NEW ZEALAND’S EXHIBITIONS

Southland Times, Issue 24114, 1 May 1940, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND’S EXHIBITIONS

SEVEN IN NATION’S HISTORY

DISPLAY HELD IN LONDON IN 1851

The Centennial Exhibition is within a few days of closing and since it may be expected to benefit the country very considerably both in virtue of its importance as a symbol of 100 years of progress and as a stimulant to trade, an analysis of the results of previous New Zealand exhibitions will be of interest.

There have been six other exhibitions in the history of New Zealand which received national support, but only the largest four are discussed here.

It is not perhaps generally known that as early as 1851, New Zealand was associated with an exhibition. For it was in that year that 40 exhibits, mostly depicting Maori life and customs were sent to represent the colony at the London International Exhibition. Doubtless, however, they attracted little attention. They were probably regarded as evidence of the uncivilized life, people in the Antipodes were forced to lead.

Fourteen years later, the first national display in which the colony’s natural resources and the growth of its agriculture were depicted, was held at Dunedin. This city, its population swollen by the gold rush of 1861 until it was the largest in the country, had good cause for pride in the exhibition, which gave longsighted pioneers of those days some indication of the state of development their land was to attain. SUPPORT FROM PIONEERS Next came the exhibition of 1889-90, which, held at Wellington, was credited with making a profit of £519. Admissions totalled 625,000 —a magnificent response, since the European population of the colony was then only 610,000. On November 1, 1906, what was described in a contemporary ■ report as “the greatest exhibition ever held South of the Line,” was opened at Wellington. It achieved brilliant success. Not only was it highly praised by many overseas visitors, but it attracted such enthusiastic support that admissions for the five months and a-half it was open, reached 1,970,000. Since the European population was then less than half this total—it was about 975,000 —the magnitude of the response can be realized.

That it closed showing a financial loss of £81,400 is a fact the importance of which can be over-rated. It was well recognized that the impetus given to industry and agriculture far outweighed the financial consideration in importance.

New Zealand at that time was anxious to prove its right to be raised from the status of a colony _ to that of a Dominion, and the exhibition assisted to no small degree in establishing the claim. It proved the capacity of the country to provide a small but growing population with a high standard of living and effectively displayed its potentialities as an important unit in the economy of the British Commonwealth of Nations. A feeling of justifiable pride in the rich natural resources of New Zealand and in the remarkable progress which had been made in their development was abroad. SOUTH SEAS EXHIBITION

Of the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition which was held at Dunedin in 1925-26, it may be said that this focused world-wide attention on the Dominion’s scenic attractions,' on the excellence of her agricultural products and on the high standard of prosperity she was enjoying. The attendance totalled 3,200,000. It was financed by a company with a capital of £lOO,OOO, of which about £BB,OOO was subscribed, and by means of a Government grant of £50,000. Shareholders suffered a loss, being returned 16/- in the £l, but as with the 1906 Exhibition the advertisement which it gave the country overseas, the large number of tourists it attracted and the increased interest stimulated among New Zealand people in their own in- ! dustries, were advantages which in importance, outweighed the cost. FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS It will be seen that the financial result of an exhibition gives little indication of its success. The Centennial Exhibition will almost certainly result in a loss. But invariably, experience has shown, these nationally supported displays are not to be regarded as commercial ventures where the profit motive is a consideration. Even the New York World Fair, which attracted more people than any other exhibition in history, lost money. The difference between receipts and expenditure should rather be regarded as capital well spent in advertising a country’s products, helping to build up its trade and in the case of New Zealand’s Centennial effort, in instilling into New Zealanders’ minds the pride of their achievement and that of their forbears in bringing New Zealand to its present state of development. If the war had not intervened, causing the cancellation in England, Australia and the United States, of a large number of tourist bookings to the Dominion, its influence would have been greater still. The war, however, did nothing to decrease enthusiasm within the country. Admissions will total about 2,500,000 by Saturday night. That figure is testimony to'the fact that the public has not been slow to realize its importance as a mark of 100 years of extraordinary progress.