Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 1891. The World's Fair.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 21 March 1891, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 1891. The World's Fair.

Our American cousins are nowhere unless they do things on a magnificent scale. Chicago has got everything underway for a " World's Fair," which is to be opened on the lst May, 1893. Time has to? be taken by the forelock, so that buildings can be erected, grounds laid I out, and above all, the doings properly advertised. The excuse for \ the show is to celebrate the four-hun-dredth anniversary of the discovery of America. We wonder whether a single thought is ever bestowed as tc the view the original inhabitants take of such an unlucky accident ? It must also be humiliating to the Spaniards to review what they once held and have now lost, We ; are not forgetting that England's King once claimed sovereignty over what is now the United States, but the loss of ownership has been counterbalanced times and times over by the mutual business done between the two countries, which in 1889 amounted to close on 44 million

pounds worth of imports from the United Kingdom and to 95 million pounds worth of exports to the same country. A site on the shore ol Lake Michigan has been chosen, with one thousand acres attached, which are to be beautifully laid out. There will be buildings to hold the usual exhibits, but as extras there will be Horticultural exhibits. Other special attractions will be provided, a tower close on 1500 feet high, an immense mine, a floating palace hotel on the lake, a fountain of Californian wines, a coal and corn palace and an exhibit of shoe and leather industries. Chicago never did, or apparently ever will, hide its light under a bushel. In connection with the Fair, it sets forth that it is a typical American metropolis; sixty years ago there were three log cabins, today it boasts of 1 J million inhabitants ! A single butcher shop represented the early meat industry which now uses ten million head of live stock annually ! and ships one thousand million pounds of dressed meat besides one million cases of canned meat. It is asserted that there are 581 newspapers published in Chicago, there are 600 churches, 25 theatres, and 120 public schools. It is evident that before the Fair is opened the importance of Chicago as a business centre, and as a pushing community will have been heralded far and wide, and whatever guarantees its inhabitants may have to make up, will have been well spent in the grandeur of the means taken to advertise the town to the world.