CAVALCADE OF PROGRESS

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20956, 8 November 1939, Page 10

CAVALCADE OF PROGRESS

Dominion’s Great Future : Features of the Exhibition

Covering an area of nearly 60 acres, the exhibition is the largest and most elaborate ever conceived in the Southern Hemisphere, and vast schemes for lighting, traffic, electric power and the display of thousands of exhibits reached their culmination today. The main exhibit buildings, divided into six huge courts, have a floor area of more than 15 acres, and in addition to these there are two vast pavilions erected by the Governments of the United Kingdom and the Australian Commonwealth, and several other smaller buildings providing various facilities for visitors. The estimated cost of the exhibition up to opening day is more than half a million pounds. This cost includes the construction of the buildings, the landscaping, the paving of its 12 miles of road, its network of drainage, water supply and gas supply pipes, hundreds of miles of electric cable and more than 2000 miles of wiring. At night the exhibition will present a colossal spectacle of acres of light that transform the buildings into sheets of varied colour that are reflected in dazzling beauty by the vast lagoons. ( Main Buildings The New Zealand Government Court has a floor area of 100,000 square feet and incorporates displays of 26 State departments. All of the displays have been designed in the most modem fashion, and the court itself has a general illumination by indirect lighting and fluorescent tubing that creates a fascinating combination of colour and white light. This vast hall has a special air-conditioning plant, which will maintain a flow of cool fresh air despite the thousands of people that it is antici- I pated will throng the aisles. The 26 exhibits have a high entertainment and educational value, and depict every phase of the working and social relations in New Zealand as well as their development through 10b years of European settlement. In this court visitors will have at their disposal a complete working branch post office, a travel bureau, a broadcasting station, a public trust office, and a fine cinema which will show New Zealand pictures of scenic and industrial interest continually. The Dominion Court The Dominion Court is devoted to a further presentation of New Zealand’s national life, but in a unique form. Instead of the old style provincial court, displays with shop-window exhibits of their respective resources and activities, the 11 main districts have been amalgamated into one unit, resulting in the building of the largest diorama in the world. It covers an area a little larger than a rugby football field and is in the form of a miniature New Zealand, showing landscape scenic attractions, farming lands, cities,. industries and ma ny working models of unequalled interest. This court is an entirely new expression of the life of the Dominion, of towns and country. The major cities of the Dominion are modelled in detail so accurately that visitors, familiar with the cities at which they are looking, can pick the very shop fronts of the business areas. At the wharves of the port cities are accurate models of ships trading with New Zealand, and floating in miniature harbours, across which they move with amazing realism, are ferries and other craft; tram-cars move in the lilliputian streets; through the court a model railway train bustles continuously through farmlands, the grandeur of mountain scenery, over viaducts, and through tunnels to the industrial centres. This court has been laid out to follow the natural geographic disposition of the country. North Island Section The North Island is dominated by the modelled mountains of National Park, which reach up to the ceiling to a height of more than 30 feet. In the South Island Mount Cook is the dominating feature, and there are water-falls at either end of the court, one representing the famous Keri Keri falls in the North Auckland section, and the other the Bowen falls in the Southland section. It is estimated that 56,000.000 gallons of water will tumble down each of these unique features during the six months of the exhibition. Beneath the court are attractive reception rooms for the various provincial councils, provided as facilities for visitors to the court and containing fine murals appropriate to the respective provinces. A model of the Whitomo Caves is made in the form of a winding underground tunnel, studded with stalactites and light, with a strange entrancing beauty. The visitor to this section walks more than quarter of a mile through fairy-like caverns, and makes part of his journey over water, in which is reflected the light from thousands of artificial glow-worms that stud the ceiling of the river tunnel. The stream emerges, as does the real Waitomo stream, through fern-clad slopes; in this fernery the arrangement of brick-work and plants has been accomplished with amazing ingenuity. Overseas Displays Other buildings a*e set apart for the delays of exhibitors generally. Incorporated in the

motors and transportation building, are overseas displays from Canada, Tasmania and Fiji. In this section, also, is the Maori Court, which provides an unusual opportunity of, seeing the natives of New Zealand at their historic crafts, and also of witnessing their traditional dancing and listening to their haunting music. The Canadian court is built entirely of Canadian timbers, and the display as a whole is dominated by four dioramas representing agriculture, minerals, timber and transportation. The Fijian court is built in the form of a Vaka tunuloa, a village meeting house, and is attended by Fijians in their native costume. The women’s section is located in the tower block and as well as a large exhibit area has its own lecture hall and official accommodation.

The features of the women’s section are the special displays representing pioneer homes at two periods of New Zealand’s history. The North Island room is built in the form of a pioneer hut, raupo-roofed, and built mainly of timbers 100 years old from historic homesteads. Even some of the nails in this exhibit are handmade and were used originally by pi»neers in constructing their first rude dwelling. New Zealand’s First Piano The South Island room represents a later period, and typifies a more prosperous settler’s parlour. The treasures of many South Island homes were called on to furnish this room that is typical of the 1850-1860 period in the South Island. It contains one of the first pianos ever brought to the country and is completely furnished in the style so well loved by our forefathers. Apart from sleeping accommodation, the exhibition provides every facility for community life. Meals, toilet, laundry, baby-minding, first aid, fire protection, police supervision and transport are all included in the many and various activities within the grounds. The electrical installation in the exhibition is of a size that would service a city of 25,000 people, and its drainage and water supply are almost as vast. The roading is equal to 12 miles of main highway. The gardens contain more than 100,000 annuals, and hundreds o| pohutukawas that will flame with their crimson blossom as summer advances, and the reflecting pools contain 320,000 gallons of water. “Playland” Park The largest amusement park ever constructed in the Southern Hemisphere forms the main entertainment feature at the exhibition with its 10 acres of riding devices and stalls that have the latest and most varied attractions for amusement. The giant cyclone roller coaster is the largest built in Australasia and it has 3000 feet of track, on which operate three 3-car units. The Jack and Jill slide is another outstanding feature. The children’s play area has a miniature railway with a track more than half a mile long, on which operates an accurate model of the Coronation Scott locomotive. It includes swings, sand-pits, a community centre and hand ball courts. It also covers an area of one acre and is situated close by the creche and the model kindergarten and Plunket rooms to the left of the Tirangi Road entrance to the exhibition. General Features Every evening and on Saturday afternoons, leading New Zealand bands will provide music in the specially constructed band shell areas. The huge assembly hall, with its striking architecture and novel lighting, is available for conferences and other functions, and there is a cabaret open in the mornings, afternoons and evenings, at which plays the finest dance band in New Zealand, conducted by Manuel Raymond.

Car parking facilities within the exhibition will accommodate 1000 cars. Visitors to Wellington can arrange accommodation through the Official Accommodation Bureau with complete confidence.