N.Z. AND SOUTH.SEAS EXHIBITION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19406, 16 February 1925, Page 11

N.Z. AND SOUTH.SEAS EXHIBITION.

REPRESENTATION OF CANTERBURY. A special committee appointed to suggest 1 a policy for the representation of Christchurch and Canterbury at the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition met in Christchurch on Thursday evening. Mr W. Machin occupied the chair, and Mr H. R. Spence, secretary of the Exhibition, and Mr W. R. Hayward, a director, attended the meeting. Mr Hayward said that the committee was particularly interested in having a pro vincial court. He wished to correct an idea in respect to the Government subsidy. Only part of it would be devoted to provincial displays, and that part simply would enable the directors to offer more favourable terms than, they could do otherwise. The subsidy was not a provincial one in itself. It was in the form of direct help to the directors of the Exhibition Company, as the Government recognised that the Exhibition was a dominion enterprise of material value to the whole dominion, and would directly benefit many Government departments. As a matter of fact, part of the grant was a loan, not a subsidy. The secondary industries would be in one court. The provincial bays would deal with practically only primary products, with the addition of exhibitors who represented lines of goods which embraced more than one country abroad, and could not be put into the courts belonging to those countries. He felt that Canterbury should have a court embracing the whole province. The cost would be from £3OOO to £3500. which should be within the means of even the smallest province in the dominion. Mr Spence said that very satisfactory progress was being made with the arrangements, and in the support of different sections of the Exhibition, It was intended, if possible, to. make the motor display the best in the Southern Hemisphere. The Exhibition grounds were being laid out, and the buildings were well in naud. They included am art gallery. Promises of pictures had been received from collections in the Old Country, the United States, and Prance. The promoters hoped that the art exhibition would be at least equal to the art exhibition at the international exhibition in Christchurch in 1906-07. It was not expected that the foreign exhibits would amount to a great deal. The most that the directors expected was that foreign goods would be shown by local agents for them. Japan might come in, but, apart from that, he doubted if any foreign country would be represented nationally. In reply to Mr G. W. Russell, Mr Hayward said that the cost of 5000 feet of space for Canterbury would be about £ISOO. There would be no responsibility on Canterbury for the building. Small farmers would be entitled to free space in any of the provincial courts, up to a certain limit. The provinces would not participate in any of the revenues from the Exhibition. It would be impossible to give part of the revenues to the provinces. The secondary industries court would be the largest court in the Exhibition. Manufacturers had expressed a wish to exhibit there, rather than in provincial courts, but they could go into those courts if they preferred to do so. Mr Spence, in reply to Mr Russell, said that the art gallery would be of brick, and protected from fire, and no art society would like to exhibit in any other part of the Exhibition. The School of Engineering display would be better in the Education Court than in the Canterbury provincial court, but it could do as it wished. The Chairman said that he believed that Timaru and Ashburton would come into the general Canterbury provincial court, and Mr Hayward said that the four West Coast counties would have a combined display of their own. It was decided to obtain all information possible from different sections of the primary and secondary industries to enable the special committee to recommend the character and scope of Canterbury’s representation at the Exhibition, and different members were appointed to arrange for meeting representatives of bodies concerned and obtaining information from them.