THE LAND OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7503, 5 December 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE LAND OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE.

BY GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA. XVII.—A NEW ZEALAND KXIIIBITION. "Thank Heaven 1" sueeringly muttered false but wise old Talleyrand when, after July, 1S;;C, he had subscribed the oath of allegiance t > the Government of Louis Philippe— " Thank Heaven ! it is the thirteenth that I have taken." All things considered, there wa< perhaps something slightly consolatory in the fact that Charles Maurice de Talleyrand I'erigord, Bishop of Autun, Prince of Beneventum, was, at his time of life, and after all the things which he had seen and done, in 11 condition to thank Heaven for anything. l)r Johnson said in effect pretty much the satinof the long-suffering bookseller who published his dictionary. Hut wo should be thankful for all tilings. The crafty Talleyrand was, after a fashion, grateful that he had passed through so many revolutions, andsworn fealty to and betrayed so many dynasties, without having his head cut off; the bookseller was glad and grateful to be rid of the illustrious but embarrassing lexicographer, continually in arrear with his " copy," and as continually demanding money "on account;" and, in degree, Innjo inf'Trailo, I experience the sincerest feeling ot gratitude when I find myself at Wellington safe and sound at the Antipodes, wluh plenty of money in my pocket, with all that is dearest to me in the world by my side, and with ample leisure to contemplate and to meditate upon the achievements of art and industry as exemplified in the contents of the New Zealand Exhibition. Never mind the wind in Cook Strait. Let it bluster as much as it pleases. This, for a wonder, is the sunniest and balmiest of mornings in Wellington. Never mind the "chock-a-block" plethora at the hotels. I forget, now, that, for many hours a houseless wanderer on the To Aro flat, disdainfully repulsed by Boniface after Boniface, and ruefully recalling that famous, but inscrutably mysterious, utterance of the very first year of the Victorian epoch, " It's all very well, Mr. Ferguson, but you can't lodge here." How strangely do these unbidden memories rise, after a long lapse of years, before us ! Who was Ferguson, and where did he seek to lodge, and 011 what ground was he denied shelter ? It were now bootless, perhaps, at this distance of time, and with so many thousands of miles between Wellington, New Zealand, aud the office of Notes and Queries in Wellington-street, Strand, London, to ask who Walker was, and why, nearly 50 years ago, he was distinctly connected with a certaiu coat, some " tin,'' and the new penny post. C'l tmit ii'jit it milium, &c., i.c. I shall not descend contented to the tomb until J have solved the mysteries of Ferguson aud Walker.

" The thirteenth oath that I have taken !" Such was the vaunt of the ancient intriguer ; the reynard, the fox of troublesome times, whom Lord Dalling justly dubbed the " Politic Man." The thirteenth. I wonder how rnany industrial exhibitions I have gazed upon. ' Perhaps for a good many reasons — among them toe possibility of my not seeing any more exhibitions at the other extremity of the globe —it might be as well to begin at the end of the chapter, the New Zealand one. In many respects the panorama of the products, the ingenuity, and the enterprise of a very juvenile country, may be considered a truly remarkablo one. Although Wellington is the tloyi), of all the provincial districts of New Ken and, you must remember that it has not even y-i Attained its half centenary, having been founded by the New Zealand Company in 1840. Forty-five years ; and Wellington now comes to the front with a population, including the suburbs of the city, of some 23,000 ; and in the list of exhibitors in a catalogue numbering 874 entries is " Ah Gee," Blenheim, with an ornamental mantlepiece. I have been to Blenheim. It is the principal town in the provincial district ot .Marlborough. It is approached from the port of Pictony in Wataho Hay, at the head of Queen Charlotte's Sound, from which it is distant some IS or 1!) miles by railway ; an hour and a-half are consumed in travelling the IS or 19 miles. I'rathin lux'.c should be the motto of the New Zealand railways. Blenheim has many places of worship, branch banks, hotels — including a " Criterion"— schools, benefit societies, a literary institute, and so forth, and, by all accounts, it is a very pleasantly - situated, comely, paaceablo, and prosperous town. For the kindness and courtesy of the leading citizens I can personally vouch. Unfortunately I only saw the country round about Blenheim through a olass—that is to say, the window of a railway compartment—darkly. Th«* shades of night had completely closed i ound Blenheim when 1 entered the town. Then 1 only remember a rapid drive in some wheeled vehicle to