THE £S. D. OF GREAT EXHIBITIONS.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 June 1924, Page 1

THE £S. D. OF GREAT EXHIBITIONS.

Will it pay? is of course the first question before the promoters of any exhibition, great or small, and considering tho enormous expenses involved in such a show as was opened at Wembley in April, the question is a most difficult one to answer, says T.C'.B. in tho London “Daily Mail.” Tho first of London’s big exhibitions, that of 1821 was a great success from a financial jHiint of view. Over six- -million people visited the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, and the surplus, after paying till expenses, was nearly £ISO,(XK>; yet. when four years later, tho French attempted to follow our example, the result was reversed, and the loss was no less than £872.090. The success of the next big London exhibition, held in 1802. was much impaired by tbe death of the Prince Consort in the winter of that year, and by tbe breaking out of the American Civil War; so although the receipts totalled about £150.000 there was a deficit of £IO,OOO when tho accounts were cast up. The Paris Exhibition of 1807 paid well, showing a profit of £108,000; yet when in 1373 Vienna attempted a show on tin even larger scale the result was simply disastrous, the deficit amounting to very nearly two millions sterling. All through the .seventies one exhibition after another showed a dead loss. Although more than ten million people visited tho Philadelphia Exhibition the balance-sheet showed a loss of something like £250,000, while at the International Exhibition in Paris, in spite of sixteen million visitors, the deficit was £1,250,000. Tn the ’eighties a distinct improvement is noticed. The Fisheries at Booth Kensington netted a profit ol C 15.030; the “Colinderies” and “Ifeatheries” also paid well. The “Inventories” was the only one of the four to show iv loss, and that hut a very small one.

The Chicago World’s Fair paid well. M) did the Croat Kxbibition at St I..mis. while the Franco-British of 100 S at the White City achieved a record attedance of 20,09(1.000, and in spite of a wages toll of TN-rUtno showed a lair profit. With regard. however, to great international or imperial exhibitions, the organisers must always hear in mind that the real profits are indirect. Take the case of the Palis Kxliihition of 1000. It was calculated that French railways profited to the extent ol £3.oi;o.<X)o; tile Post Office h.v £320.(11)!; ; the Octroi duties hv £100.000; the theatres by L’oOO.OOO; and that the visiors to Paris, who numbered <7.000.000, actually left behind them C 00.000.000. ruder such circumstances, the granting of a .substantial subsidy is no extravagance. It is simply common sense.