THE NEW ZEALAND COURT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1923, 20 August 1888, Page 3

THE NEW ZEALAND COURT.

A correspondent m Melbourne sends the " Poet * r the following :— « Visitors to the New Zealand mineral court simply ridicule it, its aspect being mournful and museum like m the extreme. Two apparently large tombstones and a few yellow rock pudding dishes containing ore ; several cases of quartz samples, a stand badly equipped with a few loose boulders of quartz, and that is the impression with which a visitor leaves the show. The adjacent Maori figures, or gods as they are thought to be, and ' footprints of the moa ' on the side walk of the mineral court, near one of the tomb atones, imparts an ancient Methusaleh aspect to the New Zealand mineral court. The tombstones bear no inscriptions or label, but on close inspection appear to be intended as an improved map on tablets, showing the configuration of New Zealand. It has a funeral aspect, and on glancing round at tbe moa's feet and Maori fiugures, one is almost inclined to think it typical of the graves of departed aboriginals, and that the Maori figures and moa's feet have been reoently dug out of the volcanic mud at Tarawera An extremely bad iaipreesion is created by the opening show of the mineral court of New Zealand, which has a paltry olass of exhibits, and these poor'y dis played. A New South Wales exhibitor offered to lend New Zealand a few tons of quartz to build up a column or two of mineral ore like their own and other oourts have erected, showing to advantage the material from the gold and silver producing lodes of Australia In front of the New Zealand court, quite apart from the rest of the mineral exhibits, is a column showing the total gold pro uced, but for watt of &o inscription even the effect of this (now out of date) trophy is lost, as the few who notice it all attribute it to Queensland, the adjacent court