THE SYDNEY EXHIBITION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 222, 30 September 1879, Page 4

THE SYDNEY EXHIBITION.

TBS GASDBN PALACE. The Sydney correspondent of the Cbristchurch '• Press " writes :— In conferring the above designation Qpon thelateroatiooal Exhibition buildiog, the Commissioners have resorted to the idea of pre-natal baptism. While I write, the Palace itself is still, in part, under the hands of workmen. The interior is a medley of show cases, as yet void of contents, of packirg cases foil an,d empty, of sectional spaces roughly partitioned off by canvas screens, and of trophies in coarse of erection. One or two courts are, howev3r, ahead of all the rest, and it is principally in tbe decoration of the ceiling/si and walls that workmen are engaged, so that by commencing with the tout ensemble of the grounds and buildings, procteding to indicate the general allocation of the display from different parts of the world, and going on to describe in detail the courts which are sufficiently forward in the order of their readiness, I shall be able, I beKeve, to furnish a descriptive paper not devoid of interest, and conveniently giving an outline to be filled in hereafter. The approach to the Garden Palace is decidedly prepossessing. The principal gateway giving access to the beautiful Sydney Domain has been appropriated for this purpose. Coming from the heart of the city one mounts a steepish ascent through handsome streets, wider than the principal business thoroughfares, till, turning a corner, past the handsome structure need as a Free Public Library, one enters Macquarie-street, with its terraces of fine residences facing the Domain, and finds the view harborward obstructed by the immense pile of the Garden Palace. The great central dome towers right in front o( one, and the Iqfty face of the principal entrance meets the fire t glance. From no point of view d:es the structure show to greater advantage than from this spot, so that favorable first impressions are gained. The entrance to the grounds is arranged in the fqrm of a recessed semi-circle, midway in wbipb is a wide gateway for carriages, flanked on either hand by *a series of entrances for persons on foot, through automatically-recording turnstiles. No money is taken, nor tickets sold here. Persons have to provide themselves with tickets elsewhere, present them, and pass in. Thus the chanoe of a crush, or of obslruotion to ready ingress, is reduced to a minimum. Once through the turnstiles the visitor fiods himself within an enclosure of whioh the limits are not visible at once. A little to his left is the iofty entrance to the Palace. Close at baod, on his right, is a building surrounded by a wide verandah, and used for photographic purposes. Ahead, and still to the right of the Palaca the ground slopes downward, and beyond a? fine avenue of umbrageous Moreton Bay fig trees, lies lawn of beautiful turf, fronting a series of rather prosaic sheds, which cover a large area of apace. These are the machinery sheds. Further to the right, and on the higher ground, a very pretty little pavilion of a circular plan is occupied by the British and Foreign Bible Society, and yet further, the ridge is topped by a long range of taste- < fnl buildings, al*o in pavilion fashion, where ladiesaud their attendant cavaliers will find refreshments every kind prepared for their especial convenience. The main building will however, be the chief attraction. Viewed from the gateway its aspect, conveys the idea that the design is desperately intricate. The varied heights of the roofings of different pirtp, the vast dome, the massive towers thrusting their ornamental summits into view from remote parts, the minor towers, the angles, ornamentations, and different levels here, there, and everywhere, confuse, and at the same time please, the eye. But in reality the design is, in substance, sufficiently simple to admit of being understood even without diagrams. First, imagine a Maltese cross. There you' have the nave and transept, the long arm of the cross being the nave and the short arm the transept. Each. is 60ft in width. The nave is 80Oft long. Riflemen will arrive at an idea of the length best by reckoning it in yards, 267 yards nearly. The transept is 500 ft, say 167 yards, in length. To the apex of the roof is from the floor 60ft, the effect airy and light. The roofs are tinted in panels, a cerulean blue, the rafters canary yellow, stencilled with designs and Hoes in other tinte. Where nave and transept join, the roof soars away upward. You are standing under the great dome, than which only fire in the world aro greater. To the springing of the ribs the height from the floor is 89ft, to the apes of the dome 159 ft. A lmtern 20ft. in diameter and 37ft high surmounts the whole mekinc tbe total height 210 ft. Perhepa tho best way of conveying a conception ot the vnstness of this dome, the largest in the southern hemisphere, will be by comparison, tbue —

