MELBOURNE EXHIBITION. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) Melbourne, August 14th.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 293, 25 August 1888, Page 3

MELBOURNE EXHIBITION. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) Melbourne, August 14th.

Since I last wrote Melbourne has beon going through the experience known as 14 settling down." The Exhibition opening gaieties sadly disorganised her lor the time being. There was too much feasting, too much merrymaking, and too much speechifying- The city became feverish, her pulse got irregular, her usual quite routine was disturbed. Now she is recovering from her orgie ; she is throwing off her incubus of visitors and guests, taking again to early hours, and making up her mind to re-estab-lish peace anri quiet. The Exhibition is now tairly afloat on its own responsibility, and the mother city ieels that she has done quite enough in giving her expensive ott spring a proper set-off. With " the secret consciousness of duty well pertormed " Melbourne retires to the background, and leaves the Exhibition to take up the running. I am sure the good (Governor, and his lady, and the Commissioners, and Ministers, and all the big wigs and haut mo ride, and mcujnijicob, and three- tailed bashaws of colonial prominence, must be pleased the festivities are piecty nearly over, for it has been an exciting time for all. Poor Sir Henry ! I pity him, for he has had to bear a good deal ot the heat and burthen of the day. And the expenses too — that must not be forgotten. Five thousand pounds were voted to him for extra expenses truly, but what is that ? A meie bagatelle, dear readers, I assure you, in vice-regal expenditure. For instance, he gave two dinners last week to about hve hundred guests, and paid the caterer Jljty shillings a head. That makes £1250 out of the £5000 at once. Then Lady Loch gave two dances, which cost the long-suffering Governor little short of £800 each. Add to ail this the fact that there were close on to a hundred guests stopping at Government House during the week ol the opening ceremony, and I think I am safe in saying there will not be much loft, aiter all is said and done, of the additional £5000 voted by Parliament. i Fifty shillings a head my readers may | think au exorbitant charge for a dinner, especially when the number oi the diners goes into the tour and five hundreds, and 1 must confess myself ie does seem pretty expensive. But I hear it acknowledged on all sides that the two dinners mentioned weie the best e\ er served m Melbourne, and that the wines were of the very choicest brands procurable. The caterer is a wellknown man here named Skinner, who keeps the Golden Gate Hotel in South Melbourne. He has the Exhibition cateiing altogether, and if he is not making his fortune ought to be, considering his opportunities. Since the opening he estimates that he has dined over 20,000 people. On Saturday he had the Commissioners dinner a la jßusse to provide for, over 700 guests being invited. The day previous he had as many as fourteen private lunches to look after. Indeed, the eating and drinking that has been going on is something to wonder at, and doctois chuckle and chemists look cheertul. Now as to the Exhibition itselt — that cause of all the excitement. It slowly approaches completion, and becomes more and more attractive as it does so, There is however, a very great deal to be done yet, and 1 don't thing another month will see it thoroughly complete. In the meantime hammering goes on, cases he about the \arious courts, and huge unsightly gaps now and again catch the eye Punch, a week or so ago, had an excellent cartoon regarding the backwardness of things. It was called " Too many Cooks," and shewed a kitchen, in which the Governor is taking oil the lid from a soup tureen, representing the Exhibition building "Why; bow's this ? he says to Sir James Mcßain, ' I've opened.it, and found it's only half done." ' v Well ; it it> a tufle that way," answered the President. '" But you see, we spent all our time on the side dishes. ' These are labelled respectively " The Imitation's Muddle ; " " the evening diess embroglio ;" " the side show contro\ersy,'' and so on. The skit is a clever one, and hits the right nail on the head. Cowen's music is pa?' excellence the great attraction of the Exhibition and the concert hall is generally crowded during the performances. lam nfraid, however, it will be found that his standard is somewhat above the tunge.ot colonial tastes, ior he gives extremely classical selections as a rule, and seldom decends to operatic music or well-known airs. However, if he educates us up to a higher standaid, so much (.he better. I was speaking to him on Saturday night at the German Club, where a smoke concert took place, and he told me that he did not wish to Hatter, but he could truly say he had never conducted a better oichestra in his life than the one now at the Exhibition. A little practice would m*>ke them quite perfect, he said, aud.ht to match any orchestra in the world. He also spoke highly of the choir, which numbers 800, and promises to have them at a pitch ot perfection in a short time. By- the- way, lumour is already busy with Mr Coweu's name. It is said that a match is on the tapL between him and the daughter of the Mayor, Alderman Benjamin. 1 must tell this story of something I overheard from the august lips of no less a personage than Lord Carrington. Two of the best exhibits in the Victorian Court are those of the Red Cross Pieserving Co., who make a line show of jams and preserves, and Kitchen and Co., i (the Apollo Candle Co.) As I stopped to look. I noticed a clergyman admiring the candle exhibit, and an Indian the jam trophy. Just thenLordCarrington happened to stroll up with a friend, " Look," he stiid, pointing to the two men. "See how such an Exhibition anneals the diflcrent races, as it were. There's a Christian clergyman admiring at the shrine of heathen mythology, and there's a heathen admiring at tho Cross." The ' heathen mythology,' I take it, was personified by the " Apollo."