THE NEW ZEALAND HERALD AND THE MELBOURNE EXHIBITION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9137, 20 August 1888, Page 6

THE NEW ZEALAND HERALD AND THE MELBOURNE EXHIBITION.

The following are eome of the criticisms of the Southern Press on our exhibits ab Melbourne, and the telegram of the special correspondent of the Herald. ; — The Christchurch Telegraph says:—" The Melbourne correspondent of the Auckland Herald is a public benefactor to New Zealand. His telegram, which has caused such a flutter in Melbourne, illustrates, in a startling manner,, the benefit which arises from outspoken and intelligent criticism. It is only to be expected that those who are responsible for the display which New Zealand should make at the Melbourne Exhibition should deny the accuracy of the statements made by the Herald correspondent. Wβ have read with care the denials, and we must say that we come to the conclusion that there were good grounds for the remarks and for the apprehension of the corresspondent. Even our worthy Mayor, who seems to have rushed into the quarrel with more haste than discretion, says that 'every effort is now in progress to make the display thoroughly representative. . That statement certainly does not appear to be a very conclusive refutation of the correspondent's version of the affair. Nor do we think that he is very signally refuted by Sir James Hector's comment that the cry against our mineral exhibits was duo to mere speculators. We are decidedly of opinion that it is to the wealth-producing products of our country attention shoula have been paid in the first instance, and the fauna and flora might with great advantage "ive precedence to the more important products of the colony. In any case, wo have little doubt that good will come out of the present agitation, and if things are not what they should be in the New Zealand Court, we may hope that an improvement will at once take place. The protest of the Herald correspondent cannot but do much good." In a later issue, when the Herald correspondent's telegram had been amply confirmed, the Telegraph says:—"lt is a matter for very great regret indeed, that New Zealand has been left so completely in the shade by the other colonies in regard to the mineral exhibits in the Melbourne Exhibition. It was not of very much consequence, except from an artistic point, whether the fernery in the New Zealand Court was a great success or not. In fact, the interest in the colony would not have been affected either one way or the other if there was not a New Zealand fern found within the walls of the Exhibition. What was of importance, however, was that the most should have been made of the natural wealth-producing products of the colony. A fatal blunder has been made in this respect. Inferior representation, which belittles the natural resources of the colony, and destroys confidence in them, is worse than no representation." The Otago Daily Times Bays :—" The New Zealand Herald's correspondent fairly expressed the impression made upon the visitor by the present condition of the mineral exhibit, but ' there are cheese and pippins to come.' Newspaper correspondents may exaggerate, and are often inaccurate, but they have rarely any motive for telling disagreeable untruths, and common sense altogether repudiates the lofty disdain with which some Ministers and members spoke of their accounts in the House on Wednesday ; and we are sorry to notice that Sir James Hector imputes interested motives to the New Zealand Herald's correspondent which are highly improbable. It has since been placed beyond a doubt that the New Zealand Herald's correspondent at the late IndoColonial Exhibition told the truth about the failure of our court in London. He told it with some exaggeration certainly, but his main contention was correct, and the resolution of the Commissioners on that occasion that everything was satisfactory was worthless. There is no part of our Exhibition which is more important on this occasion. There seems to be every probability of a considerable investment of Australian and European capital in our mines in the next year or two, and it is very undesirable that a poor opinion should be gathered of our mineral resources from their representation in Melbourne. Nay more, it is specially desirable that this representation should be extraordinarily effective and striking."

The Wellington Post says:—" We are not at all surprised to leßrn that the New Zealand Court at the Melbourne Exhibition is more of a fanciful and scientific museum than a practical exposition of the products and resources of the colony. Similar complaints, substantiated and justified by the facts, have been made in connection with every exhibition in which the representation of New Zealand has been entrusted to Sir James Hector. He is a scientist, with artistic tastes, but he is not a practical man, and he does not care to have the general appearance and " prettiness" of his court possibly marred by exhibits which are neither in themselves particularly beautiful nor of any special scientific interest. As to his assistant, Mr. Cullis, the experience of hie management of the New Zealand Exhibition in this city was such as to cause some surprise at the Commission appointing him to his present duties in connection with the Melbourne Exhibition. '"

" Puff " in the Wellington Press disposes of the matter in Mb usual slapdash fashion as follows:—

" I see Hector denies the statement made by the New Zealand Herald correspondent, that the mineral exhibits at the Melbourne Exhibition are a failure !

