THE VIENNA EXHIBITION.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 119, 26 July 1873, Page 8

THE VIENNA EXHIBITION.

We make the following extracts from our English files : A NEW ZEALAND COLONIST AT THE EXHIBITION. The special correspondent of the “ Times,” writing of a visit paid to the Exhibition by the Prince of Wales and his sister, the Princess Imperial of Germany, says :—“ After the'expedition through the machinery and implements' the Royal visitors withdrew to the Commissioners’ cottage to refresh themselves. There several of the gentlemen interested in the Exhibition were presented, amongst others Sir Charles Clifford, who appears as an old and influ. ential Ctolonist to represent the interests of New Zealand.” THE WAY TO THE EXHIBITION THROUGH THE STREET OF SAUSAGES. As the western entrance of the Exhibition is the one nearest Vienna, probably quite two-thirds of the visitors will use the thoroughfare which runs through the heart of the Wurstel Prater. The name itself is a curiosity. -It is derived from the number of sausages (Wurste) which are reputed to be eaten in it. Just now the sausages have been rather shoved into the back ground. The Wurstel Prater has decked and trimmed itself to fascinate the world. Such of the old buildings as have been left are no longer dingy, but shine resplendent in the glorious of new paint and varnish. Most of the old buildings—timber, all of them—have, however, been demolished, and far more elaborate and fantastic and spacious structures have arisen in their places. Outsides the cafes there are acres of platform studded with whole battalions of chairs and tables. In the centre of each there is a stand whereon a band discourses music. There are vast restaurants in the Swiss chalet style of architecture, with innumerable outlying verandahs and crafty shady corners, wherein eating may be done to the twittering of the birds among the irees. You may experience the delirious joys of an equestrian merry-go-round to the strains of barrel-organ music produced by the rotatory motion of the concern. If there is one merry-go-round there are at least fifty. Whole regiments of equestrians, male and female, might be mounted on the richly caparisoned and fiery steeds of timber, with fiery eyeballs, flowing manes and tails, and hoofs which spurn the earth. The name of the shooting galleries is Legion, and the variety of the prizes endless—from cigars to woollen comforters and strings of sausages. On the Wurstel Prater there are quite half-a-dozen dames, each one ensconced in a habitation of elaborately-painted woodwork, and each one boldly claiming to be the “ fattest woman in the world.” THE CENTRAL ROTUNDA. The Central Rotunda, as a simple triumph of engineering skill and architectural grace, is the grand feature of the Exhibition. It is an exaggerated Pantheon, suspended on iron girders, and altogether dwarfs St Peter’s and St Paul’s, the relative height of the balls and crosses in the Vatican and on the Prater being 156 to 354. The diameter of the Rotunda is 312 feet, but, owing to the harmony of its proportions, it is difficult at first to realise its immense size. Overhead there is an upper dome, which soars away into the little lantern supporting the ball and cross. The dome-shaped roof swells up fr° m thirty columns, and is divided into thirty panels, covered with sail cloth* stained in soft neutral tints, ana stamped with golden devices. There are four grand entrances to the Exhibition, and the southern of these is be* neath a semi-circular window, gorgeous in stained glass. The central fountain is especially beautiful, with its setting °| palms and ferns, and brilliant tropic ß flowers. The oi’iginal credit of tn® design of the Exhibition is due tol» r Scott Russell, though much of honor also belongs to the Austrian engineers. THE OTHER BUILDINGS. Vast as is the capacity of the niain building, it is only the chief one in multitude, larger and smaller, and maw of these are enormous. Behind, aD parallel to it, for its whole length* 111 the long halls devoted to Distributed over the intervening sp a U in methodical and economical arraog ment, are scattered all kinds #f const tions, the purposes of which it would

tedious to catalogue and impossible to classify. You have exhibitions of Styrian iron and Carpathian mining works next to Corinthian restaurants,Krupp’s guns, and Cook’s tourist offices ; of the peasantry huts from Lapland, Scandinavia, Poland, Roumania; beer-tasting cellars and wine-tasting halls, railway bridges, and museums of minerals ; and, most interesting perhaps of all, a complete collection of every production, animal, vegetable, and mineral, from Prince Schwarzenberg’s immense estates in Bohemia. These are all to the north of the main building. To the south you have the restaurants of all countries ; in many of them the waiters and waitresses will wear the national garbs, and serve, or profess to serve, the national refreshments. There will be a variety of specimens of Oriental architecture, Egyptian and Turkish palaces, mosques crowned with their graceful minarets, kiosques, fountains, and a Persian villa. There are lighthouses, semaphores with night signals, and in a prominent position on one side are the offices of the “ New Free PreS9,” where the evening edition of the journal is to-be turned out in a glass house, under the eye of the public. On the left, as you enter, is the elegant Imperial Pavilion, consisting of a vestibule and four saloons, intended for the use of the Emperor, Empress, Archdukes, and Archduchesses respectively. Within, and especially in the Empress’s boudoir, the celebrated Viennese upholsterers have excelled themselves. The carpets are blue, woven in gold; the ceilings, doors and panels are in white and gold, and nothing can be lighter and prettier than the effect.