NEW ZEALAND EXHIBITION, 1865.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IV, Issue 206, 23 December 1864, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND EXHIBITION, 1865.

[From the Otago Witness .] We have no doubt that it will bo generally interesting, if we endeavor, from time to time, prior to the opening of the Exhibition, to indicate the nature and extent of the principal collections of exhibits, no matter where the friends-forwarding them may reside. We are enabled now to do this with respect to two collectiens, one received from Scotland and the other oromised from the North Island of New Zealand; both promising to bo of special interest.

The collection from Scotland is that sent by Dr. Lauder Lindsay, of Perth, who writes that it is forwarded—(l) for display at the New Zealand Exhibition, 1865, and (2) for presentation to any Geological,{or rather Natural History, or Museum, which may be founded in Otago, as one of the results of the Exhibition.” The doctor adds “ The specimens are mostly Geological, and have been selected from my own collection, obtained by myself in Iceland and Norway. They are intended as a comparative series, with a view to show your colonists the similarity between the rocks and minerals of Otago and those of countries in Northern Europe, whose geology and mineralogy are wellknown.” The Geological collection numbers 500 specimens, chiefly from the following localities— Scotland: The Isle of Arran, “ which may be considered as a geological epitome of Scotland Arthur’s Seat, Colton-hill, Pentlands, &c., and the Sidlaws and Grampians (Perth). Iceland; Greenland and the Farroe Islands ; Norway and Sweden ; Denmark; Schleswig-Holstein ; Germany, the Hartz Mountains, &c. The specimens are illustrative of the following groups of rocks, with their contained minerals:—l. Yolcanic, ancient ortrapyean, and modern. 2. Plutonic, granite and sienite. 3. Metamorphic, various kinds, but especially including the gold-bearing slates of Scotland. 4. Mineral veins and veinstones: Ores, iron, copper, &c; Spars, Baryta, lime, quartz, Ac., 5- Fossiliferous: recent, tertiary, secondary, tertiary, and primary. Dr. Lindsay adds, that the foregoing include many rocks or used in—(1) Building; sandstones, flagstones, limestones, basalts, salts. (2) Sculpture and the Decorative Arts : marbles, serpentines, granites, porphyries, fussiliferous limestone, breccia, alabaster. (3) Road-making, basalts and greenstones. (4) Various manufactures: Fuller’s earth, baryta, chrome, plumbago, gypsum, Iceland spar, &c. (5) Metallurgy: metallic ores, with their fluxes. (6) Fuel: coal and lignite. (7) Manures : Limestone, chalk, and marl. (8) Jewellery : jasper and agate.

The miscellaneous collection forwarded by Dr. Lindsay while illustrative of scientific facts, possess popular interest. We may enumerate—lllustrations of dyes producible from the natural family of lichens ; patent sheet wood, used as a substitute for paper ; the corrosive action of certain waters on lead pipes, which has led to the almost general disuse of lead for water-supply purposes ; deposits on boiler-plates, which are frequently the direct cause of explosions; hanks of yarn, illustrative of the production of dyes from the common weeds and wild-flowers of Scotland; a sample of straw paper, bearing an illustration of nithograpby, or printing with tin, instead of types or blocks ; cambric stuffs, manufactured from new vegetable fibres j and illustrations of the manufacture of meerschaum pipes. The Geological sample having been handed over to the Geological Department, have been arranged, and labelled with labels sent out by Dr. Lindsay.

The collection mentioned as coming from the North Island is that belong to Mr. W. Colenso, M.P.C., Napier, and M.H.R. for that Province! The production of the New Zealand press cannot, of course, as yet, offer any real attractions to any of the true old-book collecting class; but Mr. Colons© sends some of the earliest books printed in the Colony, with the remark that the whole were “ printed by the exhibitor, and the bound books bound by him.” We find in the list the following:—New Testament, Bay of Islands, 1837 ; Common Prayer (Church of England) do. 1840, th e first book printed in New Zealand ; the Epistles to the Ephesians and the Phillippians, 12mo. February, 1835 ; theirs* English book printed in New Zealand —Report of the Temperance Society, Bay of Islands, 1836; the first English Sermon printed in the Colony, 1842; two Maori Almanacs, 1841 and 1843; the first having been printed in 1839 and 1840 ; the earliest, printed Public Papers, A.D. 1835 to 1850, including the Treaty of Waitangi, original Maori ; the N. Maori declaration of United Independence, 1835; and the first Government Gazette , 1840. Amongst othe productions of the Sydney press Mr. Colenso sends, the first book printed for the Now Zealanders— Viscount Goderich’s Letter, &c., English and Maori, 1833 : and the .Tourney of a Naturalist (by the exhibitor) 1842.

Amongst the miscellaneous articles which Mr. Colenso contributes, and which are essentially New Zealand relics or productions, are—Bones of the Moa ; an antique bell, obtained by the exhibitor, in the interior, in the year 1837, which had been in possession of the Maoris for several generations, and which bears an inscription, supposed to be in Javanese; an axe of state “ made by the natives without iron (?) and carried in state before their principal chiefs,” which was obtained from the Island of Mangaia, in 1837; a large mat sent as a specimen of the best work of the kind in former times, the border being of the regal pattern, and much admired by the Maoris; and geological, mineralogical, and ossil specimens from the North Island.