THE VICTORIAN EXHIBITION OF 1875.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 397, 20 September 1875, Page 3

THE VICTORIAN EXHIBITION OF 1875.

{From the Argus.) The Exhibition opened on the 2nd inst. was the fifth Victorian, and the second Intercolonial Exhibition held in Melbourne. Considering the comparatively short time that had elapsed since the exhibition of 1872, it was very unlikely that another exhibition would have been held in this colony for several years, but when it became known that in 1876 there was to be a great Industrial Exhibition in Philadelphia, in celebration of the centennial anniversary of the independence of the United States, the necessity of securing the adequate representation of the Australasian colonies at it became at once apparent. This exhibition, it was announced, would be international and universal, and would include a representation qf all natural and artificial products, all arts and manufactures and industries, all the varied Jesuits of human skill, thought, and imagination. Concerted action on the part of the colonies was felt to be essential, if they wished to make an adequate display of their varied resources. All that one colony could contribute would occupy but small space in a centenary exhibition which is to cover fifty square acres of floor space, but an Australian court would assume dimensions that would command attention, while it would comprise so varied a collection of valuable products and manufactures as would compel admiration. Early in September, 1874, commissioners were appointed to make preliminary inquiries, with the view of ascertaining whether united action should be taken by all the Australian colonies, and they unanimously arrived at the conclusion that, to secure an effect creditable to the colonies, they must act in concert, and that it was indispensable that a preliminary exhibition should be held in order that the objects to be transmitted to Philadelphia should be compared and the besfc of their kinds selected. For the convenience of concentration and of shipment, they recommended that the exhibition should be held at Melbourne. Letters were addressed to th Governors of Hong Kong, Manilla, New Caledonia, and Fiji—of Java, Batavia, Singa pore, Ceylon, Reunion, Mauritius, and the Cape of Good Hope, explaining the advantages likely' to arise by assembling at Melbourne examples of the natural products of so many different zones of latitude, but unfortunately the limited time available for the collection of exhibits has prevented most of these colonies from contributing. On December 23rd, 1874, a Royal Commission was appointed consisting of —His Honor Sir Redmond Barry, Acting Chief Justice ; the Hon J. J. Casey, M.L.A.; the Hon J.F, Sullivan, M.L.A.; the Hon C. J, Jenner, M.L.C.; J. Munro, Esq, M.L.A.; Mr J. Gatehouse, Mayor of Melbourne ; Mr J. M‘llwraith ; and the Rev. J. I. Bleasdale, D D. The following gentlemen were subsequently appointed additional commissioners: —The Hon Sir John O’Shanassy, K.C.M.Q.; the Hon Sir James M'Culloch, M.L.A.; the Hon J; A. Macpherson, M.L.A.; the Hon S. H. Bindon ; the Hon J. T, Smith, M.L.A.; the Count de Castelnau; Mr J, Bosisto, M.L.A.; Mr L. J. Sherrard ; and Mr J. Banks. Mr G. C, Levey was appointed secretary. He had experience in connection with the Victorian Exhibition of 1872, and subsequently at the London International and Vienna Exhibitions of 1873. The duties of the commissioners were to take measures to secure the effectual representation of the arts, manufactures, products, scientific inventions, and new discoveries of Victoria at Philadelphia, and to arrange for a preliminary exhibition in Melbourne, to which all the British, French, and Dutch possessions in Australasia and the neighboring islands were invited to exhibit. At first it seemed probable that some of the colonies would refuse to be represented at the preliminary exhibition, on the ground that the exhibition, if held at all, should be opened at Sydney, as Mr J. Joubert, the secretary of the Agricultural Society of New South Wales, had been the first to propose the union of the colonies at Philadelphia. Owing, however, to political reasons, the New South Wales Government neglected to take any steps to carry the suggestion into effect. Happily, all difficulties were eventually removed, and New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, and

Western Australia, agreed to send contributions. It is to be regretted that the Queensland and New Zealand Governments refused to grant any assistance to persons who were desirous of exhibiting at Melbourne, and the consequence is that the resources of these colonies will be quite unrepresented. The Government of Western Australia also neglected to provide funds for representing that colony at Melbourne and Philadelphia, but some few exhibits have been received from private persons. It was believed that his Majesty the King of Siam would contribute an interesting collection, but the exhibits have not arrived. It was also expected, from advices received, that Fiji, Hawaii, and Nether-lands-Tndia would be represented, but various reasons have operated to prevent their sending contributions. It is very satisfactory that Japan should have forwarded such a large and interesting collection, and that officials of high rank in the Government should have been accredited to act as commissioners here. Their names are Haruo Sokata and M. Hashimoto. They have both visited Europe, and the former was attached to the Japanese Commission at the Vienna Exhibition of 1873. They are accompanied by two other officials, M, Funaki and K. Eda, who are connected with the agricultural department of Japan, and whose mission here is to collect information relative to agricultural pursuits, the process of sheep breeding, and the method of settlement on the lands. The most suitable place in Melbourne for a large exhibition is undoubtedly the great hall of the public library and the numerous buildings attached to it. It was here the