THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24902, 15 June 1946, Page 6

THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION

Manufacturers Give Support SUCCESS OF 1906 DISPLAY Complete records of the 1906-7 Exhibition in Christchurch have been obtained by the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association, which is wholeheartedly in support of the proposal to hold a Centennial Exhibition in the city in 1950. Representatives bf the association will discuss their plans at a meeting of the interim committee dealing with the exhibition proposal, next Monday. Although the Dominion’s population was less than 1.000,000 at the time the previous exhibition was held in 1906 in Hagley Park, it drew a total attendance in the five , and a half months it was open of approximately 2.000,000 patrons. Plans for the 1906 exhibition had been in operation for thrfee years previously, after the proposal had received the official sanction of the then Premier, the Rt. Hon. R. J. Seddon. It was at first intended that the exhibition should be controlled by the people of Christchurch, under subsidy from the Government, but the final decision was that the Government should control the finances entirely and guarantee any loss. Buildings for the exhibition were contracted for (at 1906 building rates) at a total amount of £87,732. They gave a total floor space of 476,500 square feet. A special dam was put in the Avon river near the site, and much work was put in by landscape gardeners round the buildings. For the opening the special Exhibition Ode, written by Mr Johannes C. Andersen and set to music by Mr Alfred Hill, was played. The opening ceremony was performed by the Gover-nor-General, Lord Plunket. Among the many exhibits, valued in all about £500,000 (irrespective of the art display), were stalls representing the United Kingdom. Australia. Canada, Italy, Austria, Germany, and Belgium, among other countries. The total number of exhibitors from outside New Zealand was 384. The more interesting exhibits included one setting out the evils of “sweated labour” in factories in England, and giving in comparison the wages earned by New Zealand workers in the same kind of industries. For instance, it was stated that in England paper-bag makers were paid at 6d a 1000 and were making 4s 6d a week for a 12-hour day. In New Zealand it was reported the work was done by machinery, and women working at it (in 1906) made an average of from 13s 6d to £1 for a 45-hour week. k The millionth visitor to pass through the exhibition gates. Miss Alice Jennings, received a gold watch as a souvenir. The balance-sheet, presented in 1908. showed a debit in the profit and loss account of £81,430.