DUNEDIN EXHIBITION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19439, 27 October 1925, Page 8

DUNEDIN EXHIBITION

BRITISH GOVERNMENT’S COURT. AN INTERESTING GALLERY. [Per Press Asso istion.] DUNEDIN, Oct. 25. Rapid progress is being made with the preparation of the British Government’s court at the Exhibition. Some idea of the work already accomplished nicy be grasped when it is realised that approximately 11)0,000 panels of asbestos sheeting have been worked into walls, and fully 17,000 square feet of stencilled aeroplane cloth made and laced into position as a decorative ceiling, apart from the fact that 250 cases of exhibits of all sizes and kinds have been unloaded and unpacked. The map of the world is now in position and the complicated machine necessary for its lighting and the movement of the ships across the ocpru is being placed in position by an electrical expert. It occupies a space about 24 feet x 20 feet. Among 100 cases of exhibits landed from the “Tongariro” are several interesting models of the earliest type of locomotive, such as Stephenson’s Loco motive No. 1. and the “Planet,” which is proudly inscribed: “It could draw a train of 75 tons on the level nt 15$ miles an hour.”

Another interesting railway exhibit is a large model of the earliest tvpe of carriage on the old Liverpool and Manchester line, which is now in the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. Mr A. C. Idiens, clerk of works at the Exhibition, distinctly remembers having a talk with the first guard on this line, who occupied a breezy seat on the roof of the carriage, much as the almost now extinct hansom cab driver does. The roof was also the place where passengers’ luggage was stored. As the visitors will see from the model carriage, the springs are a semi-elliptic type, such as are used for automobiles. A brief tour through the court gives the impression cf ar. almost bewildering variety of exhibits—" Railway engines, ships, replicas of magnificent buildings, beautiful specimens of pottery and glassware, statuettes, busts and statues by famous English artists. Copies of historical documents are all being sorted and classified for their appropriate sections. Even at this stage it is possible to see that the British Court, apart from the interest of the individual exhibits, will have many rich colour effects which will be worth travelling far to ■ee.