LATE MEETINGS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 839, 30 March 1888, Page 15

LATE MEETINGS.

CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, MELBOURNE, 1888.

NEW ZEALAND COMMISSION. The twelfth meeting of the Commissioners was held in the office on Wednesday, when Sir James Hector was in the chair, and Mr G. M. Waterhouse. M.L.C., Dr Newman, M.H.R., and Messrs W. H. Levin and C. J. Toxward were present. It was definitely decided, and Sir James Hector was duly appointed Executive Commissioner, to proceed to Melbourne to make arrangements for the New Zealand Court two months prior to the opening of the Centennial International Exhibition. A resolution was passed that all the applications for space executed in accordance with the regulations be accepted, provided that the exhibits upon examination in Melbourne prove to be really of value in promoting the credit of the Colony. The officer in charge of the New Zealand Court will be fully authorised to preclude all inferior specimens of any kind from being exhibited, and all such will be returned to the owners forthwith, who may render themselves liable for all expenses incurred in despatching same and in the cost of returning them to the Colony. The Colonial Secretary forwarded a memorandum asking if it was contemplated to have a band contest iu .Melbourne, as he had been applied to on behalf of some of the bands .who were desirous of competing. The Secretary was directed to communicate with the Melbourne Commission, and inquire if anything of the kind would be entertained, and to report in due course. The AgentGeneral wrote from London, under date of the 9th February last, stating that he had communicated with Sir Frederick Abel, Organising Secretary to the Imperial Institute, with whom the exhibits from tho late Colonial and Indian Exliibitionliad been deposited, and asking that a selection might be made from the same for the Melbourne Exhibition. The Commissioners have, since the despatch of the lettei’, received intimation by cable that a shipment had been made by the Oceana direct from Londpn to Melbourne. A report was received from Mr Seed, forwarding an estimate for covering in the space allotted for the New Zealand fernery, stating that some stately tree trunks from this Colony should be forwarded to Melbourne, as they would contrast most favorably with the miserable gum trees of Australia, especially in the buttressed support that they throw out at their base. Mr Seed is of opinion, from what he saw of an agricultural show in Victoria, that the New Zealand cereals and other produce, together with agricultural implements,will far and away surpass anything that they can show on that side, and that the Victorian people are interested in New Zealand, and strongly approve the idea of making the best show we can of cereals and other produce. Mr Seed goes on further to say that we ought to make a strong point in long and cross-bred wools, and that in most things we shall probably more than hold our own, and that having accomplished all that is possible for him to do in forwarding matters at the present, he therefore purposes returning at an early date. The accounts for all liabilities up to the end of the current month were passed for payment, and the expenditure is well within the estimate. Trophies of wool, minerals, timbers, food products, grain, and woollen goods will form some of the leadingfeatures of the New Zealand Court in the Centennial International Exhibition.