The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1879.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 277, 3 December 1879, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1879.

We have received the following circular letter from Mr W. H Warren, the Secretary to the Wellington Local Industries Association: — " Sir— By direction of the Committee of the Wellington Local Industries Association, I hare the honor to inform you that a movement, just commenced, is on foot for holding a competitive exhibition of the productions of all nations in Wellington, to follow the Exhibition of Melbourne 1880. The plan upon which the preliminary arrangements are based is that the Exhibition shall be essentially a People's Exhibition, and it is anticipated that, by a subscription of one shilling each from the people of the colony, a large sum of money may be raised, which the Government will be asked to supplement, in fact, taking advantage of the present session of Parliament, this has been anticipated by a request, already preferred, in the above directiou This, then, is a brief outline of our viewi so far as regards the preliminary arrangements. The scheme is being organised, and its success will depend mainly upon tbe support which it will receive from the Pres3 of New Zealand. The Committee, therefore t direct me to solicit your support, and request that, if approving) you will give publicity to the proposal through the columns of your valuable journal." Having been asked for our opinion in this matter we can but give it, though it will not be in accordance with the wishes of the promoters of the proposed Exhibition. For New Zealand to attempt to get up such a show immediately after that which is to take place in Melbourne would, it seems to us, be an act of tbe greatest folly, and one that must end in failure. In the first place the estimate formed of tbe expenditure seems to be altogether too small, especially when we know what it has cost our neighbors in New South Wales to bring their exhibition to perfection. And here we may very appropriately quote an extract from a letter recently received from a Nelson visitor to Sydney. He writes :— "They aay the Exhibition has already cost the New South Wales Government a quarter of a million, but the number of people is by no means in proportion to the size of the affair or to the value of the exhibits. People are all complaining; some grumble at the immense cost; others are disappointed at the fewness of the strangers; the storekeepers object to things being sold retail in tbe building, and the merchants do not like the exhibitors and their agents taking orders for goods ; in fact every one has a grievance." We do not mean to say that all these grounds for complaint are the unavoidable concomitants of an Exhibition, but they seem to point to the fact that the Australian colonies are not yet old enough, or sufficiently pouplous to include an Internationa! Exhibition among their " lions," and if this is the case in New South Wales whatia it likely to be in the much younger colony of New Zealand ? The members of the Wellington Local Indus triesAssciation are, we fear, a great deal too sanguine in their ideas with regard to raising the necessary funds. It is all very well to talk about a sum equivalent to a shilling a head of the population being sufficient, but as a matter of fact it will be found that, so far from the people giving a shilling each, the number of non-subscribera will form 10 vast a majority that those who do contribute will have to dip very deeply into their pockets to bring up the average per head to what is anticipated. Then again, supposiog the financial expectations of tbe promoters to be realised, how far would the £25,000 so raised go towards tbe necessary expanses of such an Exhibition as would be worthy of immediately following that which is to b« held in Melbourne next year ? After another decade or two has passed New Zealand may begin to think about an International Exhibition.