FRANCO-BRITISH EXHIBITION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9092, 19 May 1908, Page 5

FRANCO-BRITISH EXHIBITION.

WEST AUSTRALIAN COURT COMPLETED. Received May 18, 8.3.0 a.m. LONDON, May 17. The West Australian Court at the Franco-British Exhibition has been completed. / The exhibition is being held at Shepherd's Bush, a suburb of London, west of Hyde Parle. The French exhibits occupy nearly half of -'the entire space, of which the French colom'es fill 275,000 ft, each l.eing represented in a building showing the architecture peculiar to itself. The agricultural exhibits of France occupy 40,000 ft. British dominions overseas are magnificently represented. Canada has an area of 120.000 ft, Australia 80,000 ft, India 60,000 ft, while New Zealand and Ceylon also have a fine array of exhibits. The buildings, twenty in number, are fplendid in size and architecture. They resemble the "spacious pleasure-dome" which Kubla Khan decreed upon the banks of "Alph, the sacred river," ana exhibit architectural points of which Kubla Khan could never have dreamed. The work has been carried out under the control of M. Toudore, chief architect, while Mr Bolcher has assisted as honorary consulting architect. The buildings are spread over 140 acres of laud. The Quadrennial Olympic Games, originally held in Athens', and revived in 1896, will this year be held in the Stadium at the Exhibition. Here, in the midst of our twentieth century civilisation, surrounded by palaces filled with the fruit of the World's progress siin e Marathon, humanity will struggle in the arena. The Stadium erected for these game" will sea,t 80,000 people. Twenty-two countries will send competitors. By the terms of the constitution, which ensures that those games shall be held in most of the capitals of the world in rotation, it will be many generations before they are again held in London, and every effort will be made to ensure that the present celebration will be the greatest athletic meeting ever held. The British Empire court is arranged about a lake, spanned by a ten-arch bridge. The buildings containing the colonial exhibits rise upon a fine' esplanade, and are dominated by the Imperial tower.