A MEMORABLE EXHIBITION.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 May 1940, Page 4

A MEMORABLE EXHIBITION.

J U IKE many other enterprises of its kind, the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition which closed at Wellington on Saturday has not been a financial success, but at a larger view it has fulfilled most admirably the objects with which ijt was promoted and organised. As the chairman ot directors of the Exhibition Company (Mr T. C..A. Hislop) claimed at the farewell dinner at which Cabinet Ministers, overseas representatives and others were entertained on Friday evening, the Exhibition will long live in ineffaceable memory. This great national undertaking, carried through with courage and enterprise in face of all the handicaps, difficulties and limitations arising from the outbreak of war, has served an admirable purpose, not only in demonstrating and portraying what has been accomplished in this-country in a hundred years of White settlement, but- in imparting what it may be hoped will be a powerful and lasting impetus to continuing progress and achievement in many fields of endeavour, including that of productive industry, both primary and. secondary. All who saw it may be expected to agree with the Minister of Finance (Air Nash) that although exhibitions in countries of very much larger population have.been organised on a grander scale, the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition, in its beauty and its lessons, had nothing to apologise for. As in the winding up of any enterprise of the kind, it is inevitably a matter for regret that many valuable and interesting displays must now be broken up and dispersed. Happily, however, there will be some exceptions to this rule. Action is being taken to secure a permanent home for the pioneer hut and other relics of the early days of the Dominion. Many manufactoring and other displays, it is stated, are to be held together and exhibited in other centres. The New Zealand “Wool Council has shown commendable enterprise in this connection and, in association with district patriotic societies, has arranged for a Dominion tour of its fine display of modern woollen fabrics and fashions. As was mentioned in our news columns the other day, Masterton is included in the itinerary arranged by the Wool Council. It seems very possible that periodical touring displays throughout the Dominion both of the products of our own industries and of some classes of imported goods may be found well worth while. There are many other directions in which the Exhibition no doubt has opened and pointed the way to future, continuing enterprise of a useful and worthy kind, and it cannot, but be remembered, as an outstanding and remarkable achievement, setting standards in the highest degree creditable to those by whom it was promoted and organised. BRITISH POLICY IN NORWAY. JN a speech in London on Friday, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir .John Simon) anticipated to some extent, the debate on British war policy in Norway which is to take place in the House of Commons this week. His speech was informative chiefly in the unqualified assurance ho offered that when the debate'on late events in Norway took place, “it. would be seen that the joint responsibility of Cabinet was. in fact, based on complete agreement.” This, of necessity, will carry weight. Many people will -feel, for example, that if the First Lord of the Admiralty (Mr Winston Churchill) concurred fully in the action lately taken in Norway—the withdrawal of British forces from the areas north and south of Trondheim —no other conclusion is possible than that action, however much it must be regretted, presumably was necessary and inevitable.

At the same time, there will be a keen demand, not only in Britain, but throughout the Empire, for Irani: replies to a number of questions which were summed up verv well by Ihe London “Times” in an article quoted .in one of Saturday's cablegrams—particularly whether, despite the knowledge that the Germans were rehearsing embarkations, Britain dispersed a force that had been assembled for Finland; whether lime was lost needlessly; and. perhaps most important of all. “was the well-calculated boldness of the Navy, which was magnificently fruitful at Narvik, given equal opportunities elsewhere.” A great deal evidently must depend on the answers made to these questions. If is,‘of course, only right that, judgment should be suspended until Hie vital issues raised leave been debated in the House of Commons.