THE SHOP-WINDOWS EXHIBITION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9107, 5 June 1908, Page 4

THE SHOP-WINDOWS EXHIBITION.

We again make reference to the Shop-windows Exhibition, which opened yesterday in the four great centres of the Dominion. The idea, which is a novel one, should prove interesting and instructive. The object is to show what can be done and what is being done in New Zealand in the way of manufactures, and to break down as far as possible the prejudice against local manufactures which sti!l exists to an extent sufficient to be inimical to the industrial well-being of the country. Few people have the remotest idea of the multitude and character of the articles manufactured in the Dominion. It is true that the recent International Exhibition gave an object lesson in this re3pect, but that Exhibition was so replete with other attractions—especially those of an entertaining and exciting character —that the exhibits were only cursorily glanced at by the few, and entirely ignored by the many. The shop-windows display will prove more instructive and will, we should im- | agine, secure an advertisement for our local industries such as no ordinary exhibition would be capable of affording. Our regret is that the idea has been at the outset confined to the chief centres of population. There does not appear to be any valid reason why every important provincial town in the Dominion should not enter into the movement, because there is always something of sufficient excellence to display in such places, and the exhibition of locally-made goods of a high order would encourage a spirit of emulation. W3 hope to see the ShopWindows Exhibition established as an institution, and that each year a display will take place in every important town in the Dominion. As we have said, a better advertisement could scarcely ba devised, and a greater incentive to excellence in the manufacture of commodities would be difficult to provide.