"Oh, of course, of course? The Commissioners in London indignantly denied that the New Zealand Court there was a failure !

But it was a failure, all the same—a miser able failure !

"Can you tell me any good that the colony gained by all the expense and fuss that there was over that affair ?

" Oh, the colony gained nothing, because it wasn't properly done. " And will anybody be any the better for the Melbourne Exhibition?

" Not the slightest! A lot of fellows will have a good spree, of course, but it won't benefit the colony at all! Especially if the —inpral exhibits are not up to the mark ! a speculator «^-f.h a t report emanated from " He has no right to sayum,.,, it's true, what then? The Melbounife speculators are the very people the mineral exhibits from New Zealand ought to have been designed to attract, and if they think it is a poor show, then it is a poor show, to all intents and purposes ! Hector could'nt have made a weaker defence than to say that the report emanated from a Melbourne speculator ! "1 hear the Goldfields Members want the Government to send over some really big exhibits under the charge of some practical men ! " Aye, they ought to send Seddon over with the Kumara sludge channel, and Dick Reeves with a hundred tons of good rich quartz from Reefton !" The Napier Evening News, after quoting the telegram of the Hkkald's special correspondent, says:—"The sender of the cablegram may well call this disregard of the value of an extensive mining exhibit a 'fatal mistake. . It is a mistake which is little short of criminal. For the Government to neglect the chance of showing the Australians the extent of New Zealand's most valuable mineral resources is a most shameful disgrace. If there ever was an opportunity for inducing foreign capital to be brought into this colony for the purpose of further developing-the mining industries, it is the one provided by the Melbourne Exhibition. There is a plethora of capital available for investment in Australia at the present time, and from the speculations recently made by Australians at the Thames and in other New Zealand mining districts, it is evident that large sums'of money would be put into New Zealand ventures were it clearly shown that a judicious outlay of capital is only needed to make them thoroughly successful." The paper then proceeds to pour forth its wrath against the Hon. Mr. Richardson, upon whom it is inclined to think the real blame lies. Another writer in the same paper says : — " Hector haa been communicated with and says it's all right, that the exhibits are not complete yet, and so on. " Of course he's satisfied with it. No one who knows Hector would expect him to be dissatisfied with his owit» work. Our show tit the Colinderiee was entirely spoilt bv the superabundance of moa bones and old fossils which Hector and Haast got together. Those scientific people always want to make an exhibition just a second edition of a fusty old museum, instead of making it attractive

" Hector says the man who complained was a speculator. " • Haw ! Positively a common speculator, one who doesn't appreciate moa bones, and Hector's scientific maps, etc., but wants to see a show of minerals made which will attract capital to the colony. Haw."'

The Napier Daily Telegraph, after saying that the Melbourne correspondent of the Auckland Herald is not at all satisfied with the mining exhibits of the New Zealand court at the Melbourne Exhibition,

comments on the statements of Sir James Hector and others, and eays :—"From all this we are inclined to think that this colony's mineral wealth is not properly represented at the Exhibition The fact of the matter is that the scientific men of New Zealand are not practical men of business, and are inclined to subordinate the real object of an Exhibition to an interesting display that altogether fails to advertise the colony as an industrial country inhabited by Europeans. The same fault was made at the 'Colinderies.' All that was said of our share of the Exhibition in London was, ' How interesting !' All that our scientific men think about is to show a wealth of ferns, and some instruments of native warfare, as if rank vegetation and savage wood carvings adequately represent a colony that has a public debt of thirtysix millions sterling.'