NATIONAL ADVERTISING.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 380, 22 July 1911, Page 5

NATIONAL ADVERTISING.

CANADA SETS THE PACE

New Zealand's display at the Festival of Empire is stated by colonial visitors to be over shadowed completely by the great Canadian court which adjoins jt. The difference is mainly a matter of cost. New Zealand provided a sum of £SOOO for the purposes of the Exhibition, and the money was spent, no doubt, to the best advantage. But the Canadian Parliament voted £70,000 and indicated that more money could be had if required. "The Canadians do these things so well," writes a correspondent. "They have a permanent exhibition staff of thirty men, almost every one of whom is an expert. They have their own architects, designers and scenic artists, and with plenty of money to spend they can give full scope to their astonishing talent for display. The result is an exhibit which utterly dwarfs poor New Zealand's modest show and makes it look very insignificant by comparison. It is a question whether New Zealand would not have been wiser to stand out, as Australia and South Africa have done, and leave the field to the dominion which had £70,000 to spend on the Exhibition. Mr H. C. Cameron, the produce Commissioner, and his small staff have done as well as could be expected with the resources at their disposal. The quality of the products displayed is good, and some attempt has been made to vary the monotony of butter-boxes and lumps of coal with palms, pictures, deer heads and frescoes of golden wheat." The painted panoramas which find a place in the New Zealand building are the weakest feature of the show. The pictures, which were provided by the Festival authorities, are supposed to illustrate scenes and historical incidents in Nuw Zealand, but they have been executed poorly. A view of Wellington harbour is stated to be a grotesque travesty of the port of the capital city. A tableau representing a Maori tribe returning in triumph from a battlefield showed originally the heads of the slain carried aloft on the victors' spears, but the gury trophies, which did an injustice to the martial methods of our gallant fellow-subjects, were "censored" out in response to a New Zealand protest. It seems a great pity that pictures of doubtful merit were exhibited at all.