THE EXHIBITION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7014, 1 February 1901, Page 6

THE EXHIBITION.

WHAT THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN. HOW EXHIBITIONS ARE MANAGED. OPINIONS OP OUTSIDERS. AN INTERVIEW WITH MR ALLAN. " From start to finish, right through, the affair has been a. perfect success." The speaker was Mr R. Allan, President of the Canterbury .Jubilea Industrial Exhi- ; bition, which was brought to a close last ; evening. He w»as speaking to a representative of this journal, and in his voice there was a tone of great 'satisfaction and pride "The figures are not yet complete," he continued, " but I may say that the total attendance has been 250,000, and we will have a larger surplus than has been made by any other Exhibition held in-this colony. It; will be something over £3000, and 'the highest that has been made hitherto is £2000. Apart from tho financial aspect, however, it^is extremely gratifying to know that a. large measure of praise has been given by, visitors to the exhibitors, and to tho displays generally. - . WHAT THE VISITORS SAY. " During the threci months that the Exhibition has been open I have had many conversations with visitors from Greait Britain, America, Canada, and Australia, amd they all expressed surprise at tho fact that New Zealand had mado so much ■ progress in regard to manufactures. The exhibits of furniture, woollen ... goods, and products from. the freezing works have excited special admiration, the. Austrailians showing verykeen interest in the meat freezing exhibits, especially the sheep shown from the % Belfast works. ;' . .;" THE EFFECT OF COJEPETITION. " One of til© most successful departments of the Exhibition' was the -Home Industries Section. This, I think, is partly accdu_fed for by the fact that it has been competitive. There were upwards of 3000 entries, so you can judge what a laTge number of people were interested directly in. the success of fchd sectioai. . " And here I would like to say that, although the general exhibits were not sent in for competition, we will issiiei honorary certificates, probably of a descriptive character,, so that they will -bo of some value. Personally, I am of opinion that the next Exhibition which is held—it, will not ba for some years, probably— should be ai competitive one. Of course, there are difficulties in the way, as many exhibitors prefer to let their exhibits speak for themselves, using them a« a business advertisement. Still, judging from the remarks ftiade by exhibitors themselves, there are many who would Jike to see competitions held, and I think that when the nex.t Exhibition comes round, the time will ba ripei for holdiai'g them! PRACTICAL RESULTS. "The Workers' Section also came in. for a great deal of praise, and there is no doubt that the display of work by the young « workers has been exceedingly creditable, lc shows that there are among us youths who are making themselves thoroughly ' well qualified ,to become artisans in the various trades carried on here. The cabinetmaking and furniture exhibits have been specially good, and prove without any douou that there is a great future before these branches of trade. Much taste is shown by the exhibitors, and I see no reason why we.should not make tha great bulk of the furniture required in the province. THE ART GALLERY. "To a large mumber of our visitors ithe chief attraction of the Exhibition was the Art Gallery. The majnageinent 'has had to rely to a great extent on the good feeling shown by the people of Auckland, Wellington land Dunedin, and one cannot help regretting that we in Christchurch are so far behind in this respect. Thiare is no disguising the fact that we occupy only a third-rate position as far as our Art Gallery is concerned, and I hope that the display we have made will excite greater dncerest, and lead to our local gallery being better supplied with pictures. manufactures: " I should like to say, dn connection with the Manufacturing Sections, that the manufacture of ranges has been well represented, and it also has evoked considerable interest and admiration from visitors. It is really an exce_en.t display, and I am glad to say that considerable business has been don© in consequence of the exhibits dn this class. " There is one department of the manufacturing industry thait we have nob done justice to. I refer to agricultural implement's. A very large number of country visitors have come in and mado inquiries in this direct-ion. As a matter of fact, we have exhibits from most of the local firms, but only one from each. But this is accounted for when it is remembered' that the manufacturers rely greatly on the annual show to display their implements, and, besides this, we have mot had the room to make anything like an adequate display. A proper display of these implements would require at least half of our total space, and, of course, that was out of the question. .THE NEXT EXHIBITION. " Here I might say I am afraid that when the time foT the next Exhibition arrives, it will be found that the present splendid site will be altogether too small. Future Exhibitions will have to be held in some part of Hagley Park, and in that case, no doubt, such displays as implements will receive more attention. But lam afraid tibat lam looking a great deal before tho times, because a good many years will elapse before another Exhibition is held in Christchurch." THE ENTERTAINMENTS." How have the entertainments been patronised? ,-.-'■ ...-,. ''Well, quite apart from the educational aspect of our Exhibition, I think there is

