THE EXHIBITION.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2525, 12 May 1882, Page 3

THE EXHIBITION.

There was a fairly good attendance yesterday afternoon at the Exhibition, and, considering the unpleasant nature of the weather, a very good one in the evening. The remainder of the jurors' awards in the classes yet unpublished will not oe ready before Monday next, when it is hoped all the awards will be completed. The judges for the musical competition have awarded the following prizes for the performance which took place on Tuesday, 9th May, 1882:—To the Dunedin Motet* Society for the best ohoral performance, £25 ; to the Dunedin Motett Society for the best unaccompanied part songs, £10;: to the band, piano, and stringed instruments' under Mr Sorge (chamber music), £lO IDs. The next musical competition in connection with the Exhibition, originally intended to take place on the IS:h instant, has been postponed until the 19ch, the Fire Brigade demonstration taking plaos on the former date. BadoljffeandOo., of Leamington, exhibits very fine collection of ranges and kitcheners. There are eight exhibited in the two bays allotted to them in the British Court, the largest being 7ft, with fancy tile back, and panels fitted with the latest improvements. These ranges are excellently finished, and shew both exoellence of workmanship and material. Mr T. J. Watters, of Cashel street, has in the Hew Zealand Court a very fine assortment of ranges, boilers and baths. Two ranges have been built in the brickwork in order to show them properly. The first is 3ft 6in, with high back and plate warmer, and copper boiler turned 'inside. The dampers, three in number, draw out under the mantelpiece. The jambs are cast iron, preventing any possibility of fire communicating from the range. The oven is three shelved, and fitted with wrought iron door and hinges. The fittings are all bright, the fire door and oven handles and hinges, the plate rack, toast warmer, and the circular top and handle of the ash-pan being all polished as bright as nickel silver. The ranges are all hand made, and in Mr Watters' workshop ; the other is a 4ft double oven range, with a shoe high, pressure tubular boiler for conveying hot water upstairs for baths, &;., at the back of the bay are two circulating boilers, to which Is attached a pipe leading to the shoe high pressure boiler of the range already spoken of, thus ehowing practically how the boiler works. The dampers of this range work similarly to the other one, drawing out from under the mantel. The mantel-piece is supported by two bright pillars. The fire door, handles, &c, of this range, equally with the other one, are bright. The workmanship and finish of these ranges is all that can bib desired, and fully equal, if not superior, to any exhibited. Indeed, Mr Watter's productions will bear favorable comparison with those of the celebrated English makers. The ash pans, it may be noted, are of wrought iron, and every part about the range is handfinished. In front of the bay is a 3ft range, fitted like the others, which is a very excellent piece of work. The hinges, dampers, plate rack, &c, are all bright, and the general finish is throughout worthy of all praise. A wrought iron bath is exhibited in the bay, whioh is very «rell made. It is of wrought iron tinned inside, and fitted with high-pressure taps laid on to the circulating boiler, so as to show the complete system from the stove boiler to the bath. Mr Watters took the gold medal at the last Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association's show for the best range on the ground. The arrangement of the bay is very complete, Mr Watters having gone to considerable expense to show the workin; of his ranges, boilers, &3.,most thoroughly. Mr S. Bartlett, in the Briti h Court, exhibits samples of the manufactures of the Belfast Hemstitching Company (Limited), Hope street, Belfast. The Belfast Hemstitching Company is perhaps the youngest cf the factories connected with the linen trade, as its industries are the most recent developments of that gigantic business. Twenty years ago such a factory as that of the Hemstitching Company was undreamt of. Handkerchiefs were at that time sold in the piece, and hemmed at home by the ladies of a family, while the handkerchief trade was of very much smaller extent than it is at present. Now all is changed, and the business of simply hemming, hemstitching, washing, smoothing, and generally preparing handkerchiefs for the market is of itself a large industry, employing a great many hands. In the Hope street factory a kindred occupation is also carried on—the manufacture of linen collars, cuffs, fronts, shirts, &c, the finish and elegance of which cannot be surpassed in any other similar establishment in Europe or America. Only quite recently has the French vein, or hemstitch, been much done by maohinery, owing to the complicated and difficult stitch, required. These obstacles, however, are now overcome by the machine patented by Mr Benson, the proprietor of the Hope Street Factory, and known as Benson's patent hemstitching machine. Mr Benson is also the managing director and chief proprietor in Benson's Patent Jacquard Co., Limited, a ooncern devoted to the manufacture of weaving machinery, and holding some important patents in the making of figured cloths. Some idea of the amount of work turned out may be gathered from the fact that in the season the manufacture of handkerchiefs alone in the various departments is over two thousand dozen per day. Over five hundred hands are employed in the factory, and the quality of the shirts, &;., exhibited is exceedingly good, fully deserving the award of the jurors in the clbes. There is also a case of Viennese jewellery, comprising silver and gold lockets, brooches, pendants, &c. Some of the designs are exceedingly artistic. Amongst those most noticeable are a lion in the jungle, with tropical trees, &c, surrounding. The lion is in frosted silver, the background being in dead silver. There is also a remarkably handsome pendant of amethysts, with pearl centre, each stone bearing a letter of the word " Souvenir." This is a charming design. There are a number of other beautiful designs in the case, which is well worth an inspection. In a case occupying the side of the bay is displayed a quantity of lava artioles, comprising brooches, earrings, paper knives, solitaires, &3.. &3., and an assortment of very handsome coral sets. At the back of the bay is a glass show case, in which is displayed an assortment of strings of co.-al. Bound the bay are a number of fur rugs, comprising a handsome black bear, kangaroe, and several others, in which the furs of Auttralia are blended very artistically. Mr Sharp in the British Court exhibits a very good collection of Bowcliffe'a wire wove mattresses, whioh have been largely used in hcspitals, asylums, hotels, &c. In hot climates they are a bed in themselves, as no other mattresses, not even a hair one, is required, two thicknesses of blankets being quite sufficient to make a comfortable, healthy, and economical bed—tbey are made to fit any ordinarv iron or wood bedstead of any size, having only to be placed on it like a palliasse. They can be made hard or soft at pleasure. The tension bolts have only to be tightened or locsened, as the case may be. They take up little room, are easily taken to pieces, or put together; in these respects they are so much superior to other spring mattresses. For surveyors, explorers, &.0., there is a "shakedown bed," light, and very compact. Bowcliffe's mattresses have been used in the principal institutions in Great Britain for many years. The Sydney Infirmary, the Sick Children's Hospital, Glebe Point, and others have lately taken some ; also many of the new passenger boats for instance, the new steamer Servia, trading he l ween England and Ac-erica, has them in 370 berths.