THE GLOBE. MONDAY, JUNE 20, 1880.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1973, 21 June 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. MONDAY, JUNE 20, 1880.

The project mooted by tho Association for the fostering of Local Industries of holding an exhibition during the ensuing month is one which deserves every support from the public. By gathering together the varied productions of our local manufactories the public will bo enabled to see what strides have bavo been made during the past few years in the development of our local resources. It is but a little while back that Canterbury was almost entirely without manufactures beyond brick making. Now there is scarcely a department of industrial art unrepresented. The vast doposits of clay at tho Malvern Hills, so long allowed to remain unworked, have been opened out, and articles of great merit are being made. Wo have our woollen factory, carriage factories, and a host of other establishments which such an exhibition as the one now projected will benefit in no slight degree. Such a display as will be made in the Drill Shed will give tho public a bettor idea of the manufacturing resources of the place than they have hitherto possessed. From time to time, it is true, the local journals have chronicled the foundation of a new industry, or the progress of one already in work. But the public, as a whole, have never, since the display for the Vienna Exhibition, had before them any tangible evidence of the work which our local manufacturers are doing. The exhibitions of the Agricultural and Pastoral Association, it is true, do, to some extent, supply the gap, but local manufactures there, instead of as in tho case of the Drill Shed, being the solo object of attraction, only form part of a whole. The Association, therefore, under whose auspices this exhibition is projected certainly have a right to claim not only the earnest and active co-operation of the manufacturers and producers themselves, but also of the general public. To the first, tho Association offers an opportunity of making known their business and the quality and workmanship of their productions. This in itself is a great stimulus to business, because such an exhibition appeals directly to the consumer. Looked at from a general point of view, the community as a whole will benefit. A friendly spirit of rivalry will bo induced, and fresh efforts will be mado to bring out a superior article. The effect of exhibitions, not only in stimulating to higher excellence, but in forming the public taste, is well known. Since the Exhibition of ISSI, uot only have English artisans in every department of industry been educated to higher things, but tho mass of tho people have had inculcated in them a love of the beautiful. Hence the vast improvement in artistic excellence which has taken place of late years evon in the commonest articles of domestic use. So, if rightly applied, will tho lessons learut at the forthcoming Exhibition stimulate our manufacturers to still greater efforts, and we can only hope that the success of this experimental one—which now seems assured—will induce the Association to make it an annual affair. By this means we shall have growing up amongst us a body of artisans whose inventive faculties will be kept continually bright by the competition induced by these exhibitions, and the result will be seen in the improved quality of our products and manufactures.