THE EXHIBITION.

NZ Truth, Issue 72, 3 November 1906, Page 6

THE EXHIBITION.

Opening of the Big Show.

f Brief Resume oi the Countless Attractions, ;

There was a lot of combustible humanity let loose at Christchurch on (Thursday when the International Exhibition was opened with a shoe horn, or something. The common people didn't like being left out m the cold until the afternoon, when they were graciously admitted to see their own exhibition— a little matter of a cool hundred thou. or so tyiat it had cost them, or. is going to cost them, not being considered by the elite who have been running- the show m their own way-, and m their own style, all the time. You see, there are different classes of society m Christchurch, or alleged society, and the top bunch of grapes must not mix, with the lower; that would never do . The top bunch isn't much chop at any time, but money, talks, and when that talks the iwind can blow through the arabesques of the perforated, coat of the poor cove who has to pay his bob and. look pleasant, while the rich walk m for nix. „/■';.■•:■■■ ■ ,' ■ ■ The opening ceremony was by foviifcation, so ordinary folk had perforce to keep off the official grass for some hours. - '

BILLY: PLUNKET OPENED THE v SHOW ' \ amid much palaver ; he came down I'rom; Wellington a couple of: days' beforehand to get ready, and spread his gubernatorial countenance all ' over the city m the interim.. There was. a great d,eai of top hat, and frock coat, and ."dbg" generally m evidence oh the pdrt of the toff males, and the stiffly-diressed women looked. as winey as an Omar quatrain. Frills and'fihr e'ry , permeated the atmosphere, and there were some attractive bits of womanhood dotted about the landscape, all- right. ; Also, there was Just plain girL The tinted . Venus, es were' out among the mob, and it was a pretty considerable mob, too.. The .usual s-peeohifying happened, and someone,- wtto evidently doesn't know the nature of an oath, says that it wasn't the best m stock, either. There are few politicians that can gas brilliantly these days without glancing at. a bottle, produced 'by a vignerbn, and the-^South Australian Court : was a' considerable distance away. . Speight's massive beer casks were also not near at hand, 'and m any case they looked too full for Utterance. ...-■'

It would be a sick show that didn't have a few bars of "Gorsave" ? flung at' its intellect. '<■ There was ' some ladled- out m this case, and also a psalm— amd 1 the ordinary people of commerce were cursing outside at b&ing uriable to obtain admittance until after their betters had been; served. The best thing about .that opening was tJiei rendition of Anderson'svode ; set to Hill's music it is really a pretty thing and is thoroughly enjoyable.. The Ohristchurch Musical Union and tiie Exhibition orchestra handle the business, and as there are 250 vpices one can jmagine what a sweet half, hour can be spent hearing it ; for it takes fully half' an hour to ..get through;' ;./It is a 1 highly . creditable production all right, and visitor's will appreciate it whenever it is ruri through. Of course, the orchestra, wjbich is one of the finest ever got together m Australasia, will.be responsible for concerts galore, and some first-class pieces have been m rehearsal for some time.

It was a prosperous-looking croifrd that flocked into the building when the signal Was given for the commoners ■to- . ■ • : ' ■ -, ■;:. . ; ■„.' . :., . • , -SPEND THEIR BOBS, .. There were all sorts .and conditions, and thousands . qf* strange faces ' were visible, coming frppi.ali parts of v the world. Christchurch, as/ a matter of fact, is pretty i well packed just now,' and packed with the most cosmopolitan crowd it has ever contained. There are toffs 'galore , who are payins; high prices for , accommodation ; and there are toffs of dubious repiitar' tion, who are doing ditto, and who expect to make a haul, or several hauls if it comes to that. References can't be insisted on at this time of the year, and one may be entertaining a saint „ or a sinner, a spieler : in elegant clothes,, or a member of the . demi-monde, and he doesn't know,: but merely asks for cash for services given and says nothing. There has imfort'.nately been a large s

INFLUX OF UNDESIRABLES • to /the saintly city, which is saintly no longer, and they comprise nearly every class of thief m the universe. If the police did their plain, obvious duty, and dragged the crowd m under the vag, or some, such comprehensive measure, hurried' additions would have to be made at Lyttelton d-apl, or else the authorities would have\p board them out m tents with a warder sitting on top with his gun. 'Further, most of the women of Christchurch who lead a free and easy life— those of them that are known, that is— are m quod, or m the Homes, and a-ren't at present likely to entice the virtuous man from the narrow path of virtue, fcut • the city ds now actually clogged with women of immoral character— lewd, low and lecherous— who smell of foreign scent, and who appear to be doing tolerably cood business. They certainly iwill do good business m a city of saints, or alleged saints, who are always on the look-out for that sort tof thing. However, one must' expect ithe worst class associating with the best at high,, carnival time, when nofthing seems* to matter. There was quite a monster rush the big building was thrown topen ; and people meandered round for hours. For it takes a few hours to meander round: the show, which is a most palatial affair, although it. could •be , improved upon architecturally-rits tacie could be improved upon, looking from the river frontage— and it ends up with the Canadian Court .which has a low ceiling, and gives • one the &dea that "by the time the builder had xeached Canada he had run snort oi •timbeX- Wfcicb as &u*te natural, any-

way. And Canada Has gone to the troublb of providing the finest court m the exhibition. It .is large, daintily togged out, well arranged, and there are Kanucks there who will -tell you all . about "Our Lady of the Snows," as that bard of blood, Kipling, once termed her, and got his head punched. But that don't matter. The Kanucks know what they arc about, and know how to show what they possess to the best possible advantage. Other places foreign to this great and glorious country don't appear to such effect ; the Australian States, or those of them that are showing, aren't nearly representative ; most of them are Government exhibits, embellished with scenery and ham frill, and the juice of the grape and other* nice looking articles.

