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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9139, 22 August 1888, Page 4

In yesterday's Herald a Melbourne cable message stated that the Exhibition jurors would begin their work of examination and comparison about the second week of September, and that no exhibits will be received after the end of this month, excepting where they are detained by vessels making long passages. It is" to be hoped that no cast-iron rule on the subject will be made to operate against the neglected mineral exhibits of New Zealand. If such were the case, then all the efforts now being put forth to do what should have been done by us months ago, would necessarily have been thrown away ; for it would be a physical impossibility for the mineral ores now being got together to be placed within the Exhibition Building at Melbourne by Friday week. No doubt an exception can be obtained in the case of such exhibits, although negligence or dilatoriness is not a satisfactory plea to urge for extension of time. As mineral ores will not, properly speaking be in competition, or entered, we presume, for prizes, no disturbance of the work of the jurors, need necessarily be entailed, by their reception at a later date ; but all the same it will be necessary that steps be taken promptly so that the Government, or such other authorities as may have control of arrangements, should have representations made so that the exhibits now in course of collection may not be shut out; while, at the same time, vigorous efforts should be made that the mineral ores intended to be sent from this part of the country, being more remote, may be forwarded at the earliest possible date. Assuming that the desired result is attainable, we feel inclined to think that gain will come, rather than loss to the interests of the colony from the original misadventure in not having the mineral resources of the colony properly represented at the opening ot the Exhibition ; for ever since the cable message of the Herald correspondent burst on the colony like a thunder-clap, there has been an agitation pervading the whole people, the result of which promises to be an overdoing rather than an underdoing of the business; and the capacity of the New Zealand Court would be taxed beyond its powers to contain, if there is not some kind of embargo placed on the superabundance of the mineral exhibits under offer. Nothing like such a result could have been obtained by anything short of the public indignation which was excited by the reported failure at Melbourne. The object was, from the first, placed clearly enough before the minds of the people in the mining districts of New Zealand ; and though the assistance offered to mining districts from the Parliamentary grant was miserably insufficient, and the conditions imposed by the Government as to payment of gold duty on the specimens were calculated to have a depressing effect on public enthusiasm, still the people of the colony interested in making the best of our resources, must take some blame to themselves for the meagreness of the display. However, thanks to the excitement resulting from our special correspondent's message at once on Government and people, the period of indifference and inaction has passed away, and we venture to say that now the exposition of the mineral wealth of the colony will be one eminently worthy of New Zealand.