CANADA'S ROYAL SHOW.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19452, 7 October 1926, Page 11

CANADA'S ROYAL SHOW.

THE NEW ZEALAND COURT.

"MOST INTERESTING DISPLAY."

A FAVOURABLE . IMPRESSION.

[FROM OUR own CORRESPONDENT. ] TORONTO. Sept. 3.

If half the people who promise to settle in New Zealand visit the Dominion as c tourists, or open up trade relations with ' New Zealand, as a result of the Dominion ' appearing tor the first time as an ex- J hibitor at Canada's "Royal Show" do so, J the Government will have been more v than justified in its decision to go to 1 the expense of sending a delegation and ( comprehensive exhibit. To say that Canada and Canadians J were surprised when it became known 1 New Zealand would be represented < at the Canadian National Exhibition 1 would be to state a fact simply. To say that those who visited the New Zealand ' Court, numbering a quarter of a million to date, have for the most part styled it the most interesting display of the whole c exhibition would also be to state a simple fact. It would not be fair to say nothing was known of New Zealand in Canada before the people had an opportunity of seeing the court, but the information they had was meagre, confined to conversations between soldiers in the field and a fairly strong movement of tourists from New Zealand that "stops over" at Vancouver, Banff, Winnipeg, Toronto, Niagara and Montreal while travelling through Canada to Great Britain. Impression on Americans. About one in every twenty of the million people that visit the exhibition during the fortnight of its currency is from the United States. The impression created on the mind of these visitors by the New Zealand Court may bo gathered from the conversation of two Americans, one of whom told the other that, if he only saw two exhibits at the "National," one of them should be the New Zealand Court. In response to repeated requests, a small exhibit was placed in the window of the Toronto Publicity Commission, in the heart of the city and the crowds in front of it held up the traffic. Traders and earnest business men filter through the information counters in increasing numbers, to be closeted with the deputy-director, Mr. J. W. Collins, Secretary of the Department of Industries and Commerce, who explains the more technical details of the New Zealand tariff, with the view of opening up avenues of trade. In these "office" interviews are the genesis of a possible expansion of New Zealand's export trade with Canada, which is worth, on latest figures, £750,000 annually, compared with £4,000,000, the value of the New Zealand imports from Canada. There are many pleasant interludes in the hum of conversation around the exhibits of New Zealand. Perhaps the most pleas.ant is that associated with the transplanted New Zealander who has taken up his abode in Canada, far irom "God's Own Country." These people eagerly seek to attach themselves to the court, as members of the New Zealand Legion, which is growing in numbers with each passing clay. Questions to be Answered. Canadians, like their neighbours of the poiverful republic of the South, are very curious and eager in search of information. Publicity is with them, like Americans, a major industry. Over a score of booklets and attractive folders, illustrative of every phase of the Dominion's life and activity, are at their disposal. They frequently return for more information, or to mingle again with little groups in personally conducted tours of. New Zealand which are a feature of the administration of the court. Each has questions to be asked about wages, conditions of business or winter sports, and the resources of the well-in-formed group of New Zealand attendants are often put to the test. Congratulations to New Zealand for its initiative in thus instructing its fel-low-Britishers in regard to the Dominion, its social institutions, its business undertakings and industries, are legion. The Canadian press, always friendly toward New Zealand, leads in the chorus of congratulation. Business men, managing directors of big emporiums, have put their names to the visitor' book over messages of goodwill and felicitation. Various members of the community have their special reason for being glad New Zealand is represented here. All express tho wish thqjt the step will be continued annually, and that a trade commissioner will be established in the commercial centre of Eastern Canada, to promote the possibilities of increased trade, so pleasantly begun. Many Canadians were looking forward to meeting the Prime Minister, Mr. Coates, and were very sorry to hear that he was unable, through the alteration of the date of the Imperial Conference, to come this way during the currency of the exhibition. Court's Ideal Situation. The New Zealand Court is ideally situated. It is on the first floor of the Coliseum, a huge ferro-concrete structure with an auditorium that holds ten thousand people. Here all the great artists and leaders of politics appear. The court is therefore in the very hub of the exhibition. It is laid out in streets — Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin Streets—flanked by attractive ' sidewalks, giving access into alcoves in ' which the exhibits are systematically dis--1 played. Tho most arresting plan of traffic direction in tho three hundred acres of the exhibition buildings indicates to the visitor where he may turn to meet J the New Zealand Court.