a state of nature, the King found far more delight in some illustrations of noble architecture. "The Virgin," from tho Spanish Inquisition, in which tho President so far immolated himself as to give a very gingerly example of its deathly ouibraco, seemed, to strike His Majesty's mind as a comical receptacle for men; and his rising mirth found vent in a sardonic chucklo, which was interpreted to mean " Serve them right," when he reached the wax figures of viragos confined in the stocks of the Fatherland. He took special interest in tho work of the inmates of tho Blind Asylum, and the present of a brush and a bouquet-holder made by these clever artisans before his eyes made him a proud man indeed. He flourished that bit of basketware all day, whether he was in the van of the great throng of sight-seers, or making a speech, or toiling to the top of the dome. Everywhere the bouquet-

holder, held aloft out of harm's way,! marked out His Majesty at any distance for those who wanted to see him, and finally, when he drove away hours after, the basketware souvenir was as carefully handed into the cab as the King's royal person. After roaming through all the courts with unflagging zest, the King and his suite accompanied the President and members of the Committee to the luncheon room. Mr L. L. Smith uncorked a bottle with tremulous haste. It was the happiest moment of his life. He was about to present a glass of Cr£me de Bouzy to royalty. "The glorious vintage of Champagne," cried the doctor, cutting the string and whipping out the cork. " Clear, sparkling wine, the pure juice of the grape/' added he, filling five glasses with the greatest rapidity, and handing one towards the King. Another moment and the unsuspecting monarch would have been ensnared; but his outstretched hand was intercepted, and the glass taken by the interpreter. " He's a Blue Eibbon man," said Mr Skidmore. The doctor's face fell as he saw that the gorgeous decoration on King Tawhiao's coat was not, as he hoped, some Maori distinction, and he did not even try to conceal his disappointment while the royal party regaled themselves on ginger ale without knowing what they escaped. " Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise."

King Tawhiao pensively drank his ginger ale, and when Mr L. L. Smith began to make overt demonstrations denoting an impending oration, the monarch grew more and more unhappy; but the doctor was relentless. If he would not take Creme de Bouzy, he would have to swallow a speech. So, disregarding all the appealing glances of the King and his court for leniency, the President, in his most portentous tone 3, began—

" Your Majesty and Chiefs, —We are in a young country like your own, and we are striving, by the encouragement of the industrial arts and the creation of natural products, to develop* the resources of Victoria, in the hope that by-and-bye we may be able to raise ourselves as producers and manufacturers to the level of the inhabitants of older countries." [And then, to the interpreter—" Tell him that, and when you've done, I'll give you some more."] The King saw that he was in for it, and tried to resign himself to his fate, but he moved impatiently on his chair. Mr L. L. Smith, as soon as the interpreter had finished, proceeded—- " The purpose we have got in view in thus fostering the productive power of the Colony is to enable it to become a great nation—great not only in its natural richness, but in the conversion of raw material into the commodities for which England has been famous. You are about to visit that country from which the majority of us have sprung, and you will have seen that we try to emulate the manufacturers whom our forefathers before us instructed, our object being to give employment to the greatest number of our people. In Victoria everyone is employed, but in England wealth and poverty go hand in hand."

The King's impatience deepened as the speaker went on, and before Mr L.L. Smith had fully descanted upon the history of the Exhibition building, and come to the peroration, in which he wished the Eoyal party God speed, Tawhiao and his friends seemed utterly dejected. Even the stolid visage of Te Wheoro looked careworn. At last it was the King's turn, and he returned good for evil to his adversary by compressing hi 3 sentiments into a general congratulation of the people of Victoria, and a personal acknowledgement of the pleasure the embassy had had in visiting the Colony, and of the kindness with which they had been received. Exeunt the visitors to the dome, on which everybody recovered their equanimity, and the city was greatly admired by Tawhiao, who said he had never seen anything like it in New Zealand. The day was wound up with a concert and exhibitions of acrobatism, and the immortal " Punch and Judy," whereat the monarch and his friends laughed heartily, and forgot the post-prandial oratory. Lastly, they were bedecked with medals commemorative of the Exhibition, and left it in a high state of good humour.