SOUTH SEAS EXHIBITION.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 15319, 21 August 1923, Page 8

SOUTH SEAS EXHIBITION.

A BIQ PROJECT.

NORTHERN SUPPORT WANTED,

Thoroughy mooted some four months ago, £60,000 has already been subscribed in Dunedin alone towards the cost of launching the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, which it is Intended to hold in Dunedin 1925-26. The promoters regard tho exhibition as a Dominion venture, and look for the hearty support of Wellington and Auckland people in making it a successful exposition of New Zealand's resources. Some interesting particulars regard-

ing the present position of the movement for holding an international exhibition in the Dominion in 1925-26 were obtained by a reporter in tho course of an interview with Sir George

Fenwick. $t Dunedin. The project, he stated, was first mooted about four months ago, and was entered upon with the cordial approval and promised support of the New Zealand Manufacturers' Association, although at the time support was promised, the intention was that the exhibition should be Imperial in its •cope and not international. A powerful executive was set up in Dunedin to oonsider necessary preliminaries, and the promises of support from manufacturing and trading sections in the city were most encouraging. The question whether the exhibition should be international or Imperial was debated, and the committee, on a very close vote, decided in favour of the former. A sites committee was set up, and its eighteen members were unanimous in recommending an area of about 60 acres on the foreshore at the northern end of the city. At a subsequent meeting of the main committee, this recommeudation was adopted, and the Harbour Board was now engaged in completing the necessary further reclamation works on the site, formerly known as Lake Logan. A Company Formed.

It was decided to form a company and to register it as soon as shares to the extent of £50,000 were taken up. The capital was fixed at £IOO,OOO, and of this, £60,000 had been subscribed in Dunedin alone. The whole of the provincial district of Otago and Southland had yet to be canvassed, and it was considered by the provincial directors there would be a liberal response in these areas, and that a good deal of support would be given the venture In Canterbury and the North Island. The provincial directors emphasised the point that they regarded the exhibition as a Dominion venture, not limited in its scope because it was to be held in the southern city, and they looked for hearty and cordial support from the people of Wellington and Auckland, as these northern parts of the Dominion would benefit substantially from the large tourist traffic that would result from the holding of the exhibition. Prospect Of Government Support.

As to the prospects of financial support being received from the Government (asked for by a delegation from Dunedin to the Prime Minister), Sir George Fenwick said they had been most cordially and sympathetically received by Mr. Massey, and that after his colleagues had spoken, it had given him pleasure to refer to the-stimula-tion of trade and the educational bonefits to young and old which had occured from the holding of the fine exhibitions held in former years in New Zealand. While those exhibitions were carried out with fine spirit, and redounded to the credit of the Dominion, it must be manifest that a bigger effort must be made'this time.

New Zealand trade has made great strides since the days of the original New. Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, held in Dunedin in 1889-90. It was interesting to cite the figures showing the value of the country's imports and exports in the year of the exhibition just mentioned, and in the year in which the Christchurch Exhibition was held (1907), and in the year 1922, for the contrast was very striking. In 1890, the imports were valued at £6,260,525, and the exports £9,811,720, the combined totals being £16,072,245. In 1907 the imports were £17,302,861; the exports £2O, 068,,957; and the combined total £37,371,818. In 1920 the imports were £61,595,828, the exports £46441,946; and the combined total were £108,037,774. In 1922 the imports were £35,012,561, the exports £42,726,249; and the combined total £77,738,810.

"When I quoted these figures," said Mr. George Fenwick, "Mr. Massey said they showed at a glance the striking advance made in the trade of the Dominion, and he was glad to be able to say that the figures for the present yeear, which he has just had taken out, showed a further substantial advance. They were: imports. £40,140,120; exports, £46,916,216; or a combined total of £87,056,836. This showed what great strides had been made in the Dominion's productiveness and general trade." Sir George said he made the point at the hearing given the deputation that such a very striking advance in the Dominion's trade demanded that the Exhibition proposed should be correspondingly in advance of its predecessors.

Something Higher Than Trade There was something more than trading figures to bo considered, contended Sir George Fenwick; there was the immensely higher status of the Dominion among the nations of the Empire. The respect and esteem hi' which New Zealand was held among her fellows was intensified by the fine spirit of patriotism shown by her virile manhood when called upon to defend the liberties of the Empire; and it was also contributed to in no small degree by her statesmen who had attended the Empire and War Conferences of the past few years. Mr. Massey had in these played a fine part. These things all combined to make the levelheaded men who had this exhibition in hand feel that they were called upon l A see that the groat project they were promoting must be thoroughly worthy of the Dominion. "They have settled down to their work," concluded Sir George Fenwick, "with the determination to make it so, and as north and south are equally interested, they are justified in looking for hearty support from all parts of the Dominion."