THE EXHIBITION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8332, 15 January 1907, Page 5

THE EXHIBITION.

THE AXEMEN'S CARNIVAL. I ATHLETIC MEETINGS. INTERNATIONAL BAND CONTEST. By Telegraph—Special Service. CHRISTCHURCH, January 14. The Exhibition was well attended again to-day, particularly in the evening. There is still a steady stream of visitors from the North, over 760 excursionists arriving from Wellington on Saturday and Sunday. The recent rains have freshened the spacious lawns and brilliant plots of flowers, so that the charming grounds have never looked so well. There was a large attendance at the performance given by the Besses o' th' Barn Band, on the Sports Ground, this afternoon, and a much larger number still assembled to hear the Band in the evening. Performances will be given daily till Wednesday week. The Orchestra Concert irr the Concert Hall, this evening, was well attended. On Wednesday night, Miss Florence Quinn, a young New Zealand soprano, who has won a high reputation in Victoria, will make her first appearance at the Exhibition. Over one hundred entries have been received for the Axemen's Carnival on Thursday and Saturday next. For the; principal event, the New Zealand International Handicap, of- £l5O (18-inch standing blocks), about thirty nominations have been received, mostly from champions and ex-champions. All parts of Australia are represented by competitors in this event. The following present champions.will compete: —D. Whitty, winner of , the New Zealand 2 foot standing logs contest (his time being 3min 34sec); W. Chellis, winner of the world's 18-inch underhand championship at the Eltham meeting; W. Weston, winner of the world's 2foot underhand championship at the Tasmanian carnival in November; Coombs, winner of the Tasmania Axemen's Handicap of £IOO. C. W. Casey, ex-world's champion at chopping and sawing, underhand, standing block, single-hand sawing and double-hand sawing, will also be among the competitors. ' Between . the events the Besses o' th' Bam Band wil]p play selections. Those interested in athletic events have two highly important fixtures to look forl ward-to in the Championship Athletic Meeting of New Zealand to be held in the Exhibition Grounds on January 24th and 26th, and the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association's eighteenth championship meeting to be held on the Sports Ground on February 21st and 23rd. The former meeting will be under the jurisdiction and rules of the New Zealand Athletic Union. The programme will, include, besides ordinary athletic events, pipe music, Highland reels, Irish jigs, sailor's hornpipe, and other novel features. A first-class programme has been prepared for the Amateur Association's meeting. Thirty.-six bands have entered for the International Band Contest, which will take place from February 11th to 16th, and there are something like five hundred entries for solos and quartettes. On one' night of the Band Contest a grand double fireworks programme will be given by the representatives of Pain and Sons, London, which the General Manager promises shall surpass anything seen in the Southern Hemisphere. The erection is almost finished of the high five-storeyed building in "Wonderland," which is to be enveloped in flames on Thursday night and from the top of which a young lady is to be rescued in a thrilling manner by firemen. The Floral Fete on the same night, combined with other novel attractions' now in preparation, promises tomake this one of the greatest, nights "Wonderland" has had. The Fijians 'will leave on the trip South; next Friday, It is understood that; instructions have been issued bythe Minister in charge of the Exhibition to make preparations for the allocations of awards for the best display of products, etc.