THE MELBOURNE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION.

Otago Witness, Issue 1861, 22 July 1887, Page 9

THE MELBOURNE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION.

Friday's cablegrams announced the intention of the Victorian Premier to request a reply from our Government to bis invitation to New Zealand to take part in the Mel.

bourne Centennial Exhibition. Greatly as we regret it, the reply nrnst be' to decline the invitatipn— with many thanks and expressions of goodwill and regret, but stiU to decline, • We are fully alive to the desirability of New" Zealand .taking her place alongside of th-tf Austria Colonies on such an auspicious «cc^ion as the celebration of the centenary & «Jf settlement of Australia. We wish He^v Zealand -to take every opportunity of associate herself with the mowing Australasian sen^ent which this Exhibition will stimulate and >lp to consolidate. We feel that there will be certain disadvantage in our absence from a gat Bering to which the eyes of Europe will be tu.^ea by means of newspaper correspondence a/ 1 ", reports — that tmfavourable conclusions will be drawn from our absence. But the trtttn is that we cannot afford to keep up • appearances any longer. There is little or no intercolonial trade advantage to be hoped for by our representation at Melbourne, which could not be becomingly carried out under £5000. At this time we cafmot afford to spend such a sum. upon seutiment— a sentiment, indeed, which has grown slack by reason of the depression. Victoria is just now reaching the end of one of those happy periods of achievement anci self-satisfaction when men's minds have leisure- for national aspirations and wide views. OWr public spirit is narrowed by our necessities to the one task of placing the Colony upon a so«ttd financial basis. We trust that Victoria Will not take it ill from us that we are oblige* to refuse an invitation which we should like v&y much to have accepted. But we are obliged to look askance at all proposals for expenditure ]ust now, and we can accept, none wltfch we cannot be sure will prove practically vernunerative.