DOMINION AT WEMBLEY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19027, 26 May 1925, Page 12

DOMINION AT WEMBLEY.

" GOOD SHOW THIS YEAR." EARLY VISITORS' ENTHUSIASM f MANY EXCELLENT FEATURES. THE "WONDERLAND" PANORAMA. [iKOJI OUJI OWN COIUIESrON DENT. ] LONDON, Apl. 23. • "New Zealand is going to have a good show this year," was tlio unsolicited opinion of a number of visitors who yesterday inspected the preparations for; the reopening of tho J'Jmpiro Kxhibition at Wembley. This is perfectly true, but, not to' speak with bias, it must ho mentioned that both Australia and Canada are also again making great efforts to give the public something worth coming a long way to see. Australia is putting in a number of now panoramas and Canada has launched out on the biggest panorama scheme that has ever been presented. Au alcove 250 ft. in length is set apart for this and hero there is to bo depicted in panorama the wholo of Canada from tlio Atlantic to the Pacific. The picture will bo 24ft. high and 40ft. deep. Already tlio bush scene panorama is completed in tlio Now Zealand pavilion. As one enters the main hall tlio first thing that will strike the eye looking down a vista of New Zealand ferns will bo this excellent bush scene with a waterfull in full play. The water is carried down a sloping rock face from the right and falls over a rock edge about 3ft, wide, which occupies tlio centre of the picture. The fall is about 10ft. high and tlio water comes down in an unbroken sheet to the pool beneath. Surrounding this is the nativo hush very well represented by tho New Zealand artists, Mr. A. R. Frnser and Mr. J. F. Scott. ( The left background is occupied by a representation of a long wooded valley and tho impression is that one is looking to the rising, hills 10 or 15 miles away. Tho roar of tho falling creek is very realistic and ono can imagine tho excellent first impression which will bo given by this reproduction of New Zealand scenery. On each side of the main hall will ho the dioramas of the chief cities and above these, as last year, tho largo canvases depicting Dominion beauty spots. Mud From Eotorua, At the far end of tho primary products court is tho panorama of tho thermal district. This, without doubt, will be the chief attraction of tlio pavilion. There are certain finishing touches to bo carried but yesterday tho visitors were able to -sea it almost in its completed state, with tho mud volcano, mado of mud from Rotorua, in action and the miniature geyser playing at brief intervals. The foreground is taken up with, a reproduction of Whakarowarowa. There is the bridge from which tho Maori children dive for pennies, there are the whares sot above tho hot pools, in which dark forms will bo seen and there are tho mud pools. It is all very truo to the actual | scene.

But iho scene in the background is frankly magnificent. A compromise has had to be made, of course, and what one actually sees is the panorama from the top of 'Mount Tarawcra. Immediately beneath aro lakes Tarawcra and Jlotomahana and in the distant right the hills above Rotorua. On the left is the Lake Rerewhaikaitu and the hills beyond. The scene takes in apparently somo 40 miles each way and the artist has _ done his work so "well that the illusion is perfect. No praise can be too great for those who have prepared this excellent, work and New Zealanders who visit the pavilion will be genuinely pleased with the way in which the Wonderland of tho North Island has been presented for tho instruction of tho British public. The other panoramas —Wanganui River, Waitotmo Caves, Mount Cook, Milford Sound and a dairy farm —have a little more to be dono to them and it is advisable to leave comment upon them until they are completes in every detail. Beautiful Roof Scheme. However utilitarian tho New Zealand building and however fine its outside appearance the inside, as left by. the builders, could never be called artistic or beautiful. Last year the brief time .available to make their preparations provented the commissioner and his assistants from disguising the. barn-like nature of tho interior. All that is altered this year. The bays for tho various sections disguise the severely plain walls and a very fine scheme has been employed to decorate tho roof. The sloping roofs aro covered with Cambridge blue casement cloth up to the skylights and over the skylights is placed cream muslin. Tho result is most pleasing. Tho cream and the bluo have a most striking appearance and the softened light has a most charming effect. The central wool exhibit lias been altered. Tho pyramid has been lowered to enable tho sculptured figures of a shearer and a sheep to bo placed on top. At each corner of the pyramid will be surmounted a stuffed sheep—a Romncy, a Corriedale, a Merino and a Lincoln. Each of the four portals beneath the pyramid has been closed and two transparencies illustrating sheep-farming and sheep country are placed therein. These eight transparencies are illuminated from inside the shell of tho pyramid. The four selling kiosks are placed at the four points of the compass about the circle of the wool exhibit. These latter arc artistic erections and are decorated with Maori designs. Sports Bay and Photographs. The sports bay is practically complete. Deer heads cover tho three sides of tho wall. There are about 60 of them, but so well spaced that they appear to be a •much larger number. Certainly they arc a most imposing spectacle. On the, floor of tho bay round tho three walls are placed the cases containing the birds of tho Dominion. Standing out from tho walls will bo the cases containing the sword fish and other smaller fish. Some ingenuity was needed to dispose of all the photographs which last year decorated the walls of the court. Mr. Roberts has adopted tho plan of placing them on circulating cabinets. „ Each cabinet has 16 leaves and each leaf will hold .four photographs. Thus visitors will be able to stand at one point and by turning the leaves round to inspect 64 pictures. There aro four of those cabinets. Four very fine oil paintings by Mr. Marcus King have found an appropriate place in one of the bays. _ These illustrate four phases of colonial life—tho coming of Tasman in 1642, tho arrival of ("look in 1776, tho pioneers of 1040 and the migrants of 1924 arriving in Wellington Harbour in tho splendid liners of to-day. A Now Zealand"" Club. Now Zealanders this year visiting tho pavilion will bo able to mako use of the figured rirnu reception room. By diguing the visitors' book they will bo entitled to consider thomselves members of the New Zealand Club and tea and simple refreshment may bo procured probably at tho price of Is each. Tho commissioner reserves tho right to mako any regulations ho desires with regard to the room. Various now ideas aro to bo embodied among tho stalls and not tho least useful and interesting should? bo the bookstall. Hero books on New Zealand will lie for sale. They will embrace every kind/ from novels by New Zealand writers to books on tho Dominion dealing with tho opportunities it offers sportsmen. Interesting books on tho history and development of tho country will bo there as far as they aro obtainable. Mr. Hobovts, who has given chargo of this section (o Mrs. Gifford Moore, stipulates for two conditions —the literature eithor is to be about Now Zealand or it is to havo New Zealand authorship. What a joy it will bo not to have to listen to disappointed apologists saying, as they did last year, "Of course, Now Zealand is only a littlo country a long way off and it couldn't bo expected to clo much." This year people arc going (o see what they should have been able to see in 1924 and what they tllen expected to see.