Imperial Institute. FANCIFUL NOTIONS

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7267, 21 July 1893, Page 3

Imperial Institute.

FANCIFUL NOTIONS

The Westminster Gazette proposed to lay out the gardens of the Imperial Institute as a raised map of the world on Mercator’s pro jection and asked for opinions on its idea. Mr W. B. Perceval, our Agent-General, amused himself by sending the following reply : Sir—You ask mo what I think of your suggestion of “ a model of the Umpire at the Imperial Institute.” I like the idea, but am somewhat dubious whether it could be carried out in the form you suggest. The Umpire in garden bods would not do at all* Canada planted with lobelia, India a carpet of tulips, Australia as a mass of geraniums, might make effective blazes of colour, but there would be nothing educational about them save as a study of colour effects. The mosaic sea on which would be indicated the various mail and trade routes, cable services, naval squadrons, with continents and islands rising out of it, on which would he shown the products of each portion of the world, the population, trade, trunk railways, telegraphs, naval and military stations of the Umpire, and so forth, is a much better idea, and there could not bo any great difficulty in the way of carrying it out, except the necessary money and space. There may be no objection to using the mosaic sea as a walk ; but I fancy a tea-table in the Pacific, a band rotunda in Siberia, or a summer house in the Argentine, would spoil the effect, to say nothing of barking your shins going through the Suez Canal, and ladies tearing their drosses when rouoding the Cape of Good Hope, I prefer to picture your model Umpire in tho shape of two hemis* pberes lying side, raised about three feet from the ground, with a roiling round them so that people would bo able to walk round the world and easily see the information there presented. Possibly you will condemn this as “educational hut nut popular,” but many may condemn your idea as grotesque and not educational. The difficulty of making the Imperial Institute attractive as well as instructive is not a small one, but, anxious as I am to see the two combined, I reflect that the Institute is not intended to compete with the Aquarium, the • Water Show at Bari’s Court, or places of the kind. Given a little time, the Institute is sure to prove both popular and educational, I and the annual attendance will probaby compare favourably with that of similar institutions. There is scarcely a court that is finished, and there are other galleries yet unfinished, eo people are somewhat previous in forming their opinions about the Institute. To come back to your model, I believe you have hit upon a want, and I hope you will persevere in developing the idea. When, with the aid of your critics, you have reduced your model to a practical and attractive educational form, I feel sure the administration of the Institute will give you every encourage moot. TSTo one can accuse the Westminster Gazette of being apathetic about the institute, and doubtless you have already interested your readers in its future sufficiently to enable you to successfully appeal to them for the necessary funds to construct your model Umpire. How about a Ojolorama of the world— e.g., Egypt on a smaller scale, using the centre as a tea room ? Or how about a large illuminated globe of the world with an inclined walk round the outside of it ? . W. P. Peecbval. 13 Victoria street, B. W* P.B.—My wife says that your idea is capital, and that all : her life she has wanted to walk from one country to another to see faoW they come. She says she cannot understand a globe, and gets giddy walking round it, and she thinks my railing round the hemisphere spoils the whole thing. She insists that to have an ice on Mont Blanc would enable her to locate a number of places round about Switzerland which she is hazy about, and that unless she can sit down on Vancouver and see before her the new Pacific route to Australia, she will never be able to understand the way it goes. This is all very well, but there isn’t space. I think if you go down to the institute with string and chalk, you will see your hemispheres will take up much more room than you imagine, and that, with the space available a lady seated on the Himalayas would probably use Ceylon as a footstool, and cover up with her skirts the whole Indian Umpire,— V7.8.P.