THE Thames Advertiser. FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 1880.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XIII, Issue 3684, 20 August 1880, Page 2

THE Thames Advertiser. FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 1880.

The Industrial Exhibition recently! hold in Ghristchurch appears to have been a great success, and served to show the Government what could be achieved in this direction in New Zealand. We have referred on former occasions to the exhibits of potteryware,, to which a local manufacturer successfully contributed, but this was only one amongst many samples of industries represented at the exhibition. There were many interesting specimens of industries in their infancy in the colony, and much gratifying evidence of success attendiug local manufactures, which may ultimately take their place among the staple occupations of the people, Of course there were many works of art and curiosities which* call for no comment, because the industrial products, constituting the practical part of the show, are only of real interest to us. The woollen trade was represented by a magnificent exhibit of cloths of the finest quantity, blankets, flannels, hosiery and 'yarns. There are over 100 hands employed in the factory where these goods are produced, wages varying from 10s to 40s a week. The goods find a ready sale, and the demand is constantly increasing. The manufacture of clothing, in which large quantities of locally-made cloth is consumed, is likewise becoming a large industry, one firm alone represented at the exhibition employing 500 • hands, and producing goods of a superior quality at a lower price than those imported. There were many industries represented employing in Ghristchurch alone ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred, up to six hundred hands. "We only want to show what can be done if people will but help themselves and help one another, and not despair because the profits are but modest. Many of the humble but quite, successful little manfacturers represented at the Christchurch Exhibition were admitted to have been brought into existence by the hard times, and by the hard times alone. Here are some of the novel handicrafts exhibited:—Packages, made "of paper or paste-board, from drapers' large boxes, neatly finished with handles, down to tiny pill-boxes, were shown in great variety, of much better quality than imported ones, aiid at a less price.

Bone goods—paper knives, rules, knitting needles, and so forth, manufactured from bones which are otherwise wasted, made an excellent display, the exhibitor, a person of no capital be.. , yond his two hands, a tool or two and l some bones, receiving, we hear, so many orders that ho established a small business then and there. Horse nails, exquisitively made from Swedish iron, sound and shapely, and better in every respect than any ever seen in the country before, drew crowds round the little forge. We could go on multiplying instances of a similar kind, but these are sufficient to show how the depression has been turned to profitable account in the development of such industries. "Necessity is the mother of invention," truly, and Christchurch will, perhaps, in the future bo largely indebted to this season of dullness for many thriving industries. "We are told that the boot trade alone employs about 700 hands and the metal trades 600. Many of these trades appear to be firmly established, and capable of competing successfully with importers, though labouring under some disadvantages incidental to a new country, There were some specimens of marblo of very handsome appearance worked up into mantelpieces, <fec., but we are not able to state to what extent this industry is developed. ..Specimens were shown of a pure white chalk, an invaluable ingredient in the manufacture of Portland cement. The manufactures of woodware are said to employ • upwards of 1700 men in the districts "' of Canterbury and Ofcago, and these and many other industries were largely represented. Of course, the produce of thedistrictwas shown to havethoroughly excluded from the market all imported goods, and to have raised a largo exporting trade. The Thames can verify this, because we have for years past been large consumers of the produce of Canterbury. Can nothing be done to assist the industries of tho Thames in the same manner as" 1 they \\ave beev\ fostered Mid bvov\gU to tbo JyD»kiD totebMy 1 )- "Wb))2woteb what could be accomplished in potteryicaz'e, paint, iron-waik) iintrare, &a, } and yet little is really done to encourage these industries and render them important feeders to our gold mining industry. The show to which we have thus briefly referred demonstrates tho advantages which maybe derived from the application of labour, ingenuity, and capital to developing tho resources which nature has so abundantly provided.