27

H.—23.

all representatives of public bodies, and to persons having a special interest in New Zealand, but a small charge were made to the general public. The ample and highly favourable notices of the colony which appeared in the leading journals of the United States were partly due to my being able to supply the necessary information in so compact and attractive a form, and were the means of drawing a great deal of attention to the New Zealand Court. It may be stated that the Court was almost at all times crowded with visitors, and that when I happened to be present to answer enquiries, my duties as representative of the colony were no sinecure. I mention this, as I consider it was an unfortunate circumstance that T was required by my instructions to leave the Exhibition at such an early date, and before the greatest number of persons be^an to crowd to it. On the 20th July, in common with most of the other Commissioners who were actively engaged, I began to suffer seriously from the excessive heat of the season, the bad effect of which within the Exhibition building was greatly increased by the defective ventilation, so that I left the department for a week in charge of Mr. E. T. "Webb, Eesident Commissioner for the Bahamas, which Court adjoined that of New Zealand, and made a brief trip to Upper Canada. During this tour, which.occupied only a week, I visited several important mines and iron works. After a day's stay at Philadelphia I again left as guest of the Institute of Mining Engineers, on an excursion which had been organized to afford foreign visitors to the Exhibition an opportunity of inspecting the anthracite coal mines of Pennsylvania. This was followed a few days subsequently by a similar excursion to inspect the pho3phatic marls of New Jersey, under the guidance of Professor Cope, the distinguished anatomist. By the end of June I returned to Philadelphia, and made arrangements for placing the New Zealand exhibits under the charge of Mr. "Webb for the remainder of the period during which the Exhibition was to remain open, leaving full instructions as to the disposal of the exhibits at the close. These instructions had been very much simplified by the Commissioners and the Colonial Government having agreed to the request of the Trustees of the National Museum of the United States that all articles exhibited which were not private property should be handed over to that museum, in which they are to be preserved permanently as a distinct New Zealand section. As there had been several alarms respecting the safety of the gold exhibits, which were of considerable value, I removed the greater portion, only leaving the bulkier specimens to be returned to the colony, and of the alluvial gold only the small portions of the samples which were to be made over to the United States Government. After taking pnrt in the Centenary demonstration of the 4th July, to which I was invited as representative of the colony, I finally handed over the charge of the New Zealand Court to Mr. Webb, and started on my return to the colony on the Bth of July. In crossing the Continent I spent two weeks in visiting the Colorado and Utah mining districts, collecting an extensive series of ores, and obtaining information relative to the auriferous and silver mines and the methods employed for reducing the ores, which will be published in due course. In delaying my return to the colony for this purpoee, I anticipated instructions to adopt this course from the Hon. the Colonial Secretary, but which I only received on my reaching San Francisco on the 3rd August. After executing commissions for obtaining tree seeds and other matters which I had been asked to undertake in San Francisco, I returned across the Sierra Nevada, and paid a visit to the great silver mine on the Comstoek Lode, at Virginia City, returning to San Francisco in time to leave by the mail starting for New Zealand where I arrived on the 14th September, 1876. The following is a description of the position and arrangement of the New Zealand Court at the Exhibition :— The New Zealand Court in the Philadelphia Exhibition, is an oblong space with 25 feet frontage to the main corridor that traverses the entire length of the building, and extending in depth 64 feet, so as to have a frontage to a second corridor. On the west side is New South Wales Court, and on the east the Courts of Jamaica and Bermuda. The space is enclosed in an uniform manner with the other Australian Courts, the Commissioners having, as already mentioned, joined in one design, (with the exception of Queensland), so that Australasia, thus combined, forms a striking feature in the Exhibition. The colouring is a delicate French gray, picked out with blue and black, and the Courts are further decorated with flags and bannerets, affording bright points of colour that relieve the general neutral tint. Over the entrance is a Maori carving supported by taiahas and mats, and with the Union Jack over the New Zealand flag, which is supported on either side by the Stars and Stripes aud other flags. Entering the Court from the main corridor, in the centre is a handsome plate glsas case, seven feet high and four feet wide with four glass shelves. This case is fixed to the floor, and is specially fitted for the security of its valuable contents, which comprise about 160 samples of gold sands, nuggets and auriferous quartz specimens from the New Zealand gold-fields. The samples are contained in glass and ebony cups, and are marked in accordance with the printed catalogue which describes their assay, value and other qualities. Cards, giving statistics of the goldfields, are also placed in this case, and the intimate structure of the auriferous quartz is illustrated by a beautifully polished specimen exhibited through a large magnifying glass. This exhibit is of great interest to practical miners and mineralogists, aad