some building hitherto to me wholly unknown ; the ascent of a steep flight of steps, and then the standpoint of a kind of peninsula of planks, with a sea of faces, brilliantly illumined by gas, stretching far away from you. Then somebody remarked that it was 10 o'clock, and that you had been two hours on that peninsula of planks. Then you shook hands with full half a scoro of worthy souls whom you never saw in your life before, and whom, in all probability, you will never see in your life again ; and then you are driven, in the dark, to the railway station ; and you caught the train for l'icton ; and ther#, always in the dark—life is so vory dark I —you stumbled on board the U.S.S. Penguin ; and by midnight you are again on the salt sea, and on your way round the head of the South Island of New Zealand to > elson, commonly known to the NewZealandera as "The Garden of Eden," which, if I mistake not, is on the eastern shore of Blind Bay. Blind Bay with a venJeanne at my time of life ; and how these old feet have stumbled over the gangways of steamers,' and have been all but tripped up by trama, and have made uncertain leaps out of buggies, and have hopped and hobbled, and lagged behind, and desperately jogged to the front, in so many lands, these many months past! 1 am sorry, nevertheless, that I did not behold Blenheim in thefair daylight. There I would have sought out Ah Gee and asked him how the deuce he came to be making ornamental mantelpieces in New Zealand at all. Surely it was not originally his vocation. There are no ornamental mantelpieces indigeneous to John Chinaman's country, lie is a subtle carver, it is true, in his own land—excellent in fashioning "chow-chows," concentric balls, and the like; he can paint and varnish to admirat'nn ; lie seeme to have a natural genius for Hi-.:, i .->■ ''"nig »ud lauudr work; he

cooks his own native dishes cleverly, aud caricatures English cooking abominably : but what call has bo, in the Southern hemisphere, to ho an upholsterer, to imitate the chairs and tables, the heavy sofas and chests of drawers of Europe '! Can it be that the competent European workman is difficult to obtain ? And again, while John Chinaman is about it, in Australasia, why does he not take to making china; the demand for orockeryware throughout Australia and New Zealand is prodigious; yet nine-tenths of tho ceramic awre in use seems to be imported from the old country. It is, at the same time, highly satisfactory to mark that in the Wellington Exhibition there are many signs of a resolution on the part of New Zealand to take serious steps in the manufacture of earthenware. Tho Auckland Brick and Tile Company Bend specimens of dry pressed plain and fancy bricks. There are bricks from Christohuroh, and chimney-pots from Wellington. The Blutf Harbour sends bricks and powder. Portland cement "of good quality aud equal to the imported artiole and from the Newton Faotory, Auckland, some very promising specimens indeed of terra cotta, ornamental pottery, fireclay, and common eartneuwaro gouds. In the very commonest of earthenware goods are latent the foundations of the tine art and of culture. There is pottery also, from Sydenham, in the province of Canterbury ; pottery of Wellington make, and from Christchurch. There are earthenware jugs made from native clay at Waipukurau, Ilawke's Bay ; while in the fine arc section of the exhibition I notice a goodly number of hand-painted and gracefully decorative plaques and vases in terra cotta and porcolain ; the artists being, in the majority of instances, ladies. This is all as it should be ; but where are the congeners of Ah On), with their willow pattern plates, their Mandarin vaßes, their bowls and pots, their dragons and monsters and chimeras dire in ceramic ware ? lias the right hand of the yellow mau forgotten its cunning ? The answer to the mind of the cosmopolitan student of civilisation is a somewhat melancholy ouo. If these magnificent colonies are to go on and prosper, it must be—according to the doctrine of those who at present hold cue reins of power—by moans of white labour alone. From the brotherhood of nations, so far as the scheme of policy extends, tho yellow man is excluded. Ho is industrious, ho is inguuioua ; ho is willing, cheerful, and docile ; but his industry, ingenuity , and docility have made him no more popular here than they have in California. Ah Gee, the exhibitor of ornamental mantlopiooes, is one of a few exceptions. Elsewhere scattered about Australia and New Zealand, far up, oven in the " back block" and the bush, you come upon equally exceptional Chinamen, capable, clever, and honest storekeepers, sometimes, and marriod to white women. But, as » rule, the Chinaman at the antipodes is abjeet, squalid, and degraded —not actively persecuted and hauled hither and thither by the pigtail, as it is his wretched lot to bo by the "hoodlums" in San Francisco ; but still an object of contempt, aversiou, and suspicion.

