THE COLONIAL AND INDIAN EXHIBITION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7782, 30 October 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE COLONIAL AND INDIAN EXHIBITION.

[WRITTEN SPECIALLY FOR THE NEW ZEALAND ' HERALD, ] London, September 9. ( There can be no doubt whatever that the j singular popularity gained by the Indian, i Cape, Canadian, and Australian Courts has i arisen from the iaot that every effort has J been made to convey to the publio mind an ( adequate idea of the material resources and , industrial products of the various oountries ] in a practical and attractive way. This was 1 in reality the raison d'etre, the main object of ' the Exhibition, It is in all these features ' that the New Zealand Court has oonapica- , ously failed. It would be nothing short of , positive foolishness to oontend that the few gold specimens before the erection of the | trophy, the meagre collection of cereals, and the exhibits of timber conveyed even to the most ordinary observer any idea whatever of the importance and wealth of the industries that suoh emblems were intended to represent. It is in* this manner that the colony has lost an opportunity to make known its material resources, manufactures, and growing importance in a way that may never occur again, at least for & generation or two to come. With a publio debt now fast becoming a byword of reproach against the colony in England, with widespread depression on every side, and with still another loan looming above the horizon, no single effort should have been spared to place New Zealand before the world in her true colours as a portion of the great Empire endowed with varied and marvellous resources. This was a duty due from those in authority to every man, woman, and child in. the colony. There oan be no doubt whatever that every branch of industry in the country would have gained if the neoesßary energy and foresight had been displayed to carry out this objeot. As an inatanoe of this faot, it may be cited that the prominenoe given to the mining industries of Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland, and the almost fabulous display of tin, copper, and gold trophies, has naturally awakened a keen interest in their mineral resources, and al> ready several powerful syndicates have been formed for the investment of capital. The mines of Charters Towers have come well to the front in this .respect. The spirited step taken by the Queensland Government in erecting a quartz crushing mill at the Exhibition, and in obtaining tons of quartz from the colony to be crashed before the public gaze, in order to exemplify the process of gold extraction, has not been without its beneficial results in attracting publio attention to an important branoh of wealth ; aud as a proof of this the Day Dawn mine, one of the finest properties on Charters Towers, was floated on the London market a few days ago with a capital of £460,000, the whole of Which was subscribed (or in a few hours. Other mines are to follow, and it is quite likely that a large amount of oapital will be attracted to Australia in this way.* There is an abounding amount —nay, an overwhelming plethora of capital in England at this moment, and the colonies no doubt present as good fields for investment as any to be found at the present time, Queensland has throughout made an excellent show in all that relates to her gold industry, and with her trophy of the precious metal, valued at £17,600,000. and her gilt oubes showing the return of suoh goldfield, and her brilliant array of specimens, she stands next to Viotoria in auriferous attraotiveness. In this way she has, in colonial parlance, taken a tremendous "rise" out of New Zealand, whioh by every show of reason should have done her best to maintain her proud position as second only on the list of her goldproduoing oountries of the Empire. If such had been dpne, it is only reasonable to suppose that with her splendid record of £42,000,000 value of gold to back up her claims, some of the wealth now going to Queensland and other parts of Australia might have been direoted to her shores for the farther development of an industry which has done much to build up her cities, and to bring wealth and prosperity to her people. Another marked defect in the arrangement of the court has been the want of energetic attendants to point out to visitors the nature, oharaoter, and value of the exhibits. In all the principal courts European, and in many instances natives, have been specially sent home to impart information orally, and by well-written pamphlets whioh are handed about gratuitously, and whioh treat of the various products, industries, and manufactures in a clear and popular style. In the New Zealand Court nothing whatever has been done in this way to push forward a single industry, nor to dispel in an attractive and practical manner the widespread ignorance whioh exiots in the minds of the general publio in regard to the resources of the colony. There are hundreds of people who gaze every day at the kauri gum, and who pronounce it open-mouthed to be "beautiful amber," never dreaming of course that the kauri gum industry supports a large section of the industrial population of the country, and is a source of considerable revenue to