CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 May 1938, Page 10

CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION

WELLINGTON PROVINCIAL COURT. ! ORGANISING MOVES. I “If the Wellington Provincial Court at the big Centennial Exhibition is surpassed by the displays of other I districts, the superiors will be entitled i to great credit, for the Wellington demonstration promises to be very impressive,” says Mr T. C. A. Hislop. Chairman of Directors of the Exhibition Company. “The local Centennial Celebrations Committee has discussed the important question of a court worthy of the province, and has appointed an executive, comprising Captain S, Holm, Messrs P. E. Pattrick, A. J. Curtis and E. M. Bardsley, to make the preliminary arrangements for a meeting of representatives of local bodies of the province as soon as possible after the elections of May 11. It is expected that the meeting will elect a strong executive with power to choose a chairman, to set up subcommittees and to organise the planning and financing of the court. “I am confident that representatives of Wellington city, the Manawatu. Wairarapa and Wanganui districts will co-operate energetically to make a court that will be distinctly spectacular. There is need of vigorous action because quick progress in Wellington will help to stimulate the promoters of courts for either provinces. ENVOY FOR SOUTH ISLAND. ■ “As reports from some districts of the South Island indicate that there is still some lack of appreciation of the publicity value of the Centennial Exhibition for various provinces, the directors of the Exhibition, Company ‘feel that it will be helpful to send a representative through the island,” said the chairman, Mr T. C. A. Hislop. “For this necessary purpose the directors have been fortunate in the engagement of Mr J. R. Simpson, a South Islander. He spent some years of his business life in his birthplace, Dunedin, and he has a helpful knowledge of all districts of the island. At the time of the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition he was vicepresident of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, and he was mainly concerned in the organising work for the combined court of the Wellington, Nelson, Hawke’s Bay and Taranaki Provinces at Dunedin. The success of this court, was largely due to his tireless energy and enthusiasm. “Mr Simpson will act as a friendly co-operator with representative men of the provinces. He will have a full supply of information, and will be pleased to give any help desired in the formulation of plans. His itinerary will range from Blenheim, where

he began on May 3, to Invercargill, which he expects to reach on June 4. RANGE OF EXHIBITION. “Many people,” continued Mr Hislop, “are still a little hazy about the range of the Exhibition. The huge block of buildings includes provision for Provincial Courts, a New Zealand Manufacturers’ Section, a Motor Section. and Engineering Section, and a General Exhibits Section. Apart from the Provincial Courts, a large area of floor space has been booked, and other areas are under consideration by exhibitors who have decided to take space but have not yet figured the extent of accommodation that they will need. PROVINCIAL COURTS. “The purpose of a provincial court is not the display of manufacturers, for which there is proper scope elsewhere in the Exhibition, but to give a worthy indication of the natural and developed assets of a province, its tourist wealth, its sporting attractions, its facilities for the establishment of industries or the further development of farming, or mining and so on, according to conditions in each case. Each Court would be also equipped for the issue of helpful information to visitors. The ideal, of course, is to have a court as a kind of miniature of the province. The prospects are bright for outstanding displays by Great Britain. Australia and Canada,” concluded Mr Hislop. “There is more than a possibility that these countries will have their own distinctive buildings in the foreground of the main block.”