lii household furnituro the Wellington Exhibition is really very strong, and its ■jxuellence in this department may, in a great measure, fairly be attributed to the variety and capacity for taking liiuh polish of the indigenous woods of New Zealand, Hardware manufacturers at home would have likewise reason to be surprised at the good quality of the iron and steel exhibits. HarbeU wire, chafl'euttors, seed-thrashers,

"tree stump extractors" which might be qualified perhaps as instruments of agricultural dentistry—iron gates from Karori, scrub-cutting machines and log-jacks, improved hooks for sheep-dipping, flexible steel harrows, cooking ranges, horseshoes, hydraulic mining jets, quartz-crushing and goldsaving machines, furnaces for smelting ore, pumping engines, fireclay retorts, iron windmills, galvanised ware, saw frames, woolpresses, tire-engines, tin and japanned ware, sewing-machines, nailpullers, washingmachines, aud last, but not least, the machine exhibited by Mr. Giusippe Hernasconi, of Wellington, and which is calculated to perform seven kinds of work at the same time— namely, band-saw work, pit-saw, oval turning, drilling, circular saw, grindstone work, and lathe work—either by hand, treadle, or steam power — all attest the enterprise, ingenuity, and industry of this very young community. There are exhibits, too, of artificial teeth and limbs, picture frames, embossed glass, bookbinding, clocks, violin strings, stationery, optician's goods, and cardboard boxes. The "Triumph Totalisator or Automatic Multiplex Registering Machine," exhibited by Mr. Theodore flickson, of Auckland, I pass by with reverential awe. The late Mr. liabbage would have comprehended it, but it is beyond my ken. 1 have heard, indeed, that something of the nature of a totaliaator is used in the southern hemisphere for betting purposes ; but how the totalisator can be utilised from the point of view of giving or taking odds, 1 know no more than 1 am acquainted with the mysteries of the consultations of "Adam Bode" and "Ada Mantua," who, now that the Melbourne Cup race is imminent, are lilling ttie country pipers with advertisements ofl'ering unlimited numbers of "programmes" at lOi apiece. Whether the " consultations'' of " Adam Bade" and " Ada Mantua" are gambling lotteries of the moat impudent kind, it is not just now by business to enquire. A useful purpose may be served by wandering afresh through the Wellington .Exhibition, and taking note of the encouragingly good exhibits in harness and manufactured goods generally. Equally and saddlery, portmanteaux, belts, pursos, satisfactory— to a stranger in the land, astonishing, are the carriages and wheelwright's work. I remark phaetons, buggies, hansom cabs, dogcarts, combination buggies, bicycles, aud perambulators are here which for elegance of design and strength of build, are certainly not inferior to the products of Long Acre, Wolverhampton, or Coventry. In textile fabrics, clothing and its accessories, the exhibition is certainly worthy of attentive study. The Auckland Fibre Manufacturing Company show rope and cordage made from maniila and Russian hemp and New Zealand flax, wliioh last also furnishes capital material for matting. Then there are specimens of fibre made from the bark of the native shrub, " Coprosma linealis." A grand display of worsted yarn aud fabrics is made by the Kaiapoi Woollen Manufactory, and by the Mo3giel Woollen Factory Company of Otago. There are samples, too, from Auckland of raw silk from worms reared and fed by the exhibitor ; of lace, net, embroidery, aud trimmings ; of artificial flowers and feathers, wigs and works in hair, fleecy hosiery, corsets ami surgical belts, hats of fur, wool, rabbit,and hare skin, "miners' boots for mineral waters," ordinary boots and shoes, principally made from colonial leather, millinery, tailoring work, and native costumes. Let there not, likewise, be omitted mention of a "divided skirt," displayed on a life-sized lay figure which, could she have seen it, might have raised enthusiasm in the heart of a noble British viscounties. But I have not heard, as yet, that the divided skirt is likely to find favour among the belles of New Zealand. More practical, perhaps, are the exhibits of alimentary products : Hour made from South Canterbury wheats, pearl barley from Christchurch, pressed hops from Awahuri, seeds from Invercargdl, silage or compressed grass from Ohro, wheat starch from Wanganui, flour and milling products from Nclsou, oat« from Lime Hills and