MELBOURNE EXHIBITION.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 442, 15 October 1880, Page 2

MELBOURNE EXHIBITION.

By Gnetra.

What it Means. On the Way to the Show. At tbe Gates. Round the Gardens. Three Dumb Waiters and a pole. Jobbery and Snobbery. Decorations.

If the readers of The Akaroa Mail will turn up the word " exhibition" in any decent dictionary, they will find amongst the various meanings, tbe words "payment and recompence." How singularly appropriate aro the terms in connection with the just opened International Exhibition at Melbourne. Payment to the extent of a quarte? of a million «f ready cash having been made, we now have our recompence in a beautiful structure, Biirrounded by an exquisite pleasaunce of the tea-gftrdeiiß order and filled—well, of the contents, let . this and subsequent letters give such good or bad report as may meet the interests of truth and justice. But before I deal with exhibits, a word or two concerning certain prominent feature.'-of the Exhibition building and its accessory glories. Passing up Bourke-street and noting on tho road ■* that oysters can hereabouts bo purchased for sixpence per dozen, that fried fish asserts itself aggressively both in odor and presence, that a reek of stale humanity is wafted from unsavory lanes, that the architecture generally, is of the up-and-down miscellaneous order, and turning tha corner where a huge flight of steps, ft bare brick wall, and a huddled mass of stonework represent the wftßp'sneit of politics, the visitor proceeds between dingy and disconsolate, dust-dried corporation re- - serves, hoardings glaring with coloured posters, and gaudily painted signs, past a building called the Model School, on the purest lucus a non lucendo principles, and arrives at last at one of the main entrances to the Exhibition. Having duly produced his or her season ticket, and submitted his or her photograph to the searching scrutiny of the janitors, who look upon lately developed pimples with suspicious eyes. and to whom even the natural growth of hair, affords food for doubt as to identity, our typical friend saunters awhile amidst * the grounds, and admires the i « admixture of lamp-posts and lawns, W asphalte and newly-blossomed flowers, art bronzes and painted wooden pedestals, * ponds, owing their existence to Van Yean and clay, clods here and there intermingled with suggestive shards, in fact, a general appearance as if soma nouveau riche of questionable taste, bad tried to turn his backyard into a, garden, at a minute's notice. These beauties absorbed, let us approach the central entrance, to the main buildings. Here wo have the great and original fountain—as thus—to begin with the inevitable three dumb waiters pierced by a pole, three mermen and mermaids, badly copied from a design of a, fountain exhibited in-Paris in 1867 (by a M. Durel) the four nude, - and very rude boyß, representing Messrs Service, Ellery, Buyelot» ~ and Mirams, or rather Commerce, Science, Art, nnd Industry, dancing the can-can in _ a shower bath. Next, twelve sea-sick crocodiles crawling upwards, vainly endeavouring to spout over the pcMon of a boy above, who is holding a basket 1

iishes, while from the fishes and basket alike streams gush forth in the beautiful natural manner usually adopted by fishes and baskets under such circumstances. Add to this a number of minor figures displayed under a variety of humiliating eircumstancer, and you have seme idea of a fountain which cost the commissioners £800, and the designer probably a five-act nightmare.

Talking of the fountain, I trust it is not true that the artist to whom we owe its existence had a hint three montliß before designs were called for from other local sculptors, who were only notified two days before the competition. I also trust that it is not true, that gross favoritism has been shown in the matter of decorations and refreshments. But jobbery and snobbery aro alas, too frequently found hand in hand in our Victorian affairs, to make us very hopeful that these charges •could be honestly denied.

With regard to the decorations, I am told that two of the leading science artists now in Australia were invited by one of ■the Commissioners to prepare designs with an assurance of the fullest fair play, ■and a promiso that they should be duly •notified when they had to send in their -drawings. They set to work, produced elaborate designs, and found out to their cutter disgust, that the accepted time had passed, and the work been given to another without their drawings being •even asked for.

These are some of the shadows thrown across the sunlit glory of the great under-

taking.

Let me proceed to deal with pleasanter topics, in describing the exhibits, the men and women who come and see them, and the general gossip to be gleaned in a rendezvous where se many thousands of her Majesty's liege subjects meet every day. I leave the opening ceremony to be dealt with by tho pens of those who love to chronicle the movement a of the aristocracy, and dwell with Jeames-like unction, on the names of the " titled personages." For my own part, I prefer a picture to a peer, a piece of porcelain to A premier, any day of the week.