The New Zealand Industrial Exhibition.

Otago Witness, Issue 1674, 22 December 1883, Page 28

The New Zealand Industrial Exhibition.

(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) The opening, ceremony of the Industrial Exhibition at Chriatchurch on Monday may be fairly said to be a success. The weather was all that could be desired. The attendance was large, and but for the counter attractions of Caledonian sports and " popular sports " it would no doubt have been much larger. As it was, about 5000 persons passed in during the day, and report says that an equal number attended both the "sperts." But it must not bo supposed therefore that 15,000 people participated in the celebration of the Canterbury Anniversary. They passed from sport to sport, and from either to the Exhibition, as the humour prompted. As a matter of faot, there were comparatively very few persons other than Christchurch residents present. lam not going to tell ypu of the triumphal procession

|of half-a-dozen hackney coaches conveying Ministers, members of Assembly, and municipal dignitaries, and preceded by the energetic band of the Artillery Company, that marched -from the City Council Chambers to the Exhibition Building, You will learn all that from the local newspapers. Suffice it to say that the front seats of the dais were occupied by Mr Rolleston, looking wonderfully patronising and pompous, and Mr Mitchelson, who seemed to be wondering how the dickens he got there. These gentlemen were backed up by a host of members of the Assembly— the hon. gentlemen of the Council were conspicuously not there — and with 'the exception of Messrs Pyke and Fish, there were no representatives of Otago present. His Lordship the Primate of Ixew Zealand, however, graced the scene with his presence, and the ladies mustered in threat force. Mr Hulbert, the new Mayor, decorated with a massive gold chain— which, sooth to say, looked as if it had been borrowed from a Masonic lodge did the honours of his position very well, and if there was not much in his brief oration, what little there was was very inoffensive. The President of the Industrial Association (Mr Howland) had evidently come there prepared and determined to improve the occasion.; and in his opening remarks he gave the Ministers in attendance a lecture on the necessity of economy, whilst the public generally were treated to a discourse on the beauties of " Protection "" — unskilfully disguised under filmy pretences of the desirability of encouraging local manufactures. It may be regarded as noteworthy that more applause was accorded to the doctrine of selfhelp, as propounded by the Mayor, than to the Protectionist theories of the President. These two speeches nearly concluded tbe opening ceremony. The organ played, and the choir sang, the first stanza of " God Save the Queen," three cheers were given for " Success to the Exhibition," and the company trooped out to make a hurried tour. of the annexes. By 1 o'clock the building w^s nearly empty, and so it remained till the evesS ing, when the fascinations of the electric light and a gorgeous display of fireworks drew an immense concourse together. Of the Exhibition itself I have not now space to write, further than, to say that it is extremely creditable to Canterbury. It is almost purely a Canterbury exhibition. The exhibits from Otago and other districts are very few indeed ; but this is not the fault of the Industrial Association, which invited all and sundry to send in goods for exhibition, the Associ^ion paying carriage and contingent; expenses.