the State. Beyond the silent and medioore trophy of timber, there is nothing to demonstrate to the inquiring visitor the value and vast esouroes of this branoh of industry. Again the exhibits of coal, which are placed in a most inappropriate position in the fernery, oannot possibly convey ''to the public mind even the most visionary ideas of the richness and extent either of the carboniferous deposits or of the importance and riobness of the coal mines of the colony. The small blocks of coal sent home give no idea of the stability of the mines, nor of the width and permanenoy of the seams. It is remarkable that the vast majority of people who inquire about New Zealand express surprise that coal exists in the colony at all. Recognising this important branoh of material wealth and industry, all the other colonies where deposits of coal are known to ocour to any considerable extent have made their coal display a speoial feature. New ; South Wales is well to the front in this respect, while Vancouver's Island has advertised her coalfields by plaoing before the public a huge blook of ooal of 5 tons 6cwt. ; j while in another portion of her court is a monolith of ooal out from a solid seam over 15 feet in height. It is of course striking i exhibits of this kind whioh attract attention, while they speak literally volumes to the uneducated mind of the substantial ' wealth and prospective resources of the i countries they represent. The Cape Court has acted wisely in plaoi ing before the publio in a thorough and practical way the whole process of diamond mining, polishing, and cutting. This alone has attracted and instructed tens of thousands of people, and has made widely known one of the most prosperous industries of the oolony. The Buetfontein mine, of whioh a large and complete model is exhibited in the i court—with diagrams and all the geology of ; the diamond --represents a superficial ; area of about 800,000 square feet. The mine assumes the form of a crater-like ' excavation. The "blue dirt" is quarried, and conveyed by wire tramways to drying i floors, where it is deposited and spread out. i After being left for a sonsiderable time, it is I broken by means of picks into pieoes of ' about four oubio inches, and is again left to > dry until most of the moisture iB evaporated ; ■ water is then applied, whioh results in still r further disintegration. It is then rolled ■ and harrowed until it beoomes thoroughly ) pulverised, and ready for the rotary i machines; and, after prising through i them, the final searoh for the. gems r is made. Close to the working models c of the mines are placed the polishing benches, > which are separated by a plate-glass screen from the publio; there workmen are kept

constantly catting and polishing the rough diamonds. In this way the whole process may be viewed by orowda of visitor*, who watoh it with amazing interest as the dull white crystal is transformed into a brilliant gem. In the transformation, the atone has to be oat dowo, its angles rounded, and its fifty.eight facets made. This is all done by the eye and hand. The stone i» embedded in cement at the end of a stick, which is held by the operator over a small brass box, and b> means of another diamond similarly fixed, he oats the facets by » series of hard jerks. The dust thus made is collected for the use of the polishers. When the stone is out, it is handed over to the polisher, who fixes it in a cone of Bolder, which is held in a brass oup with a short, straight handle. The mill* for polishing are worked by eleotricity. Each mill consists of a diso of polished iron, revolving at the rate of 2500 times a minute, so fast indeed that they appear perfeotly stationary. The cone of •older with the diamond in its end is placed upon the mill, and in one hour seventy-five miles of iron plate pass over the polishing surface of the gem. The diamond cuts grooves in the iron, but here the diamond dust is brought into play, a small quantity of it is placed upon the rapidly revolving mill, and getting into the grooves, it gradually cuts away the surface of the stone. On each mill there are often three or four diamonds, and when it is necessary to shift a stone, the solder is softened and the stone is placed in the desired position. In a portion of the store, workmen set the gems in jewellery of elegant design, while another compartment is set apart for its display, and here brilliants and diamonds may be seen mounted in the most artistio way, amidst a bewildering blaze of colour. A vast amount of ingenuity and forethought has been displayed by the Cape Government and the proprietors of the mines in bringing this interesting industry prominently forward, and to make everything complete, a constant sopply of " blue dirt is obtained from the Cap»» »nd natives have been specially imported bo work at the rotary machines, where the searching for the gems is daily carried on. To give some idea of the value of this industry to the colony, it may be stated that from the Buetfontein mine alone, the value of the diamonds ex- ' traoted amounted, during the years 1883 85, to £1,671,018. The diamonds of this mine are stated to be unique in character, being of very fine material and generally of good colour, yellow and off-ooloured stones being rare.

