FIRST DAY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1291, 26 November 1896, Page 31

FIRST DAY.

GREAT CONCOURSE OF PEOPLE TO WITNESS THE OPENING CEREMONIES.

FULL PARTICULARS,

HOW THE EXHIBITS LOOK,

INTERESTING- REVIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF WELLINGTON.

INTRODUCTION.

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A large crowd, a day father the reverse of fine, Exhibition buildings adorned within and unadorned without, everybody in best bib and tucker. Such was the aspec; of things at two o'clock. One very soon discovered that, though the crowd was large, it was not inconvenient in any degree. Eleven years ago, what a difrarence! It was a big exhibition in those days, and there Was big expectation and a big crowd. But the crowd got jarrimecl in ibbe entrance corridor, overwhelmed the Veterans of the City Guards, in spite of the heroism they displayed in keeping the passage open, and swayed to and fro in a sullen manner (with imprecations) until it got deadlocked, and then the average unit trembled for his life, and said he couldn't breathe, and the air was filled with the imprecations of officials and invited guests of importance cut off from the concert hall, and the organ, and the delights of the opening oratory-, In this respect we are very different to-day. ThO "crowd, for example, was large ; but where was it ? Emphatically nowhere, by comparison with that Other and smaller crowd of eleven years ago. _ In the first place we have a different building. "Nine woolsheds, not rolled into one," a friend remarked, as we sauntered about observing, " but placed side by side," and he gave a very correct idea of the Exhibition. Cheap, roomy, with any amount of vent from crowd pressure. Therefore the crowd is dodged. Art, of course, was added by the managing committee to the natural resources provided by the talented architect; the art of commanding by making provision before hand. About a quarter to three, while the people, who had been admitted at two, were strolling, and the concert hall had been filled up with the invited guests, and others who had got up early and taken time by the forelock, soldiery were brought in quietly by detachments. The detachments were formed up on the ways leading to the concert hall, lining both sides With the firmness which comes of being " under orders," and by the time the College Cadet Company had placed its furthest man alongside the concert hall in order it dawned upon the crowd that the time had come for business. One converging rush, one smile from the steadfast troops,° c Present Arms," and the Governor and the whole of the opening party reached the concert hall without disturbance or molestation from the crowd. The military operations were decidedly successful. , , . So were the musical. The grand strains of the National Anthem came from the children on the stage benches with great effect as the Governor and the opening party walked in, the new organ pealing under the fresh young voices with a sense of supporting, encouraging sound, and a general filling up of the corners. Not that anything of that kind was required, for the voices were strong as well as fresh, delicate withal, extremely well under command, attending to the lights and shades properly. Mr Parker, sir, permit me to compliment you on the wonders you have wrought with your little people. Numerous choruses they gave us between the speeches. "Begone dull care, thou and I can never agree," they chirped did these young voices ; " Rule Britannia " they gave us with patriotism, smiling delightfully; "The Harp That Once through Tara's Halls " they sang, and straight wo all dreamt they were all Irish, and, waking up, recognised " Another injustice to Ireland;" with " May Day " they conjured up a radiant vision of grassy meads and flying little feeb, so well did they sing; and when they came to " Auld Lang Syne" the adults had been so impressed with their superior grace and beauty of style that they could hardly muster up courage enough to accept the conductor's courteous invitation to join in the chorus. Very noticeable was the piano part ot these performances. A tiny maiden in front ol the big piano, expectant; a wave of the conductor's baton—a mighty wave above that chair on which he stands; the tiny maiden strikes a firm little chord on the big [piano; another wave of the mighty, and the volume of fresh, tuneful, pretty sound is upon us in great waves ; and throughout, when there is accompaniment, the firm, little hands boom out a fine support to the little comrades above. It is one of the pleasantest things possible. At the beginning there is a wellmanaged effect. The children are in white on each side of the organ, with blue and pink sashes. Suddenly, as the Governor comes in at the doorway, out flash hundreds of blue flags and pink, and they send waves of blue and pink sharply across tne stage, and then they mingle, and the air above is alive with their light and colour, and the delighted audience claps its hands. Throughout the proceedings these flags do not faii to assert themselves. When the proceedings are over, i.e., after the president has welcomed His Excellency, and expressed his sympathy and that of all present for Lady Glasgow in her illness, and tne delight we all have in hearing that things are so much better with her, and after His Excellency has said " Thank you", itx his courteous way and. ex?

