CLOSING OF THE EXHIBITION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8401, 17 April 1907, Page 5

CLOSING OF THE EXHIBITION.

By Telegraph—Press Association.

CHRISTCHURCH, April 16. The entire Exhibition building is in a state of disorder, to-day, and on every hand exhibitors are to be seen packing their goods and preparing for flitting at the earliest possible moment. It will be fully three weeks before everything is cleared out. A large number of people visited the grounds during the morning and afternoon, a toll of sixpence being levied at the gate for the benefit of the attendants. Admittance to the bjilding proper, however, is gained only by special permit. The Marine Department has decided that the seals shown at the Exhibition be liberated on some part of the coast unless some seaside municipality desires to adopt them. Evidently a considerable amount of pocket-picking went on last night, as there were many regretful enquiries from the police by ladies, this morning, relative to the whereabouts of missing purses, brooches, bangles and other articles. A few bottles of beer and whiskey are stated to have been looted from one of the stalls. The attendance at the Exhibition, yesterday, was 46,852, the highest recorded for any one day during the season. The nearest approach to this total was on th 6 King's Birthday ' (November 9th), when the admissions totalled 45,348. The smallest attendance was on Tuesday, December 18th, the day following the first exhibition of the Fijian firevvalkers, when the turnstiles registered 6.607, Tha* total attendance reached the Unexpectedly high total of 1,966,860, tbe'daily average being 13,949. Compared with previous Exhibitions held in the colony, these figures show an enormous increase. At, the Exhibition held in Dunedin in 1889-90, the largest as regards attendance held in the colony previous to the one which closed its doors yesterday, the number of visitors was 618,622, or less than ore-third of that recorded on the occasion under review! The daily average was 4,949. The next largest Exhibition was that held in Hagley Park in the autumn of 1882, when the turnstiles registered an attendance of 226,300, or a daily average of 2,309. At the Wellington International Exhibition in 1885, promoted by Sir Julius Vogel, then Colonial Treasurer, the total attendance was 133,000. At Australia's premier exposition, the great Melbourne Exhibition, the total attendance reached 1,963,436; so that New Zealand exceeded the Victorian figures by 3,425, and as that Exhibition remained open for a longer period than this colony's, the daily average at the Hagley Park Exhibition was substantially larger.