THE EMPIRE IN MINIATURE

Hokitika Guardian, 29 March 1924, Page 4

THE EMPIRE IN MINIATURE

WEMBLEW WONDERS,'. 12,000 MEN AT WORK. LONDON, Jan. 30. Under the skilful hands 'of about' 12,000 men, helped by the most wonderful collection of machinery ever gathered together, the British Empire Exhibition, which opens at Wembley, Middlesex, in April, is fast taking shape as the biggest and most gorgeous the world has ever seen..

They are finishing an English Wonder of the World in a huge and beautiful suburban park. The ingredients are reprodutions of the Empire’s most wonderful buildings and . gardens, actual specimens of its most interesting machinery, exhibits from its mines, its jewels, and other mineral wealth, its food, it* trade, its forestry, and its native life.

They havo taken everything .that would interest you most if you wore privileged to tour the Empire, and they Jiavo placed it or reproduced it so that it can be reached from your own homo at a cost of a few shillings. LAKE WITH STRANGE CRAFT.

But here is no mere dump of wonders, writes a reporter who visited the exhibition, for tho lay-out is tho most wonderful feature of all. In front of the New Zealand Pavilion, in which Maori customs will be illustrated ns richly as any other feature of life in Now Zealand, I sat in a rockery made of tens of thousands of tons of varicoloured stone. Before mo was tho lake.

It is a narrow lake of uneven width, but it stretched away before me as far as my eye coukl see. Here and there was a glimpse of islands; bridges, strong white structures that would carry steam-rollers, crossed it at four points. Beneath these bridges scores of strange craft that arc familiar in some part of the Empire will soon bo threading their way. Almost lost in the morning mist at the end of this waterway rises the beautiful Taj Mahal that is the Indian Pavilion. Here are rich treasures; exhibits of arts and crafts, metal work, carpets and carving of a kind that none can surpass. RO.ME SURPASSED.

To tlic right, soon to be bordered by wide white roads ancl resplendent gardens, is first tlic Australian Pavilion —itself as big as the whole of Olympia —and then the Canadian Pavilion. Over them peeps tho immense Stadium, which dominates the countryside for miles round and is one and a half times the size of the Roman Coliseum.

On the left is first the palace of Industry—the Empire’s immense factory showrooms—and then the Palace of Engineering, regarded as the world’s biggest concrete building, and displaying all the engineering genius of the British Empire. These two buildings together cover an acreage 12 times the size of Trafalgar-squave. And this great vista represents very little of the whole. As you move you find the mud walls of a West African hinterland, and in it are the Pavilions of Nigeria, the Gold Coast, and Sierra Leone, each pavilion laden with interest.

Elsewhere is the old Dutch Pavilion of South Africa, with characteristic stoep and loggia and with a complete South African train (in which you dine) near at hand ; tho paper-making and fur production exhibits of Newfoundland; a Burma Pavilion of Burmese architecture, and a Ceylon Pavillion with towers flunking it which arc modelled upon the famous “Temple of the Tooth’’ at Kandy. There is also a Chinese native street that is but a small part of the Hongkong section; among Malaya’s exhibit a chance to see a working model ol Singapore Harbour; an actual Arab palace representing East Africa; and among other pavilions, those of Palestine and Cyprus, Malta,' and the West Indian and Atlantic group.

So inudi power in necessary that the power station, the most modern in the world, will he thrown open to the public as a little exhibition on its own. Two thousand people per hour will be lowered deep into the ground into a complete coal mine that contains pit ponies, under-ground stables, washerios, and coal, and in which all the most up-to-date mining apparatus will be seen working. The public will follow coal from seam to seam to the pithead. It will be in the wonderful Palace of Arts, in which art exhibits will he housed in rooms typical of the years 1750, 1315, 1852, 1888, and 1924, that the Queen’s Doll’s-housc will he on view. 47 ACHES OF AMUSEMENTS. There will be acres and acres of gardens—the fact that 100,000 of one type of tulip have been planted gives an idea of size—and a pleasure park that contains 47 acres, the largest scenic railway in the world, to which a switchback a mile long is joined. Desides a theatro and aquarium there will be a dance-hall twice the size of the Albert Hall. One of the most interesting buildings will be the British Government Pavilion. In this the Spanish Armada, the Battle of Trafalgar, the Raid on Zeebrugge, and other encounters will be staged with floating models that world-wide research has ensured shall lie accurate.

These are but a few of the buildings that will Be seen. So big is the exhibition, in fact, that “never-stop” trains which merely slow down at stations will be used to carry people' about the grounds.

More than 7,000 waitresses will serve at the restaurant do luxe, 5 large restaurants, 20 cafes, and many buffets about the grounds.