PROPOSED INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12403, 17 January 1905, Page 7

PROPOSED INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION.

AN EXPERT S OPINION.

Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, January 16. In tihe course of an interview with a "Post" .representative, Mr. R. E. N. Twopenny, who is an expert in exhibition matters, referred to the proposed intercolonial exhibition a.t ChrMsbchurch. Regarding the Premier's estimate that an • expenditure of £20,000 will see the affair through,. Mr. Twopenny is doubtful. He thinks that a great! deal of good luck and quite exceptional management will be required to keep the expenditure witihai that sum if the exhibition is to be at' aKi adequate. The expenses of the Dunedin Exhibition amounted to £45,000. The cost of the building is really very great. For instance, the buiMing alone in the Dunedin Exhibition amounted to £20,000. That exhibition was a suocesS becausa its organisers fitted their outlay to the promise of revenue, and because the show was patronised by the public, wlrch was filled with a great deal of patriotism. It came just af Js-r the period of depression, and i* succeeded in its aim, which was rather to give heart to the colony and brush away tte ebbwebs of pessimism than to bo an irrelevant collectioin of

.the colony's products. Th-a exhibition . J now projected will hardly be* able to expect this patriotic stimulus. If it is run on big lines it will require a patronage which it will be difficult to obtain. As an instance of what can happen •when tho "frost" bites an exhibition, he quoted tho case of the yictorian, Government, whoeo 1883 exhibitiion resulted in a loss of over a quarter of a million sterling. Thero is one suggsst.:on Mr. Twopenny would make. He thinks it? is alanost a pity that instead of an exhibition in New Zealand, there will not be a New Zeailand exhibition in London. The money would probably ba better spent if this course -was adopted. Of tho sucobsh of a colonial exhiibiitiion in London,, he has not any misgivings. It would introduce the colony and its industries to a profitablo clientele—tho London pubEo—and would, by reason of its novelty and freshness, secure an interest which would lead to a tangible expression in the shape of 'business dealings between London and oUTsetves. It would, in short, bo a« profitable an advertisement aa could be conceived.