exhibitions of 1866 and 1872 were held, and the trustees of the Public Library accordingly willingly acceded to the wish of the commissioners to secure these buildings for a similar purpose on the present occasion. It was found necessary to increase the accommodation, so a new building, 100 ft by 60ft, was erected on the unoccupied ground fronting Latrobe street. It is a substantiallybuilt iron and wood structure. At the termination of the exhibition it will revert to the trustees of the Public Library, and will be utilised as a theatre for the pupils in the scientific schools. The cost was nearly £2OOO. About another £IOOO has been spent by the commissioners in re-decorating the great hall and other buildings placed at their disposal. The remaining £3OOO of the Parliamentary vote has been spent in conducting the general business of the exhibition. It is anticipated that the expense of the Philadelphia Exhibition will amount to about £IOOO more. The space provided for exhibits amounts altogether to 78,000 ft, more than twice as much as was occupied in 1872, and considerably in excess of that required for the Intercolonial Exhibition of 1866. The number of exhibits is, moreover, very much larger than on any previous occasion. The buildings occupied by the exhibits are numerous and somewhat scattered, so that it may be of assistance to visitors to briefly indicate the positions occupied by some of the more important classes of goods. The buildings comprise the great hall ; the wing facing Latrobe street, and the hall opening from it, which have been uged by the trustees of the Public Library as sculpture galleries ; the rotunda, the eastern annexe, which is entered by a covered way from the great hall, and which is continued to Russell street; the new annexe facing Latrobe street, and entered from the eastern annexe ; the north and south courts, on either side of the rotunda, which have been arranged as ornamental gardens, and the vacant ground facing Latrobe street and adjoining the new annexe. The refreshment bar is entered from the eastern annexe, |and also from the new annexe, which it adjoins. The appearance of the main hall is very attractive, brilliantlycoloured flags and banners hang in profusion from the roof, and very much assist in producing an agreeable effect. Too many exhibits have been arranged in the hall, and promenading will be a difficulty, except down the centre aisle. It is a pity that any hindrance should be offered to an inspection of the exhibits, which are highly interesting and instructive. The courts of Tasmania, Singapore, and the Northern Territory are assigned prominent positions at the northern extremity of the hall, in the western aisle. The Tasmanian collection is a very creditable one, and well illustrates the resources and industrial progress of the colony. It comprises specimens of iron ore, freestone, limestone, petrified and fossil wood, polished timber, tin ore, coal, slate, bricks, wheat, oats, flour, malt, hops, whale oils, soaps, native furs, ale in bulk and bottle, wool, a fine collection of shells, and many other articles of interest. The exhibits in the Northern Territory Court and the Singapore Court are also well-deserving of attention. The exhibits from New South Wales and South Australia are not represented in separate courts, but are distributed about the main hall amongst the Victorian exhibits, One of the most interesting features of the New South Wales collection is the display of magnificent photographs. The exhibits from Japan occupy the whole of the sculpture galleries, and are replete with interest, and well dllustrate the ingenuity and skill of her people. They comprise new and old lacquerware, inlaid work, copper enamel goods, figured and colored earthenware, woven and sewn goods, and ornamented dress stuffs. The collection is very tastefully arranged. A large proportion of the most interesting of the Victorian exhibits are displayed in the main hall. The articles are distributed in a manner calculated to draw prominent attention to them. Many are exhibited in handsome glass cases. Some of the more prominent exhibits displayed here are the productions of the woollen mills, pier-glasses, articles of brush ware, handsome cabinetwork, specimens of table glass, a handsome black and gold drawing-room suite, ornamental side-boards, splendidly made billiard tables, mirrors, jewellery, preparations of food, confectionery, perfumery, essential oils, horological apparatus, astronomical instruments, chandeliers, &c. The eastern annexe contains a fine collection of carriages, and numerous specimens of pottery, cooperage, and leather, a variety of agricultural implements, a quartz-crushing battery, &c. The new annexe is a most interesting compartment. It contains a great many exhibits of agricultural machinery, two looms for making cloth, and much apparatus which will be highly instructive to persons having a mechanical turn of mind. Arrangements have been made by which, at certain times, the machinery will be set in motion. The pictures and other works of art are hung in the rotunda, and around the main hall. The North Court, which connects the rotunda and the sculpture gallery, has been taste-