It may be remembered that in a previous letter reference was made to the gateways or portals of preposterous design, which formed the two principal entrances to the New Zealand Court. For some reason which, under the ciroamstanoes, it i» very difficult to understand, these Anglo-Chinese structures, which were erected, it must be piesumed, at the cost of the colony, have not only been ignominously defaced, but virtually effaced. It should be noted that one of the principal annexes of the Canadian Court comes right up to the boundary of the New Zealand Court, and before reaching the latter from the Exhibition side it is necessary to enter either one or both of two small annexes of the Great Dominion devoted respectively to the education departments of the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. These two courts, decorated from floor to roof with exhibits, all of whioh are most creditable to the eduoational department of Canada, rebelled, it must be inferred, at the unartistio effect of the New Zealand gateways, for they have literally covered them from base to summit with eduoational designs, and boldly striking out the name of New Zealand, erst inscribed upon them in square white letters, have substituted their own designations, surmounted by the form of an otter, the typical emblem of their country, la this way it is quite possible for a large section of the public who crowd about these shows very much like flocks of sheep, to pass beneath the singular structures leading into the New Zealand Court under the belief that they are entering either the eduoational department of Ontario or that of Qaebeo, as the case may be. As an invariable rule the inscription over the gateway refers to the place into which it i leads. Dante's words over the portals lof a certain locality, " Abandon ye all hope who enter here " did not surely apply to the world outside those portals. After this manner, in approaching the New Zealand Court from the principal or Exhibition side, the name of the colony— whioh in every instance of a like kind has been made a prominent feature in the other courts —is positively now not seen. If Canada possessed the privilege cf striking out the name of New Zealand from off the gateways, she was mean in exercising it, and if she bad not the right to do so it was clearly the duty of those in authority to have prevented anything so truly unreasonable and ludicrous. If, for example New South Wales had wiped out the name of Viotoria from her auriferous archway, and the " Land of Gold," as she proudly styles herself, even unto the big foot mats which adorn the floor of her court, had erased the name of South Australia, and the latter had hauled down the name of Queensland, there would have been a terrible revolution in the camp of the hopping kangaroo. Or if, on the other hand, the elephant of fair Ceylon had usurped the place of the fiery dragon in the Canton Court, and the dragon had gone for the Cape antelope, and the latter had " jumped the claim " of the Bengal tiger, the death-like struggle in the hunting trophy of His Highness the Maharajah of Kooch Behar would have been as nothing to it. But in the case of New Zealand the otter ie permitted to oust the kiwi, apparently inthe most deliberate way ; and meek little Miss Britannia of the Anti* podes takes all these naughty insults from her big bumptious sister "out West," evidently in the coolest fashion. The fact of the matter is, if a spark of original talent had been shewn in the getting up of the court, and if it had not been planted out with the painful stiffness of a cabbage garden, the gold monolith whioh is now placed in one of the most unfrequented portions of the Court should have formed the main portal or entrance to the New Zealand display, where tens of thousands of visitors would have passed under it in wondering admiration. It should have been flanked with trophies showing the returns from each goldfield, and the extraordinary yields of some of the prinoipal mines and with collections of specimens and cakes of retorted gold it would have formed a striking and fitting monument to the entrance of a oourt which should have been made at every cost a faithful representation of the wealth and vast resources of the colony.

Without doubt the weakest feature in connection with the general administration of the Exhibition has been the series of conferences and leotures whioh have been given in the so-called Conference Hall, whioh is in reality nothing more than a moderatelysized crush room, capable of accommodating hardly a hundred people in an exceedingly stifling atmosphere. With perhaps one or two exceptions none of the conferences can be said to have been truly representative of their character, while, to make matters worse, in many instances the titled chairman announced to preside has invariably failed to turn up. This has, in the majority of instances, resulted in the - election of a "soratoh" president, who, by a singular perversity, has in more oases been remarkable for nothing so maoh as for an inordinate ignorance of the subject upon which he was called npon to preside. In this way the meetings have usually become the mouthpiece for garrulous individuals with a " fad." The lectures, beyond one or two which have been given by men of scientific attainments, have been notoriously of the most mediocre description ; therefore, little or no good can be expected to result from this branoh of the Exhibition. The lectures, to have been of use, should have been delivered by competent individuals possessing the neoessary knowledge of each important branoh of trade and industry connected with' the colonies, and afterwards printed separately and freely circulated. In this particular New Zealand has made another irreparable mistake by withholding information concerning her trade, industries, and resources, which has been daily demanded by the public, and which she should have been fa* sighted enough to have distributed broadcast, just as Canada and the other colonies have done from the beginning. If this and many other step* whioh , a schoolboy might have suggested had been taken, a vast amount of information would have been disseminated oonoerning the colony, and a lamentable amount of ignorance dispelled. * Indeed, it the court had been made anything like a fair representation of the importance of theoolony, there can be no doubt whatever - that an incalculable degree of benefit would have resulted to every branoh of trade and industry throughout the country, and New Zealand would have. taken her. legitimate place at South Kensington as one of the most proaperous divisions of the great Empire whose material resources and combined wealth have been for the past few months a source of j wonder and admiration to the - minds of millions of observant individuals*«'j ~-££;ii ■