THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1907. AN AUSTRALIAN EXHIBITION

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8347, 1 February 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1907. AN AUSTRALIAN EXHIBITION

At the present time there is in pro- j gress in Melbourne an Exhibition which exemplifies in a remarkable manner the stage that Australia has reached in manufactures and production. It is the third purely Australian display organised by the Australian Natives Association, and it does • as much credit to their enterprise as to their patriotism. The big Exhibition Building is crowded with the products, natural and manufactured, of Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, and South Australia, in a wealth of variety for which apparently few Australians were prepared. Queensland is especially well represented, the State Government having taken 6,000 feet of space, as against 400 feet last year, and having spared no pains to make the display of products of the field, the forest, and the mine as attractive as possible. The Victorian Government has contented itself with exhibits of butter, cheese, and hams, but naturally Melbourne manufacturers are present in strong force. Art is represented by the Victorian and South Australian Art Societies, and the. inventive faculty of Australians is catered for in a "Court of Australian Inventions," in which a hundred inventions "which have not yet been | brought into' practical use" are displayed. The contrivances exhibited j are said to be novel and ingenious, ' but in some cases, as may be imagined, of doubtful value. The programme of the Exhibition, which is to remain open for six weeks, includes dairy and cheese competitions, typewriting competitions, displays

of cooking by State school pupils, and a large number of indoor and outdoor entertainments. The whole Exhibition forms an excellent advertisement of the resources of Australia, and should indeed, as was claimed, increase public confidence in Australian-made and Australiangrown articles, while at the same time stimulating producers and manufacturers "to advance still further on the way towards perfection." Lord Northcote, while emphasising this view, and congratulating the members of the "A.N.A." upon the result of their work, took occasion to impress upon them the necessity of keeping public attention directed not only on Australian resources, but also on such subjects as water and forest conservation, the promotion of agricultural and commercial education, and above all upon the importance of providing facilities for the settlement and development of the country, first by young Australians, and, when their wants had been supplied, by-the millions of good immigrants for whom there would still be room. He agreed with the cry of "Australia for Australians," but in his mind its natural corollary was "Australians for Australia," and he urged them to follow the example of Canada and the United States.