EXHIBITION.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 8763, 14 March 1907, Page 3

EXHIBITION.

Day W Oay,

By Telegraph—Special Service. CiiEiSTcnuncH, March 13. A crowded excursion train from the South was responsible for an unusually large attendance of country folk at the Exhibition this morning. The General Manager, Mr Munro, supplies an interasting comparison of attendance returns for the present Exhibition and the Centennial International Exhibition held at Melbourne in 1888-9. Total admissions to the Melbourne Exhibition, open for a period of sis months and two days, were 1,963,436. The total numberof admissions to the NiZ. International Exhibition, which will be open five months and fifteen days, closing on April 15th, is estimated to reach 1,900,000. The largest daily attendance at the Melbonrne Exhibition was on the Saturday preceding the closing, when the numberof admissions registered was 42,395, and the largest weekly total was during the concluding week of the extension, for which the total attendance was 142,593. The average daily attendance at the Melbourne Exhibition was 12,271. The average daily attendance at the N.Z. Exhibition to-day Btands at 13,080. The exhibits of horticultural glasses, now

on view in the Agricultural Department's cour£ is of a very complete and instructive character, including bell glasses of various sizes, vases, cucumber glasses, globes and other forms of horticultural glassware, all made by the St. Helens firm. There arc also large specimens of crude glass, from which articles are manufactured. The exhibition occupies a large stand in the court.

A series of specimens, showing different methods of grafting fruit trees and various other trees and shrubs, prepared by W. J. Palmer, Government Pomologist, for the North Island, have also been placed in the Agricultural Department's court. They •hpw Stock and scion separately, and also the graft. The number of visitors to this court, which is complete enough to form a yery satisfactory farmers' exhibition in itself, increases a 3 the weeks go by. ' )"t is expected that a further detachment of North Island Maoris will arrive at the Exhibition pa at the end of this week. Any visitor who had not been well awaro of the fact must have found it <"*' j 0 believe, if he had seen the crowd at the Exhibition to-night, that the great fair had been in progress over four months. "The farewell prb-iramme of the Besses o' th' Barh, combined with a fireworks display, was the great event, and from an early hour of the evening people thronged the main approach and corridors of the building, and crowded on to the Sports Ground in increasing multitude. Smart showers fell at intervals throughout the evening and (ho sky threatened a heavy downpour at £ny moment, yet the crowd was estimated gt over ten thousand who sat or stood out the programme of the Besses, sheltered only by their iimhrelbis, and thousands of others watched the fireworks, when those commenced, from tho grounds outside the enclosure. The band were at their best for the farewell performance, which was received with great enthusiasm, several of the selections being encored. Tho fireworks display was of a specially brilliant nature, several new devices being jrjtrqducec| At the conclusion of the combined programme seven local bands played '• Auld hang Syne " together. "' The attendance for tho day reached the jplendid total c*f 21,023, which brings tho aegregato up to 1,4Q5,04Q. "If tho present rain continues, tho Exhibition gardens, which are still the theme of general admiration, are expected tg afford a most magnificent display of ftntumn flowers, particularly dahlias, begonias and salvia bonfire. These flowers havo been late in blooming owing to the dry weather. Experts place the cost of maintenance of the gardens in their prosent condition at fully £SOO a year,