THE SYDNEY EXHIBITION.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1780, 4 November 1879, Page 3

THE SYDNEY EXHIBITION.

[Sixth Notice.] [fEOM OUB OWN COBEKSPONDENT.I I think I am at last justified in saying that the Exhibition, as a whole, exists. Yet even now I am compelled to make an exception, and not on unimportant one. The art gallery, in which is to be displayed the almost priceless collection of paintings sent from Home, is only in course of erection, otherwise the great show is complete, and a grand display ft is. The continental courts, now, at length, in full dress, are very different affairs from what they had been till recently. The partitions, heretofore bare and ugly, have been hidden by fresh exhibits and show cases, and draped with rich hangings. The galleries are furnished with exhibits, but not by any means well arranged or contrasted, and even now, in their completed condition, present a somewhat miscellaneous aspect. The arrangement of exhibits in the basement is complete, and in the machinery sheds another and extremely interesting exhibition is provided. The surrounding grounds are at last worthy of the Garden Palace, and with a view to convey to readers of the Pbbss an idea of the coup d’eeil, I will now attempt a descriptive sketch.

The number of satellites in tbe shape of refreshment buildings, and booths for the sale of different things is somewhat bewildering. Once inside the gates the visitor is afforded the choice of having his portrait taken in the gallery which was to resemble a Swiss chalet, but does resemble an English barn, or of indulging in the luxury of pop corn,'which is dispensed from a little booth close at hand by speculators suffering from chronic depression. The fact is, that all the caterers of eatables and drinkables who have erected pavilions in the grounds are embittered by disappointment. The expected shoals, crowds, and swarms of people who were expected to spread themselves all over the place in a condition of unappeasable thirst and hunger have not put in an appearance. It is difficult to ascertain precisely what has been the attendance, but it has been so much below what had been anticipated es to drive the Commissioners to the expedient of cooking the figures supplied to the Press. Thus the published statement is that from the day of opening, on the 17th September, up to Thursday last, the 16th October, inclusive—that is to say, twenty-eight days—the admissions have been: —Season ticket holders, 15,869; general public, 82,875; children, 12,778 ; exhibitors and their attendants and others, 42,843 ; total, 154,360 admissions. These figures look very respectable, and on the face of them there appears little ground for complaint, although the average they give, of about 6000 per day, cannot be regarded as entirely gratifying. But when they are properly dissected, it is seen how ridiculously misleading they really are. They are obviously compiled from the figures given daily by the automatic recording turn-stiles, and only the items “general public,” and « children” are lona fide. There are, for instance, not a fraction of the 15,869 season ticket holders in existence. Probably the number of season tickets at (£3) actually sold is not greater than a couple of thousand. But every time a season ticket holder has passed the turn-stiles, even if he entered twice or thrice in the same day, the mechanism records his admission. The same thing applies to the exhibitors, attendants, and “others.” When one comes to think of it, it appears of course absurd to believe that there have been over 42,000 exhibitors and attendants at the show. The same individuals, the workmen, and the 500 or so choralists and musicians have been counted every time they entered the grounds. Thus, by eliminating the fictitious and spurious elements from the record, I get at the actual paying admissions, at least approximately. General public 82,875 Children 12,778 Season tickets—say 2,000 Total; 115,653

This gives an average paying attendance of about 4130 per day, including children, who have been half-price all through. The season ticket holders, of course, get in cheap in details, and although there have been many half-crown days, the bulk of the attendance has been on the shilling days, so I am sure I overstate tho returns if I reckon eighteenpence a head all round, at which rate tho takings have been a few pounds over £3OO a day since the opening. I have no materials for calculating the expenses, but am under no sort of doubt that they have considerably exceededjithese takings'.up to the present time, as the grounds have swarmed with laborers, and the concerts alone have cost hundreds. Signor Qiorza, as musical director, gets £25 per week! But, to return various caterers, these few loaves and fishes in the way of visitors, what are they among so many ? Oripps and 00., who have an extensive banquetting hall, with a bar frontage calculated to accommodate a row of about 300 thirsty people at once, and who offer luncheons in three styles, have generally a vast solitude set out with white tablecloths to contemplate all day long, and a bar when any chance straying visitor feels lonely. Yet their outlay on building and

