3

H.—3o

The two cider exhibits, by the Company and by Messrs. Fletcher, Humphreys, and Company, are very suggestive of a great future for our orchard industries. The quality and flavour is excellent, and from analysis it appears that, while the alcoholic strength is much below that of English cider, its qualities as a refreshing and healthy beverage are much superior. Woollen-goods : The magnificent display of the Kaiapoi Woollen Company is a very grand feature in the Exhibition. It occupies a frontage of 50ft., and for variety and finish has not been equalled at any previous Exhibition. There are 105 different patterns of tweed cloths alone. The light class of goods for ladies' dresses are fully represented ; fine qualities of blankets ; eight kinds of flannel underclothing; and hosiery in great variety—all proving the great expansion which the business of the company has undergone. I was informed that, during the eighteen years it has been in existence, the Kaiapoi Company has earned and distributed £1,000,416, of which £498,186 has been paid in wages. The exhibit of the Eoslyn Mill, in Otago, is also very important, and has the merit of, for the first time, showing home-made worsted cloths and shawlings, special and costly machinery having been imported for the manufacture of this valuable description of fabric. There are many other exhibits of clothing by Messrs. Strange, the D.1.C., and other firms, in all of which New Zealand manufactures are utilised, and a very large number of skilled hands must find employment in this direction. A new feature is the manufacture of mackintosh overalls and cloaks, rugs, and other articles, which are made up in Canterbury, only the indiarubber cloth being necessarily imported. There is no branch of the Exhibition in which there is such solid advance as in leather, and its application to boots, shoes, saddlery, furnishing, and bookbinding. At the last Melbourne Exhibibition the leather exhibit was a good deal criticized, and showed little variety. Now, however, the tanning industry has evidently acquired a very advanced development, and can supply every requisite of the trades that depeud upon it, the material being of excellent quality. Among the many kinds of leather shown, I observed the waterproof leather, made by the use of chrome alum as a tanning agent. In furniture and woodwork the exhibits are very rich and varied, the woodcarving and upholstering being particularly excellent, and illustrating to advantage the fine qualities of our native ornamental timbers. Among the furnishing exhibits a very useful novelty is Mr. Gee's application of a roller in place of pulleys in Venetian blinds, which is a most admirable improvement. Of carriages, bicycles, and wheeled vehicles there is a very remarkable display, there being several large bicycle-factories in full work in Christchurch, where, owing to the nature of the country and the splendid roads, the use of the wheel has become almost universal, at least among the younger folk. The various modifications and adaptation involved in the great variety of bicycles has called forth an immense amount of mechanical inventions and skill, and marks a real educational development which will react on other manual trades. With the exception of a few fittings, I was informed that the whole of the work, even to the nickel-plating, is done at Christchurch, the metal being imported in the rough. There are several excellent exhibits in printing and illustrating by the various modern processes •of photographic engraving, showing that perfection is being rapidly attained in this most useful art, while most of the silver-prints and bromide enlargements d'splay exquisite finish and tone. The Lyttelion Times and Press office and Messrs. Whitcombe and Tombs have particularly taken great trouble to make a complete illustration of the endless variety of appliances and processes employed in the business of publishing. Musical instruments are well represented by an organ built by Mr. Sandford entirely from New Zealand woods and locally-made metal pipes, the metal used being also a local invention known as spotted metal. The maker informed me that for rich tone and resonance no wood is superior to rimu for this work. Locally-made pianos are exhibited by Messrs. Milner and Thompson, some of them being fitted with the firm's ingenious patent appliance for facilitating tuning. The workers in metal show the most advanced models of agricultural machinery, for the make of which New Zealand is now famous in other colonies, and even in America. Messrs. Scott Brothers make a very extensive exhibit as usual of vertical and horizontal engines and cookingranges of every size and scale of expense. Mr. Price shows excellent force-pumps and brass castings. Mr. Garland, who is one of the few exhibitors from Wellington, makes a highly-finished show of baths and domestic tinware. Mr. Crompton excels in galvanized-iron wire. Messrs. Taylor and Oakly and Mr. Danks are large exhibitors of sanitary appliances and plumbing. The Angus pump, exhibited by Messrs. Atkinson and Tomlin, seems to be a successful contrivance for overcoming the chronic defect of most pumps, which is that they constantly require priming. The exhibit of the Christchurch Gas Company is very large and varied in its nature, illustrating almost every application which it is possible to make of gas for lighting and heating purposes. It seems almost incredible that such a variety of cooking-ranges, bath-heating apparatus, gas-boilers, and illuminating appliances of all kinds could have all been locally made with such a degree of excellence and finish, but 1 was assured that this was the case. Mr. Franter's exhibit of electrical apparatus, much of it also locally manufactured, with its shock-giving machine, seemed to be a constant source of attraction to large crowds. The most attractive part of the Exhibition, especially to the young people, was undoubtedly the workers' department, and. it was unfortunate that the Committee were not able to devote more space to this important educational display. Twenty different technical industries were in active operation, and the space in front of the benches thronged night after night with eager observers and inquirers, to whom information was imparted in a most genial manner by the working exhibitors. A very prominent bench is that of the workers' branch of the School of Art, where the following art and technical branches were in progress: Art-modelling in clay, the designs being chiefly from specimens of native birds and plants ; modelling in plaster-of-Paris, castings, engraving in cameo-