THE EXHIBITION AT CHRISTCHURCH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6329, 1 March 1882, Page 5

THE EXHIBITION AT CHRISTCHURCH.

[BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

Chkistchukch, Tuesday. The Exhibition promoters have been taken to task for alleged niggardliness in contributing to the expenses of various committees, working on the subject of sports, &c, connected with the Exhibition. Mr. Twopeny vrt:ies a long letter to the Times, amply clearing himself from the imputation. In the course of his communication, he makes the following plain statement of what he and his partner expect to make out of the undertaking : "It is just as well that we should make°use of this opportunity to correct a now commonly received opinion that private venture Exhibitions are all cake and ale. It is by no magic that we make Exhibitions pay, where Governments have lost heavily. It would be absurd to suppose that even with all the experience we have had, we could hold an Exhibition of the magnitude of the Melbourne one in bo small a town as Christchurch, and make it pay. If we gained in Adelaide we lost in Perth ; and it might have been that exhibitors, after promising to come, would have deserted us here as they did at Perth. That fear is past, but now it is not altogether pleasant to find that the large number of exhibits has necessitated our putting up a building which will cost nearly three times as much as the one we erected at Adelaide, and £3000 beyond our original estimate, even when we are intending to give no gold medals away to anyone. Without making any allowances for interest on capital, and our own labour and expenditure, we are faced with an expenditure which, at a moderate estimate, amounts to £12,000. Granting that we sell the building for half its cost, which is more than we got in Adelaide and Perth, and deducting amounts payable for space, season tickets, privileges, etc., it will take no less than 150,000 people to pass through the gates before we pay expenses. In Adelaide, with a town having a population of 64,000, and a total population of 250.000 in the colony, we only took 195.000 shillings at the gates, and yet our success was considered to be something surprising. That we shall pay our expenses, and make some profit, I have no doubt, but that that profit will be large enough to allow lis to spend a penny where we are not strictly called upon to do so is most problematical."