A COSTLY PROJECT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2049, 9 April 1907, Page 1

A COSTLY PROJECT.

Under this heading the Manawatu Standard thus criticises the Exhibition : The opinion in general throughout Now Zealand that the Exhibition has proved an unfortunate venture for this country. It is estimated that the Government will have to provide for a deficiency of about £50,000, but the loss, unfortunately,does not end tjicre. Even since the Exhibition opened people have been flocking to it from all parts “of the colony, and hundreds who could ill afford the outing have spent every spare shilling they possessed on the trip. Tho money that has been used for this purpose must amount to an enormous sum in tho aggregate, and it has mostly gone in pleasure. If there was any small benefit to he derived from the Exhibition from an educational point of view it has been obtained at a lujge cost, for each province has been well drained of its surplus cash, and there are many who believe that New Zealand will long regret its Exhibition of 1906. In Australia the people are under no illusion regarding Exhibitions. At a recent meeting in Sydney a speaker stated that “the total loss on the last Sydney Exhibition was about £300,000, and 'the loss on the . Melbourne International Exhibition was also very great, and to it might be traced tho real beginnings of the Alclbournc boom, which affected not only tho State, but the whole of Australia. A period of depression followed an exhibition, and he challenged any one to name a city which had had a busy time after an exhibition had been held in it.” There is no denying the fact that New Zealand will suffer through its Exhibition, Christchurch in particular. The project was not desired by the colony and it is a great pity that the Government sanctioned it. Settlers in the hack-blocks are badly handicapped by the absence of roads and bridges, and if all the money wasted on the Exhibition had been expended in the former direction we should have more successful settlement, inci:eqse4._. exports, anil greater prosperity. If you want to encourage prodigality among the people of a country, give them an Exhibition of the description that is drawing to a close in Christchurch.