OMENTAL EXHIBITION.

Kumara Times, Issue 1131, 14 May 1880, Page 2

OMENTAL EXHIBITION.

After some delay, owing to the unfavorable state of the weather, the Oriental Exhibition was opened last evening, at the Theatre Royal, and from the hour at which access was given to the public until the hour it closed it was thronged with a crowd of sightseers of all classes, sexes, and sizes. The Exhibition comprises a countless number of not only useful but ornamental articles, worked in the most beautiful woods of the Holy Land. The specimens exhibited of the olive wood are particularly deserving of notice, more especially where the piece lias been cut from the heart of a tree, and used as the centre of a bookstand, surrounded by various other woods of different grains and colors. The beads cawed from the balsam wood, which are most skilfully executed, are remarkable for their harddess, as a heavy blow with an ordinary hammer fails to make the least indent on them. A noteworthy feature is that the articles, whether designed for use or merely as ornaments, are all executed in

excellent taste, there being nothing gaudy or meretricious throughout the whole collection. Not the least remarkable fact is the extremely low price charged for an article a visitor may choose to purchase, an object in whose formation many days' labor and unwearying patience must have been expended being procurable for a few shillings. To attempt to detail a fiftieth part of the exhibition would be futile, as it consists of almost every imaginable and unimaginable article, except the larger and bulkier pieces of furniture, to be found in the houses of all classes, and a vast number of little nicknacks and conveniences that are seldom present in colo : nial dwellings. There are, too, articles of jewellery, and other personal adornments of the most novel and attractive description ; the number being so great that even a hasty glance at each object would occupy a much greater amount of time than can be spared by the generality of visitors. The proprietors may be complimented on the courteous attention to all visitors, for no matter what the information required on any article, it is at once freely and pleasantly given, without the least appearance of an attempt to effect the sale of any of the exhibits. Throughout the evening a pianist was in attendance, who played some well-known pieces, thereby adding to the enjoyment of those in attendance. It being impossible in any written description to convey even an indistinct conception of the extraordinary nature of the Exhibition, we can only strongly recommend all to go and see for themselves, especially as the price is such as to be affordable by nearly everyone, even in dull times. It is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.