SYDNEY EXHIBITION COMMISSION.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 365, 8 February 1879, Page 18

SYDNEY EXHIBITION COMMISSION.

A meeting of the above commission was held yesterday in the City Council Chambers at 4.30 p.m. There were present —Dr. Hector (in the chair), his Worship the Mayor, Messrs. . Krull, Levin, Thompson, Hutchison, Mclntyre, and Dr. Lemon. The minutes of the previous meeting were read and confirmed. The Chairman then stated that in reply to the request tendered by the commission to the Government, asking for apartments for their use, a reply had been received offering three rooms in the Assembly Buildings. He had seen the rooms referred to, and considered them quite suitable, and had no doubt the commission would be glad to hear of so satisfactory a solution of that difficulty. In reply to the application of the commission respecting the means to be placed at their disposal for making the necessary arrangements for the collection of exhibits to be sent to Sydney, the Colonial Secretary had written to him, stating that the Cabinet would approve of an expenditure by the commission not exceeding £2OOO. The Chairman thought there was every probability that if this sum proved insufficient a further grant would be placed at their disposal. £2OOO was the sum asked for by the commission, and it had been granted. A letter had been received from the Sydney Government respecting the admission of live stock, cattle, sheep, or horses, for the Exhibition, which stated that the regulations respecting the admission of sheep, requiring those imported to be kept a short time in quarantine, and to be dipped, would be enforced in respect to sheep for the Exhibition. There were no restrictions in respect to other stock. Owing to the programmes of the Exhibition Committee not having come to hand, it was impossible to reply to numerous communications already received from would-be exhibitors. Letters had been sent by persons who wished to exhibit water-color drawings, fancy wood-work, cheese, preserved milk, preserved meat, &c, &c, but the consideration of these letters was postponed. The chief business of the meeting was the election of a secretary. In answer to the advertisement published, twenty-six applications were received. After considerable discussion Mr. Callis was elected. Mr. Levin raised the question whether it was intended that the Press should be admitted to or excluded from the meetings of the commission, and it was unanimously resolved that the fullest possible publicity should be given to the proceedings of the commission, and that the secretary should be instructed to inform the Press of the dates of all meetings.

An application was received from a gentleman at Dunedin asking for an appointment as local secretary. The Chairman explained that the Government proposed to ask the different Chambers of Commeree to act as local committees in the large towns. Circulars setting forth the wishes of the commission would shortly be published and distributed, but it was impossible to take any steps in this matter until the programmes from the Exhibition Committee came to hand. One thousand copies were expected to have arrived by the Wakatipu, but had either not been shipped or had miscarried. A mass of correspondence relating to this and previous exhibitions was in the hands of the Government, which it would be necessary to pass under review. The Chairman stated that he hoped to be able to procure and to tranship a good specimen of a Maori house. As the negotiations entered into were incomplete, it was inadvisable to publish particulars. The meeting adjourned sine die, the Chairman having arranged to call a meeting as soon as it was possible to take any further steps in pushing on the business before the commission.