WELLINGTON SUPPORT OF EXHIBITION

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 191, 9 May 1940, Page 8

WELLINGTON SUPPORT OF EXHIBITION

Lack Of Public Spirit Inferred DUNEDIN ATTENDANCES COMPARED Public-spiritedness of Wellington citizens, as evidenced by their attendances trt the Centennial Exhibition, is questioned by a leading article in the “Otago Daily Times” on the closing of the Exhibition. it points out that the total attendance was less than that of the Dunedin and South Seas Exhibition, though the latter was open for a shorter period, and drew upon a much smaller local population. The total attendance at the Centennial Exhibition was 2,641,043, compared with 3,200,49 S at the Dunedin Exhibition. The best daily attendance at the Centennial Exhibition was 78,625 on closing day, the best at Dunedin more than 83,000, also on closing day. “Unfortunately, the Centennial Exhibition,” says the article, “was illstarred from a date long in advance of that chosen for the opening of it. The necessity that was imposed on the Government of introducing a system of control of imports had the immediate effect of depriving the Exhibition of overseas exhibits that would have contributed touts importance. “Then came the war and with it the abandonment of the hope of furnishing the attraction of the presence of a British regimental band—an attraction the value of which will have been realized by everyone who visited the exhibition in this city 14 years ago. The outbreak of war was in this way amidin other respects a severe blow to the Exhibition project. • “Viewed purely in the light of the purpose for \yhich it was promoted the Exhibition may be said to have fulfilled expectations in a gratifying sense. It deserved a larger measure of patronage than was accorded to it. “In this connexion it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that it did not receive from the Wellington people themselves the support that it merited. It is true enough that its location, probably the only location that could be provided in Wellington for an Exhibition of the pretensions of this one, must have militated to some extent against the creation of what might be called a habit on the part of the residents to visit the Exhibition. “Yet the fact that the aggregate attendance was not as great as that at the Exhibition in 1925-26 in Dunedin—an exhibition which was open for a shorter term than that closed on Saturday, and had a much smaller local population to rely upon for daily supports—is one that does seem to imply some reflection on the public spiritedness of the inhabitants of Wellington.”