CORRESPONDENCE

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2584, 19 July 1882, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE

HAS THE EXHIBITION PAID T To the Editor of the Olobe.

Sib, —I think it was the great Persian philosopher," Zoroaster, who once sail that the man who made two blades of grass grow where only one grow before was a benefactor to his country. If this be true, then those who have shown ua how to scoop in 17s fid, where in our verdancy we con’d only Hava raised 4d previously, have conferred upon ns an eye-opener for whioh we should always feel" grateful. Thoughts something after tide fashion have made me read with sincere regret M. Joubert’a Mark Tapley-libs expression that, although he would lose by his Exhibition venture, yet he felt himself amply repaid by the number of friends he had made in Christchurch.

All this Is truly deserving of our practical sympathy, for Canterbury visitors alone have (been benefited, as it will be remembrred. that, after the first week cf the Exhibition opening, our Northern and Southern friends clewed oat nearly to a man very dissatisfied with the nnpraparedacss of everything in general; and this dissatisfaction, so loudly expressed, acted like a wet blanket on the thousands who would doubtless have visited Ohr afchnrch In their Inrn. Bat, sir, knowing a little about the Exhibition, and having several friends who also know a 'little, we have put onr “ Kttles ” together, and cannot, for the life of ns, make out where this sympa'hy is to fit in. Perhaps this will best be illustrated by a reference to a few figures we have drawn np. ‘And first to commence with

Expenditure— Building, £IO.OOO ; promoters’ personal share of gas bill, 13 we*ks at £ll, £143 j clerk, 13 weeks at ?3, £39 j six attendants, £2 eaoh for 13 weeks, £l5B ; Austrian Baud, say £4OO ; other expenses, say £250 ; total, £10.988. Note —lt will be observed that the cost of the building is put down at the very largo sum of £IO,OOO, and it will here alco remembered that the builder only provided labor, the promoters purchasing the materials, thuu not o ly securing the usual tr'«de discount, but a'so the extra profit which would otherwise have accrued to the builder. However, if anyone will chow ns that the labor of erecting and materials composing that mere ehell cost more than, or ax much as, £IO,COO, then I will promise to show him at least a dozen very astonished men. The Austrian band have a debit of £4OO against them, but from this there o. uld fairly bs deducted the profits from their Dunedin and Wellington seasons which went into their employers’ pockets. Soma might say that £230 was too small an amount for the “ other expenses,” bat it must not he forgotten that the Christchurch citizens subscribed over £BOO for the purpose cf providing, among other attractions, amnsem.nls at the Exhibition, the entnnea money to which did not come back to the citizens.

Receipts—Received from Exhibitors for space, £1476 ; selling stalls, 40 at £2 10s per week for 13 weeks, £1300; one special show, £5 per week for IB weeks, £65; one ditto ditto, £5 per week, for 11 weeks, £55 i bars and luncheon rooms reduced to £923 ; fruiterers’ contract, £SO ; half takings of special art gallery (aa per arrangement) average, say £2 per day for 13 weeks, £156; other rights, say £7O; profit on catalogues, £300; season tickets, say, £4OO : ad— : ' Saturday last i 226,200. at 1 . . ..uiS; total, £16,107. Note—To th’s amount ought csrtiin’y ha added the art union profits, which must have been very large, considering the number of tickets sold ani nature of tha prizes distributed. " Other rights” have been lumped at £7O, and in our opinion this amount was very much under the ma k, for it will be remembered by many that the rights to every privilege connected with the Exhibition were sold even down to “tuppanoe please! ’ It will be seen from the above figures that dedne'ing £10,988 from £16,107 there is left a balance of £5.119, ti which will have to be added, say £4OOO the selling price of the building (allowing the enormous depreciation of £6COO), and thus wo have 'on the whole sffair over £9500 aa a credit balance to transfer to the Hocghiey ! Not a bad amount for three months “anxiety,” while living like fighting crcke. To all of this the fact must ever be remembered that Messrs Jnabert aid Twopeny have had the free use of the peopla’e park for their venture j free use cf the telegraph wires for their telegrams ; free railway passes for themselves ; free carriage of their parcel?, and, I rather fancy, fr-.e trams also. Bay in the face of all this where the sympathy can come In? Yours, &0., THE OTHER SIDS.