A DELAYED REPORT.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14483, 3 July 1911, Page 4

A DELAYED REPORT.

Eor years past inquiries havo been made as to what Lad be. come of the " Official Record of tlie New Zealand Exhibition, 190G-T," for which an amount of. we believe, ,£6OO had beeu kept standing on the Estimates, but which had not been issued. The puzzle has just been solved by the publication of the report, which was completed and forwarded to the Prime Minister, as the author's preface shows, in November 1907, but which the Government has not seen fit to issue till the present date. It is natural to suppose that the report has been kept back to avoid the- necessity for answevincy unpleasant questions, which might have been raised in some quarters, as to why certain matters are omitted from it. The Exhibition held in Christchurch was in most respects a great successA but there were some unfoi-

lunate feature."-; in connection with it, i'cii- which it would be useless alter tliis interval, :ind would have been highly difficult ;iiii] perhaps useless at tlio time, lo nttempt to apportion Hid responsibility. Tim Official Record just touches on the differences between :m<l resignations of Commissioners, and does not refer at all to tlio regrettable events which took place iu connection with the judging. Apart from those unpleasant aspects, the foreign representatives and tliß_ General Manager, whose business ability and energy were his strongest qualifications for the position, were not a happy family, and some of the largost oversea exhibitors left Now Zealand with the feeling that an unfair point had been worked upon them by the Income Tax Department, by an unexpected exaction, made at the eleventh hour. The secret history of the Exhibition, which it is just as well should not be written, would make a far more interesting story than this Official Record, which, however, we are glad to praise as on the whole adequate for its purpose, and, from a literary point of view, infinitely superior to the Official Records we have seen of the great Sydney and Melbourne Exhibitions. The work is much more than a compilation. Its author, Mr James. Cowan, has achieved a high place among the younger writers of his native country, and his main work, " The Maoris of NewZealand," is one of the freshest and best written books ever published on that subject, besides containing more new information on the Maoris than any work which has been published, probably, in the last twenty years. No better authority ■ could have been found _ in New Zealand for dealing with the ethnological section of the Exhibition, which was an exhibition of the life and customs of the principal dark races of the South Pacific, as well as of the industries of the Empire. Mr Cowan's treatment of this portion of his subject is beyond praise, and his description of the Exhibition's environs, buildings,_ courts, and principal exhibits is written freshly and with grace. _ 'As a record of his< tory. committees, speeohes, detailed exhibits, attendances and awards, his work is oareful and comprehensive, and leaves hardly anything to be desired. He deals honestly with the attendance at the Exhibition, pointing out that the misleading inference whioh might be drawn from tho enormous turnstile figures requires to be corrected in the light of certain facts. Apart from season ticket holders, numberiau 8123, the number who entered the Exhibition as paying visitors was 983,621. ,The record would have been more useful to promoters_ of future exhibitions if a critical chapter could have oeeq added dealing with the relative attractiveness of different classes of exhibits, and of the Exhibition proper and its side shows, as well as the advantages of rival systems for the oontrol and management of such an undertaking. The nearest approach to such a summary of lessons is contained in a short report obtained from the Home Industries Committee on their section, and it is easy to see the special difficulties which prevented a general extension of this most desirable feature. The work is admirably printed, bound, and illustrated, a couple of illustrations and I nearly two pages of description being given to the South Canterbury Court, which took first prize • in the competition for " best district court." Mr Cowan and the Government are to be congratulated on this Official Record, which would have attracted far more interest if it had been published, as it might have been, three and a half years ago.