other preparations and expenses cannot have been less than a couple of thousands. Higher up, in a capital position, overlooking the lawn and machinery sheds, Oompagnoni has_ a restaurant for ladies and parties comprising ladies, a really elegant building of great capacity. He does rather better, but yet how poorly ! His building alone cost £3OOO. The smaller places have fared proportionately better. The shilling folks have been absolutely scared away from entering Oripps’ and Oompagnoni’s by their aspect of magnificent but hungry desolation, and have preferred to ft el safe at the shabbier bars and refreshment booths, of which there are several of miserable exterior, blots upon the general appearance of the Palace grounds —mero weatherboard bothies or shebeens. Again, however, just on the marge of the lawn—once the favorite domain cricket-ground —a very neat little restaurant has been placed, tastefully designed. Planked wings project in front of it, roofed over, and latticed in at the sides. Herein are placed round tables and chairs, so that the customers can sit, shaded overhead, and able to see out on all sides. There is also further up, a neat little tap where, on a couple of wide verandahs, there are generally to be seen little groups of foreigners drinking Hungarian beer, which is the nectar there dispensed. Milk, chilled with icing, is sold under a kiosk nearer the Palace, where also stands a so-called Turkish bazaar, got up in a pseudo-Moorish style, decidedly inexpensively, where certain “Turkish merchants ” in fezzes, sell curios—shawls and coin necklets, inlaid arms, spangled cloths, silk sashes, and so forth. The worthy Turks have a tendency to fulness about the lips, have large aquiline noses, and twinkling eyes, so that really had they not distinctly announced that they are Turks, I should have said that they are particularly smart Jews, who know the world and find it no hardship to wear a fez for a few months. They have an apparently inexhaustible stock, some of it obviously genuine oriental, and I never look at their display without seeing, in imagination, advancing armies approaching quiet Eastern towns; inhabitants fleeing and leaving all their little household treasures to the spoiler ; and, lastly, hook - nosed oimp followers chaffering with loutish private soldiers for their prizes of women’s jewellery, and veils and shawls; and men’s inlaid arms and household stuffs, and all the queer odds and ends that constitute plunder. I seem to see blood and tears on these garments and veils, and to hear groans and lamentations whenever I enter the kiosk of thoap worthy Turkish gentlemen, and I would not buy of them a single ducat’s worth —no, not even though I had some money. I appear, however, to be singular in these ideas, and the Turkish bazaar does, probably, the briskest business in the grounds. The Maori house sent from your colony at length approaches completion, and has been allotted an excellent position in the grounds between the garden palace and the art gallery. The effigies which ornament this structure have received a fresh coat of war mint, and the whole affair looks very different :>om what might have been anticipated by anyone who had seen it lying for weeks exposed to sun and rain, a mere jumble of planks daubed with vermilion. The contents of. the machinery shed are very interesting, as many of the machines as are suitable for it being in motion. At one machine, a composed business-like young woman sits all day long, methodically reeling cotton from spindles on the spools, as intent on her work as though she were in a factory at home. There are endless varieties of endless ribbon saws, at which from time to time boards are cut into all sorts of intricate pat • terns. Mr Sicars, of the Sydney Woollen Mill, shows a patent Jacquard loom at work weaving tweeds, and another and larger loom is erected beside it, a new French patent. Two ice-making machines are daily at work turning out ice of beautiful clearness. I have a circular issued by one which claims to make ice which will keep as long and is half the cost of natural ice. I don’t myself exactly know what the cost of natural ice may be —at Nova Zembla for example. You appear to have so many flour mills in New Zealand that i an account of a new centrifugal dressing machine, here exhibited, will scarcely fail to interest some of your readers. It is from the workshop of Messrs Nagel and Kemp, German milling engineers, who claim for it the following advantages : —The smallness of space which it occupies ; the rapidity with which the silks can be changed in altering the dress of the flour; and the application of centrifugal force, so that the best flour is, by its superior centrifugal gravity, thrown out first, thus saving a, good .deal of work. . . 1 There is rather a scarcity of mining appliances possessing any claims to novelty, but a safely cage exhibited (in model) by the inventor, a". Mr Allen, of Ballarat, although not absolutely novel in principle, deserves a word. It has no complicated mechanism which would get in the way when removing or running on the truck, or which might get rusty. The way it works is by a spring, placed at the top of the cage which, when suddenly released by the breaking of the rope and consequent lightening of strain, automatically presses two iron clamps upon each side of the guides, and securely jams the cage in the shaft. Another ingenious appliance. also a colonial invention, is for ore dressing. This is intended to supplant the old-fashion Cornish “jigger,”_a slow working and primitive appliance, whieh I have oft times objurgated. It is worked by an inversion of the “jigger” principle, but always by the system of ores rearranging themselves according to their specific gravity when momentarily but repeatedly suspended in water. In lieu of the sieves “ jigging ” into the water trough, the water is made to jig up from below by means of a plunger, and there are a series of screens which_ materially assist in automatically dressing the ores. A very beautiful and handy power giving machine is the Otto silent gas engine exhibited in motion at this court. It is to the original banging and clattering gas engines as “Hyperion to a Satyr,” is horizontal, works noiselessly and smoothly, and occupies little space. For country newspapers such a machine would be infinitely preferable to the small steam engines commonly used, and for any purpose where power not exceeding three-horse power is required (where gas is procurable), the superior handiness of such a machine would be unspeakable. Of course it needs no driver. A ten year old boy could see to it, and attend to other matters anywhere in the neighborhood. The show of steam engines of all degrees of power, and of the latest styles of construction, is extremely fine. Robey and Co. have some magnificent engines with the adjustment to the boiler] disposed in different fashions, each having some specific advantage. It is most interesting to notice the remarkable progression which has been of late years accomplished in the way of simplifying the working parts of steam engines, and of relieving boilers of the strain and shaking consequent on having been made to do duty not merely as boilers, but as standards for the cylinders, &o. The agricultural implements _ are so numerous as almost to defy description. In a later letter I will endeavor to single out any which appear to possess claims to attention as embodying notable improvements. I did intend to make this my last special report, but I perceive I must throw in several columns more, in order.to complete the description even in outline of the remarkable collection at this Exhibition,’which, failure as it is in point of attendance, is just as great a success as a show, though scarcely as an industrial one, outside the machinery sheds.