WAXWORKS EXHIBITION.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2488, 11 March 1881, Page 2

WAXWORKS EXHIBITION.

The Great Waxworks Exhibition which has been duly billed and advertised during the past few days was opened to-day in Mr Turnbull’s former store. In several respects it compares favorably with any exhibition of the kind that has yet visited Timaru. The collection is extensive and interesting. Besides the old familiar faces, there are a number of recently convicted and hanged celebrities. The large room underneath, where groceries used to be dispensed, is devoted to the exploits of the Kelly gang. There are two groups, one representing the murder of the constables in which, all the outlaws played a consuicuous part, and the other Ned Kelly in armour “on his last legs.” In the gallery overhead there is a variety of horrors and eccentricities. Johnny Fawkner, the father of Victoria, sits at the top of the staircase reading a copy of the “ Oamaru Mail ” without the use of spectacles, while opposite him is Madame Dupree, Napoleon’s animated hook-of-fate, playing cards with Martin Weiberg the gold robber. At one end is a magnificent group representing the Queen and Royal Family, a capital likeness of the Princess of Wales; Isabella 11, Queen of Spain—a beautiful figure—and her implacable rival Donna Blanca, who took a leading part in the Spanish rebellion. Another corner is occupied with the stirring scene in the Melbourne Opera House, where a wanton wife and a profligate Frenchman narrowly escaped the bullet of a deeply wronged husband. The far end of the hall is taken up with the death of the Prince Imperial. The figures of the Zulus are said to be true to life, and the assegais are genuine weapons actually used during the war. Captain Moonlight, Rogan, Morgan, Sullivan, Brigham Young, and a large number of celebrities' who either were hanged or ought to have been, divide the honors with the two headed nightingale, Mary Queen of Scots, Mrs Yolverton and George Peabody. Mr Cristofani assures us that the exhibits of living persons are speaking likenesses,' the representations of the respectable dead ore as faithful almost as photographs, while the hanged ones are from casts taken by himself and as evidence of their fidelity their own hair has been preserved and a keen scrutiny shews the mark of the rope beneath their chin. We have no doubt that the exhibition, being one of the best of its kind ever introduced in New Zealand, will attract large audiences.