THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 1923. THE EXHIBITION PROJECT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18820, 24 March 1923, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 1923. THE EXHIBITION PROJECT.

It will be unfortunate if any serious difference of opinion should develop in connection with the proposed exhibition on the question of its scope or indeed on any other material point. If it is to bo the success it unquestionably can and should be made, reasonable unanimity of opinion and spontaneity of action are essential. Much depends upon the soundness of the first steps towards the promotion of the exhibition. The preliminary committee must be thoroughly representative, and must possess the confidence of the citizens and the Government. The discussion whichtook place at the meeting of the Manufacturers’ Association on Thursday evening was in some respects decidedly premature. Whether the exhibition should be Imperial or international in character is not a matter which can he decided at this- stage, and in any circumstances it is hardly a matter which should be finally decided by any particular section of the community, however important and influential it may be. In a correct sense that is a national question, as the Government will be expected to assist the project by a substantial guarantee. The initial stage in the promotion of an exhibition consists in the ascertainment of the guarantees that will be forthcoming, and this can only be done when the movement lias been placed in the hands of a representative and capable committee. As the exhibition will at least bo national it must b© promoted for national purposes which w-ill be accompanied by national benefits. Clearly, the manufacturers are entitled to a large measure of consideration, and full acknowledgment must. be made of their readiness to agree to forgo their own special exhibition for one of "greater •scope and usefulness. But they cannot, as a section of the community, fairly expect to define the limits of the national effort. To attempt to do so would simply be to injure their own material interests. The relative merits of an Imperial or an International exhibition should be discussed only from their distinctive value to the dominion as a whole. Judged by excellence or any worthy standard the Empire products can stand side by side with the world’s best, and the most patriotic son of Empire need not be ashamed of them. The local manufacturers have succeeded in establishing a standard of quality for their goods which will bear favourable comparison with corresponding goods that are anywhere produced. If the question be narrowed down to the purely material and business interest, the policy of Imperial preference gives the Empire’s products such an additional advantage that even the most timid need not foar the result of possible competition as th© outcome of an international exhibiticfii. It will be found most difficult at this time to fix narrow limits to an .exhibition if the aim bo at all high. If, for instance, France as a nation, or even as a group of French manufacturers or producers, desired space would it be in the interests of the exhibition to exclude these foreign exhibits? Moreover, in many of the departments of human creation there are no territorial bounds. Art and science, two compelling and attractive sides of activity, are international in character. It is not possible to hold an international exhibition in Dunedin on the lines of a world’s fair, but it would ho unfortunate at this stage if too severely narrow limits were placed on the scope of the proposed scheme. There was more than ono unfortunate observation made at the meeting on Thursday evening. Sentiments wore expressed which savoured overmuch of parochialism. It is not possible, even were it wise, to make a watertight compartment of the British Empire. The Empire is not, and cannot in the nature of things, be completely self-contained. In an Imperial exhibition much will be presented which is not wholly British, but the dominion will very naturally cleave unto that which is British, because the dominion is British. The main point is that irksome limits should not at present be set, and in the total absence of information regarding guarantees it is impossible to set down definite bounds to the scope of the enterprise. First of all, it having been decided to hold an exhibition, attention must be given to consideration of finance, and until the promoters have reliable data on the guarantee question it is unwise to decide. finally the scope of the exhibition. If financial support is generously offered, the larger the scope of the exhibition, the wider will be the interest that will be aroused by it, and the greater will be the crowds of visitors to it, and consequently there will he increased material benefit to the dominion and the whole of its inhabitants.