THE MELBOURNE EXHIBITION

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 443, 19 October 1880, Page 2

THE MELBOURNE EXHIBITION

BY GmETRA.-—CONTINCKD.

The Stolid British Mechanic. Geruiania versus Gaul. The Opening Ceremony. Tho Premier and Ilia Purchases. King Casey and the Italian*. The Naked Truth. Pottery and Furniture. Glass with Care. The Duke and Lovelace. Up in the Clouds. Only a Generation. A Bargain.

It was amusing, during the last rehcarsel of Mr Loon Caron's very fine cantata, to watch how certain workmen, intent upon finishing the show-casee of their employers toiled away amidst the dying strains and thunderous crashes of the music as steadily as though stone deaf. It was also amusing to see a couple of watchmakers , assistants, perched up aloft on a narrow ledjje near the big clock (I think its diameter is 15ft.), trying to reach to the centre to fix a pair of Brobdignagian " harms," each of which was higher than the man who held it.

Equally interesting, if not quite so amusing , , was the contest between two of the principal nations here represented— the German and the French. The latter whose court is elegance iteolf, were full of politeness, and eager to furnish all information ayplied for; the former were as snappish and uncommunicative as though they scented political intrigues in each question, and lithofrncteur in every pocket. A bus les A Uemands ! My sympathies »re with th> gallant French, including M. Soudry, who, by the way although considerably powder-marked about the cheek, has otherwise quite recovered from the effect! of his recent disagreerblc attack. I overheard an artist at canvassing the other day saying that he always presented his pipe case to M* Soudry with an ominous "click," when applying for any favor, the said favour being immediately granted. But I doubt tho truth of this.

The opening ceremony was hitchlesa, but by no means so imposing as I expectedThere was a second hand look about some of the uniforms in the dull light of that cloud-obscured morning, and the wearers of drese coats seemed uncommonly like waiten out of luck. The proper costume for the civilians was, of course* frock coat and light unmentionables after the style adopted at wedding cere • monies. But tho ladies—dear butterfly creatures —made up for the dinginesa of the males, and then the music waa good ( very good ; so after all the opening was worth seeing and hearing, and will dwell as a memory in the ininda of many.

Fancy Sir Henry Parkes buying £60 worth of porcelain cups and twicers, &c, when up at the Exhibition during his recent visit! What does a herd-headed, hard-hearted politician who forbids Sunday lectures and quotes damnatory statistics concerning the retrogressive policy of Victoria—what does such a one mean by purchasing articles, like many of liia measures, hardly able to hold water, without being like some of his colleague!, more or lees crackod !

Have you heard about King Casey and tho Italian sculptor ? It seems that the I.S. had brought in a great piece of statuary and had calmly deposited it in tho main building. It was his one exhibit, the M'ork of many weary months, the offspring of his artist brain, tho apple of his artist eye. But it weighed three and a half tons and was simply an abortion. By it passes the monarch on his morning rounds—-" Good heavens" \vh© placed tine hideous thing here? The culprit is produced but pleads authority for his action, This however being denied by. al* with whom the I.S. had been brought into contact, King Casey orders the immediate removal of the monumental mass. The I.S. implores, the monarch vaves, and forgetting all kingly attributes falls to the use of Billingsgate-

Gradually a group of the I.S.s fellowcountrymen close round the gesticulating pair and King Casey finds himself the centre of a circle of dark faces and eyes, flashing sympathy for their bullied comrade and in readiness to support his came if need be by force of arms. Several of the Italians even go so far as to assume warlike attitudes. At thii, like the quenching of fire t'neath a pailful of water, the tnonarch'i ire and courage vanish together, and breaking precipitately through the cordon of his enemies he flees down the nave followed by their derisive laughter. Five minutes after he is bullying an unoffending exhibitor on a purely imaginary charge.

