THE NEW ZEALAND AND SOUTH SEAS EXHIBITION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2757, 15 March 1890, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE NEW ZEALAND AND SOUTH SEAS EXHIBITION.

(FROM OIJR 6PECIAI, COBRKHPON'riENI) ■ ON Friday »nd Stturday last Messrs Parks and Reynold'* held an auction sale of all the furniture in use at Government Housn during the visit of the Earl and Countess of Onslow. There was nothing remarkable about the furniture itself, but the fact of its having been used by vice-royalty invested it with a sort nf glory hid all its defects. Dunedinites deafly love a title and accordingly'the rush to seethe furniture was so great that the auctioneers were ' compelled to charge a fee of half ncrmvn upon sale day to pnsqrp the orespnee of buyers only, and then the reems were ctnwde(J, everybody being Dossns-iod with » frantic desire to Rit, in the chairs that had b9en h,tll"wed by the persons of live lords and ladips. Amongst the furniture I noticed a plain deal table, plentifully bespattered with ink and ornamented in a variety of places with the name "Cranley," and a series of pen. metrical designs. This waa the table used by his little lordship during his studies, and the way it was swooped down upon was simply aipaziqg, being sold for about twice the value qf an ordinary polishod dining table. The great event of the past week has been the special dairy produce show, which took place on Friday and Saturday. It was splendidly got np by the committee and others, notably Mr J. R. Scott and Mr Sawyers, is nnd"uhted|y the best sh'iw ' of tWufcuKl ftt* fefW in 4}wtend, 1 <

entries) totalled 107, 35 dairy factories competing. Over 30 tuns of cheese and tive : tons of butter wore sent in, also honey, preserved milk, bacon and hmiiß. A splendid exhibit was a glass lined ,caso (for packing- butter for expnrt) made by IVtr J. Fo t 'r, in which he has obviated the liability to fracture, bv having the glass lining firmly connected to the , woo(je» side*. As this , method enables the cases to endure rough handling', it is almost certain ch it they: will, ere long, be in gomv ral use. Visitors and experts were astonished at the excellent quality of the dairy exhibits. Xn cheese the Bruce Factory, headed the list, Stirling and Loch Cliitha factories not far behind. In many instances the judges had the utmost difficulty in awarding the prizes. Mr Chew Chong, who owns the Jubilee Dairy Factory,*at Elt.ham, New Plymouth, had the proud distinction'of carrying off the first award for export butter, The scarlet dragon, with yellow back ground, was to be seen proudly floating over the exhibit, telling the world of the Mongolian victory. Mr Chew Chong was considerably and naturally elated at his success, and was to be seen keeping jealous watch over hi" treasure the two days of the show. I believe the excellent qoalty of his butter has long been recognised. And here, let uie tell you for the benefit of dairy folk in your district, that though hand-made hutter was not beaten in every case, somesplendid specimens beingsentin in fact, yet separator butter scored as 5 to 1 against it. Mr Chew Chong'B priae exhibit was mado from separated cream. The attendance at the Exhibition is still keeping up. On Monday the 400,000 th person passed the turn-stiles, a most pleasing result, seeing that the Exhibition has not yet been open three months. I have it on the best authority that the financial prospects of the Exhibition are excellent. If the asaets are realised at anything like fair prices, the shareholders can oxpoct to get 20s in the £ back, even allowing for a greatly diminished attendance, as closing time draws near. As the country people still flock down by every excursion and seera jlikely'to do so still more as harvesting time gets pa»t, while the biggestholiday of all—Kastar— has yot to come, the prospects may f irly he called rosy, A popular proposal is for the company to make a free gift to the city of Diinedin, of two substantial momeutoes of the Exhibition in the shape of the fine brick picture gallery and the magniiicorit concert hall. If this were dono and the lowest possible estimate taken of attendance, it would mean that tho shareholders would stand too lose about 7s Gd por share. As no one ever expected to get a single shilling of share money back again, this is eminently satisfactory. The Music Committee ke«i> up the attractions very well. Lust Wednesday a capital grand concert was given. Mesdames Murphv, Israel, Hislon, and Messrs Hensom, H. Smith, J. Jago and other local talent were allowed a chance to shine, and shono accordingly very much better than some imported talent. A great treat is premised from the new soprano, Miss Ross >w, however, wh"i arrived by the Tarawera to-day. Mr Julius ITerz, the well known conduotor of the Melbourne Liedertafel says she has the fineet soprano voice in Australasia. The '•r.'bestial concerts g:ow in popularity dav by day. They are alwav» crowded, and good music is always provided. Lust night there was a special orchestral concert, at which Beethoven's Symphony in C. minor was given with brilliant effect. This was the first time it has been given in full inDunedin, and the people did not forget to applaud.