CLOSING NIGHT OF CLOSING SHOW

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 188, 6 May 1940, Page 11

CLOSING NIGHT OF CLOSING SHOW

General Manager Now

To Retire

VETERAN OF FIFTY-ONE

EXHIBITIONS

“1 have finished with exhibitions now; this is my closing night of my closing show,” said Mr. C. P. Hainsworth, veteran general manager of the Exhibition, on Saturday night. “I have been on these jobs since 1902; this is my 51st exhibition, and ray last one.” He said that as soon as his work in Wellington was finished, he intended to retire to Central Otago, where his son hal a fruit farm near Roxburgh. “So the Exhibition has now come to an end,” he went on. “While the attendances have not been as high as was hoped, I think there were many factors beyond our control which tended to bring about that result. In any case, it is not right to base our estimates of the worth and success of the Exhibition merely upon attendances. The educational value, particularly for the very large number of school children who have been here, has been enormous. It has acquainted those children with the development of their country in the past hundred years, has been a real object lesson in what has been achieved, and ha s enabled them to visualize and grasp this lesson better than could be done bjanv other means. “War conditions, of course, meant that people were not travelling as much as they would otherwise have done. But I have been amazed at rhe number of people who have come, both organized parties and individuals, from every quarter of the Dominion. “The Exhibition has been a good one. It might have been even better in other conditions —but it has been well w’orth while. It has succeeded in its purpose. “For me, the experience was in many ways an enjoyable one, in spite of tlie many difficulties wc have had to put up with. I have made many new friends here and I have met many old ones from other centres.”