Southland ; pale malt from Grovetown, Marlborough, made wholly from New Zealand barley; potatoes from Blenheim; and bran and sharps from Timaru. Thau there are cracknell biscuits from Dunedin and bridecake galore ; from Ash burton comes cheese, and from Wellington tinned butter—the Geraldine Dairy Company of Canterbury are anxious to inform you that the value of tne tin cheeses which they exhibit is SJd a pound. The exhibits of preserved meat aud fish are naturally extremely interesting ; and I may here parenthetically mention that during tho last eight months or so, among other circumstances which have occasionally rendered life more or less of a burden to me, has been the passionate desire manifested by the authorities of 1 know not how many moat-freezing and preserving works, both in Australia aud New Zealand, that I should personally inspect their processes of preparing frozen mutton and tinned meats, generally for the home market. Thus something of the feeling infatulum reno• vara dolor comes over me when I find myself confronted in the Wellington Exhibition by the show-cases of the New Zealand Frozen Meat and Storage Company of Auckland, of the Wellington Meat Preserving and Refrigerating Company, and of the Gear Meat Preserving and Freezing Company of New Zealand, whose habitat is likewise at Wellington. The Gear Company show frozen meat, corned beef in tierces, bacon, smoked provisions, game, preserved meats, and fish and soups in tins. The Gear Company are not only the largest shippers of animal produce from Wellington, but have also an extensive retail butchering business in the city itself, The German and French Govern*

ments are largely supplied with preserved meat by this company. Large quantities of soup aud bouilli are also shipped to France and Italy for domestic consumption, and the Gear Company gained a silver medal at the Antwerp Exhibition of 1885. Hitherto all the packing has been in round oases ; but the formidable competition of the American meat preserving firms, who use pyramidal cans, has led to the employment of the last-named shapes by the Gear Company. The pyramid cans pack closely without loss of apace, and are thus obviously preferred for campaigning purposes. 1 am told that, when meat-freezing first came into practice in New Zealand, the Gear Company did what most of the other freezing companies still do—they froze stock on account of the growers; and the sheep went to London for sale on the growers' account. This system, however, proved not altogether satisfactory to the growers. Tallow fell, wool became irregular in price, and the growers flinohed at the contingency of their meat arriving in a bad condition at home, or meeting a .poor market. Thus, in the VVellington district the growers have done vory well by selling their stock directly to the company ; and, in spite of the low prices of tallow and wool, they are now getting considerably more per head of their stock than was formerly obtainable. That which is now needed to put the frozen meat trade on a secure and permanent basis is an assured market in England. Fivepence halfpenny or sixpence a pound for frozen mutton in the Central Meat Market, Smithfield, would make the New Zealand sheep-growers aud freezing companies happy. The chief difficulty with which they have to contend at present is the distribution of tho meat at home. Hitherto it has been fouud impracticable to dispense with the agency of tho meat salesmeu iu London ; and the New Zealand shippers dolefully complain that they have no security against New Zealand meat boiug sold to the home public as English meat at the exorbitant rates now ruling in the home market. As regards preserved fish, to judge from the contents of the Wellington Exhibition, New Zealand could send home mullet, smoked schnappcr, salt and fresh herrings; nor while she was about it should she have any difficulty in exporting immense quantities of oysters, frozen or preserved. A brisk doiuand at home for New Zealand fish might serve perhaps to stimulate the energy of the New Zealand fishermen, who at present scarcely seem to be the most industrious of mankind. And again the impetus given to tho fisheries might conduce to tho organisation of suitable fish markets and even of retail fishmongers'shops in the towns of New Zealand. You do certainly get much more tish in Maoriland than you do in Australia ; but, with the exception of oysters, flounders, and the called whitebait, the ordinary supply of lish is scarcely adequate to the demand.