haiisteu the subject of exhibitions witiiotit j exhausting either himself or his hearers," j and said something new by calling atten- j tion to the many things we can produce j and do not, and after he has declared the ■ show open, and after the Hon Mr Walker I has apologised for the [absence _ of his : chief, and talked technical education, and deftly avoided a pitfall of gaucherie into j which many a speaker would have been i entangled, and after His Worship the i Mayor has touched upon many j topics id Unison With the other j speakers; after all these' things the Governor' arid party rose id leave tiie' J hall, arid sdrrie df the atidiene'e roste' too'; but the management iriade them feel that nobody ought to go before the Governor of the Colony. It is a lesson in manners which might very well be repeated elsewhere on various occasions.

t'nee outside the hall of concerts, we all have leisure to look roUiid, and brush up memories of what we saw before wfieri strolling. The beautiful fountain with the Maori maiden and the nikau palm in terra cotta, with its small upper basins supported by legendary fish, and its large round basin, rock strewn, with the gold fish swiniming abotit in the dancing wator, and the fountain playing light spray over all; is the first thing to take the attention. A great credit to Mr Hutson's establishment, sirs. Coals and coal niines and fire clays strike the eye on the left, great | blocks of black, one of three tons, biggest ever handled, and bricks and retorts, and ) tiles, in great profusion. On the right is the kiosk of the A.M.P., with pictures of their buildings and halls, the latter no doubt packed with the policies of holders who have gone over to the majority, and rejoice in the punctual payment of the policies to which they /will never pay premium more. The Eaiapoi Woollen Company comes next with 10,000 exhibits in gorgeous array, niany coloured like Joseph's coat, which reminds us that the Petones have a similar display, only different as to the draping, and they give an original idea. " The loom of to-day and the loom of old;" machinery versus man ; the machine is moving fast, with a broad front, a smiling girl watching the machinery ; the hand loom is in charge of an anxious man, it is smaller, he moves it himself; with a labour that is slow and painful in comparison. How the world has advanced in less than a century ! True, sir. Yet you will observe that the contrivance for doing the weaving is precisely the same in both machines. How little has the world moved in three thousand year. True again, sir. The Railway Department give us a pair of chocolate-coloured mirrors, which on examination turn out to be a railway locomotive and a balcony carriage, and we say " Kapai the workmanship," and go on rapidly, past fabrics of all kinds, metal work of various sorts, bright and shining and well-turned, by furniture gorgeous and plain and fancy ; biscuits greet us in tins, in boxes, in the open ; bottles appeal to us, beer, wine, cider, teetotally and other ways ; tins of jams and meats, and fruits many coloured ; home industries seem to wave many embroideries, tapestries, models of boats, stono carvings and many other things at us ; the carriage-makers try and hold us as we go by, and one of them has a pair of gaily-harnessed greys, which turn out on examination not to be real, but are really handsome ; tea boudoirs exert their fascinations ; a sheep lives and shines for our benefit in a solid block of ice, and I looks uncommonly hard and cold. We successfully resist all these attractions to I stay, and we pass on, admiring the colours, the brightness, the evidences of industry 1 and capacity on every hand, noting the paucity of decoration here and there, and ! the short display of bunting generally. A gentleman with a lot of little _ microscopes, however, proves irresistible ; a Mr Cooper, who offers wonders of the unseen world. We take several peeps into the unseen world. There is the circulation of the blood in the leg of a frog tethered to the slide, a wonderful vision 1 of rivers of red coursing brightly through picturesque valleys of gold, a startling i revelation to the average human who feels that he, too, is a thing of beauty unsuspected. The idea is encouraged by some blood corpuscles writ large by the microscope. A less pleasant idea is 1 suggested by some cheese mites. Of all 1 the "awful monsters in existence these are I surely the worst. Never, no, never again ! Perhaps hardly ever, for cheese that walks with you is distinctly appetising. And then we fly from the unseen world to the pictures of the glorious world above ground and washed by waters great and small. We note tbe names, Stanhope Forbes, Walton, Waterlow, Allen, Lucas, Parsons, chief these of great men afar; and among the local names Nairn, Van der Velden, Richardson, Butler, Gibb, Hill, Paton, and others. Some fine Gullys striko the eye; and there is a store of excellent carving and work in black by Mr Barrett, a speaking portrait of Lord Glasgow, prominent in the collection. In this room there is a wonderful collection (Mr Kavanagh's) of kauri gum samples, most picturesque and beautiful and curious. But space closes in, and details of all things must wait for better days. The great thing is that the Exhibition is open, and we leave it in the hands of our readers for the present. i