THE NEW SOUTH WALES COURT, notwithstanding, is a good one, a nd 'Victoria isn't at all bad, but they could have teen a great deal better had .the manufacturers bestirred themselves, and sent along a few quids' worth of things -worth' looking at. But some of the provinces of Maoriland are a damned sight worse ; not only are a number of them not represented at all, but others are meagrely so.. It has been left to good old Private Enterprise to provide the real show, and when the writer meets .that much abused animal out of the exhibition grounds he intends shouting for it with much enthusiasm. And ;the, private people are matting the exhibition what it is, and, what it will be. They haye made brave displays, and deserve credit for tftem. Taste, care' and: delicacy Have been the predominant characteristics m nearly I every case,, and there are so many cases that the writer wouldn't care to enumerate, them for fear of falling into figures, but he will make some extravagant promises, that the whole box and dice will be 'worth witnessing, even though the reader walks his bally legs, off.; And one can walk round m a serene and graceful fashion, and pretend he knows all about everything (including Speight's beer exhibit), and nobody will be any the wiser. Detailed account of even the principal exhibits, or the courts, or the way the place is dolled out m finery' and nice colors, and all the rest of it, of course cannot be given m this short article, but

THE MACHINERY HALL is specially worth mentioning. It is one of the most instructive portions of the' glistening edifice, and takes some ; examining by the thinking portion of the community ; but more than the thinking portion of the populace will visit the place, so it is just as well to warn them that "there is "something there worth casting an eye upon, and that while mauling the stuff •• it may whizz -round and hit them on the proboscis. Get outsidearidvgo to the Art Gallery^ You can spend many ! t a' happy day there and' forget the bottles of sauce and canned > fruit next door' with perfect equanimity, and '

GLOAT OVER THE WORKS >OF THE MASTERS ,- to. your heart's content. Seldom has a finer collection of works been a,ggregated than appears . m the British section. AIL good. 'All educative. They, .represent the. British school, this ; coftection. They are a lesson m culture 'and should be an incentive towards the. formation of a national art gallery m this land of photographs. In the matter, of art we are aa rotten as an antiquated pear- The Government has never given us assistance, and, artists .are proverbially poor, and can't afford to giveaway a masterpiece for the price of a mutton chop. So this great art show (should have a fine effect on the Maoriland mind. In the meantime you may be able to win 'a masterpiece by the absurdly simple process of investing half-a-crowh m an art union ticket. Nothing could be simpler. A number of the prized paintings are bound to find a resting place m this country, and this scribe has already got a cemetery plot prepared for his.

But, -after all, THE attraction for the next six month's, when things flag, - ,will be "Wonderland," " The Pike," "Cyclorama," and goodness knows what not. There is to be, toboga'nning, water chuting, and that cursed stinking object called the camel is to- pervade the premises and make persons wish they had brought scent on their kerchiefs. The amusements, for the .most part, are purely Yank, and are the latest Yank, and Yank without his chin whiskers. The Maze, in ' which one gets lost for half an hour or so, and can't get out, and meandejs; round meeting the same irritated people every -quarter of a minute, is finely devised, and everything else is quite up-to-date, and nothing is out of date. The Cyclorama now belongs, to Dwan Bros., of Wellington, and cost a few thou. It is a long time since it was erected opposite the railway station at Redfern, Sydney, but it "paid its way, and is a show worth seeing, not once, but many times. There are numerous other places of amusement, including

ILLUSIONS AND DELUSIONS, and goodness knows wha.t not, so that when a patron and a missus, or a missus and her lawful husband aren't eating a pork pie at the temperance restaurant, they can illude and delude to their heart's content, and it won't matter very much.^

The Maori pah . doesn't look a Maori pah to the old-time North Islander. It appears too new, and bears marks* of recent tattooing on its face, and seems to have lately washed itself ; and the carvings aren't indecent, and the whole sky boo' hasn't the slightest sign of ancient veneration about it. All of which is to be expected, but writer heard a bloke remark .t'other day that he had even seen a Maori woman m the pah washing her hair. Well, if the brown men and their matronesses did one thing m days of old (and at the present time) it was to bathe, and that is more than most white jossers do. Cleanliness lay, next to the fish with them, and always did. However, some inane idiot" wrote to a Chrisfcmirch- paper t'other c!ay s?.yiii.o; that .some of the carvings outside and inside the Maori pah were really indecent. This notetafcer, and

others of his clan, have failed to see wherpin the indecency lies, and would not have noticed anything out of the way at any time, even if they requisitioned the X rays. The

PRURIENT IMAGINATION of some people is- really most extravagant. There are some very crude carvings that could possibly be construed into something; rude, but writer didn't think them so until they had been deliberately pointed out to him. Verily, it is the religious mind that is always thinking of evil, and that is' the most impure.'. The Maori Pah will interest many tens of thousands. They will be seen occupying their own whares m their native element, so- to speak ; they will tell their old time myths and native legends to those who care to listen ; show their ancient canoes, and dance their hakas, poi dances, 'wbarepunis, and all that sort of thing. Scribe has forgotten exactly what a wharepuni is, but is assured that it isn't a new kind of scrubbing brush, at all events. (It is a meeting-house, you sardine.— Ed.) But the Maori pah will be the end novelty m & day's march, and it will be a long and. weary march, 'and the only"' thing at. the end of it will be the . ostriches and the Cook Islanders,; : whp ; cook their own tucker, and live m queeE fashioned shanties of sultry texture. The Fiji Islanders are a bit warmer— they walk on white-hot 'stones— but they haven't arrived yet. The only other hot thing writer has struck so far is the aviary, where bees either . sting you or lay honey while you wait. '