Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price 1d. FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 1886. The Indian and Colonial Exhibition.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1876, 27 August 1886, Page 2

Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price Id. FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 1886. The Indian and Colonial Exhibition.

It tuna oat after all that the really important productions of this colony have not been properly represented at the Indian and Colonial Exhibition now being held in London. Dr Bailor’s collection of Maori articles and curios appears to be the moat prominent feature in the New Zealand Court of the; Exhibition. There was also a large and varied collection of natural history 11 exhibits,” and many objects of interest illustrative of Old New Zeeland. But of what the colony grows, produces, and manufactures, the show is admitted to be limited and altogether poor. On this point the British Australian remarks “ There are things in which New Zealand could, and therefore ought to, have made a better display. For a splendid agricultural colony like this to be so deficient in cereals and grasses is lamentable. She ought to have had whole sheaves of grasses and wheat, and an agricultural trophy as 'nposicgasthat of Canada. Then, too, there is no agricultural nr "hinery exhibited, whereas New Zealand-made imple* ments and machinery would stand comparison well with the other colonies.” Now it is just in the things thus indicated that the colony ought to have made the very best display of which it was capable. At the Industrial Exhibition held in Wellington there was a large and varied show of every kind of wool, grain, agricultural produce, flax, timber, agricultural mach’-cry, preserved meats and a large nun ( manufactured articles and product ,of every kind. Now, a judicious selection of these exhibits could have b:en sent to the Indian

’ Colonial Exhibition, so as to show the people of Oreat Britain what progress this colony had made in productions and tcanu* (actures, and thereby to encourage people to eome out and seaie iu it. The British Small Farmer, Agriculture' Laborer, mechanic or artisan does so* to see a lot of Maori curios and nati lory product’ 'i. What the people want see are specimens of what the colony produces and manufactures, so that they may form some idea as to the opportunities which it presents as a field lor farming, the employment of labor, and its openings for skilled workmen in such manufactures as have been established. The “ curiosity ” .side of New Zealand has been amply represented at " the big show ; ” but a number of reliable and intelligent colonists who have carefully inspected the New Zealand Court at the Exhibition, are unanimous in saying that its productive and industrial side was scarcely represented at all. That is a great pity. A good opportunity was afforded to *the colony, in homely Scottish phrase, " to pit its best fit foremost,” and been almost altogether thrown away.