'I baa it will bo eecn (hot, although rioking eixtb in diameter, ihe dome of the Garden Palace ie excelled by only three in the whole world id point of elevation. The greater proportion Hhioh its height bears to its diameter,

as compared with its older and more substantial rivals, adds to its airy grace. From every point of view — seen from outside, from a distance or near at band, or standing within the building and looking up into its vast concavity, it pleases the eye. From the last-men-tioned stand-point it bears scrutiny well. Tbe twelve principal ribs which compose its frame are merely of timber bolted together, but being, like the twenty-four intermediate ribs which divide it into a thirty-six-sided polygon, tastefully painted, they have all the appearance of permacent and finished work. The entire interior of the dome in colored and decorated with cheerful tints, while the exterior, of galvanised iron, reflects tbe rays of the sun with a metallic sheen which is not without its charm. Immediately under the apex there is a circular opening, or well, in the floor of the buildicg, which affords light to the refreshment rooms which are here located in tbe basement, and from tbe centre of which rises a massive pedestal, forming at tbe same time a fountain spoutiog water, the refreshing plash of which gratifies the ear, and a bsse for the marble statue of Her Majesty tbe Queen, purchased by tbe Government of New South Wales from Mr Marshall Woods, the eminent sculptor. Of this work of Brt I shall have more to say in a subsequent paper. We will revisit both nave and transept anon, and give attention to their contents, but meanwhile our description of the building demands completion. Tbe nave and traneept forming, as already explained, the two limbs of a cross, conceive on each side of these limbs lateral enlargement?, not sufficiently wide to convert the cross into a parallelogram or oblong, but making it very bulky, like a cross which has been flattened out. The enlargements, runniog parallel with tbe nave and transept respectively, form the aisles, roofed by a succession of skiilions, with a height of 25ft. at tbe lowest dip of the sloping roofs, and along the Hoes which are common to those aisles and the nave and transept, run galleries, their floors 17U. above the main floors, and so devised that from them one look, down on one side on the floor of the nave or transept which they border, and upon the other upon tho adjoining aisle. Now imagine at each end of nave and a massive transept tower 50ft. square rising to a heighth of 118 ft., and at each of tbe four corners of tbe aisle a smaller tower, and a general idea of tbe design has been obtained. Standing at any corner of tbe building it would be possible, were the exhibits absent, to obtain a view over the whole expanse of tbe main floor, interrupted only by the wooden colunjDS which support the galleries and by tbe tour massive piers of brick-work which sustain tbe dome, and op which

wind an equal number of flights of stairs leading to the galleries, which are also accessible by similar stairs situated in the towers. Such a view would be interesting, were it only for the fact that so extensive an expanse of floor is not twice Been in a life time. Its extent is no less than 210,00 ft., which is equivalent to about 4f acres ! Underneath this again lies the basement floor, which is not yet ready for particular inspection, but regarding wh'ch it is worth mentioning here that its surface affords an additional 72,500 feet — about H acres — of space ; and we may sum up tbe accommodation provided in the building by adding that the floor space in the galleries, which extend altogether 1,900 ft. in length, and are 25ft. wide, amounts to somewhat over l£ acre more ; in all over 7£ acres of floor space in tbe main building alone. This, it must be borne in mind, is independent of the extensive machinery sheds, which cover a full half of the beautiful sward where the cricket-loving youths of Sydney have been accustomed to pursue their sport for the past fifteen or twenty years. There remains also to be reckoned the fine art gallery, in which is to be displayed the hundred thousand pounds worth of pictures which have been forwarded from Europe. There is half a cricket ground and great art gallery yet to be reckoned. I muat, however, reserve these for another time; the sheds for machinery will scarcely be fit for inspection by the opening day, and the art gallery cannot possibly be for some time later, seeing that while I write the site ia only just being cleared for it, down towards the Botanical Gardens.

Diameter. Height. I Feet. Feet. St. Peter's, Rome ... 139 ... 330 Santa Maria del Fiori, Florence 139 ... 310 St. Paul's, London „. 112 ... 215 Garden Palace, Sydney 100 ... 210 Ste. Sophia, Constantinople 115 ... 201 Pantheon Rome ... 142 ... 143