fully laid out, A number of magnificent ferns, obtained in the Dandenong State Forest, are displayed here. The South, or Fountain Court, contains very few exhibits, and has been fitted up as a cool retreat, where visitors may rest awhile. In the rotunda a bar has been fitted up for the sale of colonial wine, equal in quality to that exhibited. A number of ornamental pot plants, supplied by W. Perry and Co. Fulham-grange Nursery, have been arranged in various parts of the building, with good effect. It may be mentioned that no attempt has been made to properly represent at present the two staple industries of the colony. When shearing and harvest are over, exhibits of wool and cereals will be sent in. THE JAPANESE COURT. The addiCon of a Japanese department distinguishes the present exhibition from every other previously held in Melbourne. For the first time the inhabitants of the great island empire in the Chinese seas have become competitors with their Anglo-Austra-lian neighbours in the friendly and peaceful contests of civilisation. And it may be safely affirmed that no other department of the exhibition rivals this special one, either in respect of the richness and rarity of the contributions it contains, or of the strange human interest which an examination of these must evoke in the mind of any well-informed visitor. Elsewhere, the eye ranges over groups of articles which, however excellent in quality or superior in their specific kind they may be, are still familiar objects. But here, every separate article is novel, quaint, and curious, and each in succession claims and arrests the attention, not less on account of its intrinsic costliness, its beauty, or jts elaborate workmanship, than from its value as a miniature picture, so to speak, of one of the most wonderful phases of the dateless national life and stereotyped civilization of the Eastern Asiatic populations. A phrase that Kinglake has made classic in English literature—“ the splendour and havoc of the East”—will frequently recur to the visitor’s mind whilst engaged in examining these Japanese productions. In some of them there is displayed an imperial luxury of costliness and a wealth of gorgeous ornamentation that would have befitted the golden house of Nero in the most high and palmy state of Rome. The vases of precious porcelain, the robes of Tyrian dye, the inlaid ivory cabinets, the richly-wrought perfume caskets made from the rarest woods, and even the priceless sword blades of Damascus, are all equalled here. Art and skill, in some of their applications, appear to have attained the point of absolute perfection in the Land of the Rising Sun. But precisely the same point was reached by the artists and artisans of Japan centuries ago ; and these superb productions before our eyes—or at all events others of exactly similar taste and pattern—might have been imported by Nero himself from the isles of the Far East, to adorn his golden house on the Palatine, if Roman navigators had then explored the world of the great Pacific, It is an altogether unique fact in the world’s history, and a fact as hope inspiring as it i« unexampled, that Japan, rousing herself from the torpor of centuries, has joyously entered on a new career of progressive civilisation. “ A nation has been born in a day.” And in this choice assemblage of her native products lies one proof of Japan’s mighty effort at self-regeneration. THE TASMANIAN COURT. The court in which the exhibits of Tasmania are displayed is on the right-hand side, where the main hall is entered from the great compartment assigned to the Japanese contributions. There is nothing particularly striking about it, but when it is looked into it is seen that there is a great deal that is very interesting. It is remarkable that a colony now seventy years old —the mother, in fact, of that in which the Exhibition of 1875 is held—should show so few specimens of the industries she carries on, and the skill of her artisans ; for of the 213 articles catalogued as Tasmania’s contributions, 33 are minerals or metals, 45 are products of cultivated land, 25 represent the forest products of this land, and 10 renresent the fibrous substances Tasmania contributes to the aid of the manufacturer. There are 13 specimens of natural products, such as skins, shells. &c. There are six exhibits of preserved meats and fruits, five of earths used in the arts, and their products, nine of oils and soaps, seven of ales, porter, cider, and vinegar, eight of natural curiosities, but only two of woollen manufactures ; eight of articles of furniture, four of other examples of the industry of the island, seven specimens of photography, 26 representing the arts, and seven “ the apparatus and methods for the increase and diffusion of knowledge,” including the journal of the Legislative Council and the House of Assembly. The exhibition, therefore, is one of the many natural resources of Tasmania rather than of the use to which the islanders have put them, and in this respect it is by no means unsatisfactory. THE NORTHERN TERRITORY COURT. Adjoining the Tasmanian Court is the court devoted to the exhibition of the interesting collection of products received from the Northern Territory. Curiously enough, South Australia is represented only by this collection received from the most distant portion of her territory, the other exhibits from that colony not being considered sufficient in number or importance to require a separate court for their exhibition. Ihe Northern Territory, which embraces an immense tract of country, contain ing an area of 340,000,000 acres, is as yet very little known, and the population attracted to that remote part of the continent by the discovery of gold is very limited. Its principal resources at present are minerals and timber. The collection of the exhibits is mainly owing to the energy and exertions of Mr J. G. Knight, who occupied a prominent position in previous intercolonial exhibitions. The articles arrived from Port Darwin by the Claud Hamilton very recently, and have been arranged under the superintendence of Messrs H. P. Welch and Co, the agents for South Australia, The collection is an interesting and striking one. Numerous specimens of the mineral products of the territory may be seen, which sufficiently prove the richness of its resources in that direction, although up to the present those resources may be said to be almost untried. During the excitement consequent on the discovery of gold, many exaggerated statements of the richness of the yields found publicity, and in the reaction of feeling many were inclined to doubt the existence there to any extent of payable gold at all. The specimens of auriferous quartz exhibited, however, show that several reefs are now being worked with every prospect of satisfactory results.