no doubt;. tlw,t : for the three mouths during 1 which the -affair has 'been 'running, we have given the public plenty of opportunities to be entertained at .a'oheap rate. We have given an entertainment every night 4 for the seventy-five nighits that the Exhibition has been open, amd raearly all of them have been of a really excellent quality. We 'have ■ obtained the very best musical and amateur dramatic talent in the city, and it has beeni supplemented by the best talent from other places. The Exhibition itself, the concert hall and the lounge have been' patronised day and night, amd hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people will miss tihese- resorts whien the. 'Exhibition is closed., ;. ~ ;-. ; ' 'VWe had a splendid ;_iktextaiiiment Committee. At least four or five of the members of it gave up a lot of time to carry out the entertainments. I believe I am right in saying that every entertainment, with, perhaps, one exception) was carried out on the '. advertised date." -• , - = THE NEED FOR A POPULAR RESORT. "To any mind this proves that th«re is a meed in Christch/urch for some kind of popular resort. It occurs to mo now that Me Wigram's proposal to form Winter Gar- , dens is an. excellent one. I can fancy such gardens, laid out on the site of the Exhibitd'on, in the very heart of tho city, with r promenade concerts and other entertainments being held in 1 connection with them. We have two acres and three-quarters. Very pleasant gardens could be formed here, and they certadnly would add to the public attractions of- the city." INNER WORKINGS OF THE EXHIBITION. There must have been considerable strain on the management to provide these entertainments, and to keep the affair moving from start to finish? "Yes. But this is a thing about which , the public know very little. They accept the situation, take their full of the enjoyments i afforded, and then go away, without tbinking about how the affair has been managed. "In the first place, the inauguration' of an Exhibition entails a vast amount of ; work. It commences practically nine or twelve months before the Exhibition is opened. A scheme has to D>9 formulatedy arrangements have to be made for buildings, catalogues and schedules have to be prepared, arid innumerable details (have to be attended to. An outsider- cannot realise it. I believe that for six months before this Exhibition was opened meetings of the standing committees were . held, and the members of come of the committees ihaye given ; almost continuous work cull th© time the Exhibition has been open, lam ,a_nost ashamed to say that for <ax or eaght anonths I have hardly attended to my own business at all. " But the saying that one volunteer is worth ten pressed mem holds good with regard to Exhibitions. If we 'had had to rely on aja ordinary official staff, the affair would not have been nearly so successful. The committees have been most enthusiastic., though, of course, it was inevitable that c, great deal of the work' should faU cja comparatively few, as it always does an such thdngs. But I do not know of another Exhibition in the colony which ihais been run as this one has been. The only paid official that we had- up to the opening was' our excellent secretary, Mr Garrard, and all through he has given us much assistance. My labour, amd that of the committees, has been greatly lightened by the masnner in which the details have been attended to. Just before the opening we engaged a staff, and here again vre have been very successful. The whole Exhibition! has been run with the utmost smootinness. Nothing has gone wrong, with th© exception of the accident to poor" Bums. We were very gratified at tho response which everybody in the Exhibition gave to the request for funds ifor him. Mr Recce a_d I hajve been appointed trustees, and we have sufficient money in hand to keep Bums for seven ,-years, while he is acquiring means of making his living under his ailteiredi circumstances." DAY-TIME .PERFORMANCES. How did the day-time performances go off? , "We had a number of matinees and school competitions, and the visitors were delighted with them. I should like to say that in connection with these performances we always had one good stand-by. It was Mr'E. W. Seager, who was always ready to .come forward, at the shortest notice, with his magic or mystery or magic lantern. Thereds no one connected with the Exhibition who has given more time to the amusements than he. He deserves the very wannest thanks from the saana^ement, and has received it." THE SIDE SHOWS. Were the sideshows equally successful? " Strange to say, they were not a success. Here, perhaps, is the one failure in connection with t-e. Exhibition. It might have been- that the rooms in which they were held were not inviting, or, perhaps, they were over-shadowed by ithe larger attractions in the hall. The Topsy-turvy House, which, of course, was-.more a piece of fun. than a perfect delusion, brought rin a considerable sum of money.' The trained birds exhibited by Mr Batchelor were successful, and were, indeed^quite an attractive feature. THE STALL-HOLDERS. • " Thti- stall-holders have done fairly well. There was some grumbling sat first, as tihey thought they were not doing as much business as they had expected, but I think that on the whole they are fairly well satisfied. The restaurant and the "tea-rooms did not do so well as I had anticipated. This may be accounted for by the fact that the site of the Exhibition is a central' one, and that all round there. a,re tea-rooms which are well known: to the public." . THE ATTENDANCE. Wlhat has been the effect of reducing the price for admission at the turn-stiles to sixpence? "It has proved to be a great success, and the last four days have almost made a record week. On Wednesday, over 6000 people paid for admission through the turn-stiles, and besides these, of course, there were the season ticket-holders. " The attendance, on the whole, as ] said before, has kept up remarkably well. THE CLOSING. " We shall close the doors with a certain amount of satisfaction, as we shall feel like schoolboys who have been let out for theii holidays. At the same time, there will be a great deal of regret among us at the fact that the avocation we have followed for 1 the past three months has gone. I sincerely

' ihope that the next; exhibition, which is run ;w_l attain the 'same success as that of the '■■ Canterbury Jubilee Industrial Exhibition. ■ ' -'•" One of most pleasant features of the 'Exhibition,' to those who had the management of it, was tli© opportunity afforded for helping: in , the celebrations of Canterbury's Jubilee. For the whole of the Jubilee week these buildings were' the meeting-place for old colonists, who' practically made them their home. Entertainments were given for the old colonists every evening, and X am sure that the Canterbury Industrial Exhibition will, be strongly identified in their , minds '^-"■thlS-'cel^aSiteii^ of -the Jubilee."? ' . . ; , r ' > ■ ""'■ .i ' it has been-fotind thSt the -use\ of turnstiles has been very successful.' Mr Allan, inireply -to ,a question, said -that the system had worked admirably. A^ the end of - each day the -tally was never'-out more than one shilling, and then it was probabiy caused by some person paying a shilling extra. The machines had been quite equal' to the traffic, and/t hey had saved a vast amount of trouble.' . .thanks. . '•;■•;. In conclusion, Allan said that the management had to return thanks to' the public, and to many individuals, whom however, it would bc> impossible to mention. The Government had been very good. It had granted £1000 in the 'first place, and that was really the capital upon which the Executive had to work. Goods were carried f re* on the railways, and assistanqe. was given io other directions. ..-All . members of the Ministry, and also his Excellency the Governor, had shown great interest in: the Exhibition, and had visited it. "Mr Allan said that he also desired to record his thanksto the Press, whose assistance had been •invaluable. ';' " ;