The Commissioners have finally decided not to hang Titian's Venus. It is insufficiently draped. I believe that skirts and bodices are being made for the various statues wanting in this respect, so that c'en the naked truth is to be excluded from the precincts of the building. It is not my intention to speak in this letter of individual exhibits, at any rate in .detail. I leave thatfor my nekt ;;-but- I cannot help a word or two in commendation of the displays made by Mtnton and Son;: Doullon and Co., and others in the pottery line, and by our well-known furnishing firm, W. H. Bocke and Co. Their exhibit covers some 1500 feet, and consists of three walls, each deoorated in a different stylo and enclosing a model bedchamber furnished after the latest modern fashion, with parquotte floor, hand-painted walls and ceiling, and a superb suite of furniture to. match. Such a room as is hero represented should set up a standard o good taite before our Victorian millionaires, who have hitherto frequently lavished money in an utterly absurd man ncr, without any adequate return from an artistic point of view. But of this exhibit more anon.

Another class of exhibits, intensely interesting in the story of their manufacture, and very beautiful in their design, are to be found" in the Austrian Court, in a bewitching variety of articles made of glass, from the tiniest bonbonniere to the mammoth chandelier—from Bohemian tankards engraved with the Words "Melbourne Exhibition, 1880," to the crystal dessert service of an emperor. Next to the pictures and statues, this glassware and the pottery exhibits—amongst which, dear readers, I must spend a special day for your benefit—take ray fancy most. They are so chaste, so new, and so charming, that after all I do not wor:der at Sir Henry Parkes and his purchase.

We couldn't catch a live Prince as an exhibit, but we have a real Duke, and that is better than nothing. I thinn the Duke, or Juke, as my friend O'Blarney calls him, and Soudry divide the honors between them; the ladies, as a rule, giving the preference to Soudry. Why is this ? I pauie for a reply.

A trip to the dome is worth taking. The view half way to the top from the roof of the main building ia rery good, but away up where the Union Jack floats proudly in the breeze it is something to be remembered. Therefore,'easting otitj fear, cry like a true Republican " a lala«terne,"and mount with me the perpendicular ironhinged, iron-railed ladder leading to the pinnacle of our Ambition. Once in the lantern and able to look down and around without dizzinees, and you are well re- ,- warded for the trip. At your feet lie the gardens, their rough and ready features softened by tho distance, their lawns smoothed into emerald velvet, their flower-beda kaleidoscopical ly variegated!, their ponds glistening as if friend Birkinyre had had hie way, and . the Van Yean had been duly purified. Even,the.ugliness* of the fountain is lost at this altitude, while the commonplace humanity that strolls up and down the asphalted-pathi, or surges in at the main entrance, might be a congregation of the best-behaved, best-looking people in the world for all we can see or hear. Away to ihe south tie oye glances over all the well known features of the city, the towers of the Post Office and Town Hall, the spiree of tho Wesleyan, Scotch, and Independent Churches, to tho warehouse walla of Government House, and on to the new Emerald Hill Town Hall, brave in fresh stucco and with window* catching the Bin with " shining morning.face." Bight and left stretch the suburbs of Carlton and Hotham en the one side, arid Collingwood and Fitzrey on tho other, while to the rear itraight lines of streets bordered by regiments of heusee show how rapidly the great city is extending to the northward. All this mdiii Ueber Tlerr Schmidt, all this mon cher Mons. Patapon, all thii my remnants of Babel generally—of whose tower, by the way, I am now forcibly reminded—all this is but the growth of a ■single generation. Little more than 30 years ago Melbourne was the veriest toy village ; its main streets a muddy slough of despond, its heuses hut<, its court of ; justice of so fragile a. nature that it was annihilated by the butts of Mr Batman's bull, and novr with; 26&000; inhabitants and as the ninth English city in the world, Melbourne invites all the nationi of the globe to admire her wealthier prosperity, her independence, her generosity, her taxes, her smells, her unfinished buildings, her passing beauty, and her moral worth! Cock-a-doodle do!

Aβ one of the consequences of the Exhibition we have various wares put forward by enterprising tradesmen with special titles in honor of tho great event. Thus

there are Exhibition books, Exhibition advertising ahnets, Exhibition lollies, Exhibiiide socks, Exhibition tarts, Exhibition ties, Exhibition drinks, Exhibition lodgings, Exhibition prictiv end 'ast ut no inciins least , in tile list of-newly-hatched blessings, Exhibition ■ correspondents, amongst whom I, your humble servant, Wave this day ttra honor of making, my firut b>w before you. I trust that we shall understand each other before long. If you are lenient, I will bo zealous; and so we shall, I trust, agree. Your hands upon it; 'tis a bargain!