3

H.—23

A. Baldey, W. Johnstone, J. G. Ward, J. Turnbull, J. W. Mitchell, H. Carswell, J. L. McDonald, G. W. Nichol, J. Kingsland, E. Cleave, W. H. Hall, W. Guthrie, T. Fleming, T. Quinn; Charles Rout, secretary. Queenstown : D. Mcßride, E. Monson, E. Boss, J. O'Meara, F. St. Omer (Mayor); Henry Manders, secretary.

11. Eepoet op the Executive Commissionee. Wellington, 14th June, 1889. At the first meeting of the Commissioners, which was held on Thursday, the 29th December, 1887, correspondence relative to the steps taken by the Government in connection with^he representation of New Zealand was considered, commencing with an invitation from the Premier of Victoria, dated the 10th December, 188S, to the New Zealand Government to take part in the Exhibition. Acting upon this, the Government obtained an estimate of the probable cost of the representation of J;he colony, the amount arrived at being £3,500, as compared with-£5,178 and £4,877 actually expended at the last Sydney and Melbourne Exhibitions respectively. On the 22nd December, 1887, Parliament voted the above amount, and the Hon. the Colonial Secretary immediately applied provisionally to the Secretary at Melbourne for 6,000 ft. of space. The Commissioners confirmed this application, and resolved to send an additional application to Melbourne for 2,000 ft., or B,oooft. in all. Application w Tas made to the Government for the loan of the various departmental exhibits and show-cases returned from the late Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London, and the Government was requested to direct the Agent-General to send such of the Colonial and Indian exhibits to Melbourne as the Commissioners might desire to have forwarded from those lodged with the Imperial Institution subject to the order of the New Zealand Government. Government also greatly facilitated the transaction of business by very courteously giving the Commissioners the free use of the Government Printing and Stationery Office, the General Survey lithographic press, and the right to frank letters, telegrams, and parcels. At the first meeting Mr. Charles Callis was appointed Secretary to the Commission. The Commission took immediate steps to secure collections illustrative of the agricultural produce of the current season. Through the instrumentality of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company (Limited), who kindly placed the services of their expert officers at the disposal of the Commissioners for the purpose, arrangements were made to obtain representative samples of wool from all parts of the colony. The Mayors, and Presidents of the Chambers of Commerce and industrial associations, throughout the colony, were invited to form local committees, which were duly constituted and gazetted on the 12th March. A central office for the use of the Secretary was rented, and permission was kindly granted by the Chairman of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce to use the chamber for the meetings of the Commissioners. Several members of the Commission visited different parts of the colony, and used their influence to secure important exhibits that might not otherwise have been entered. Various Government departments undertook to furnish exhibits, in addition to those to be returned from London. By the end of January it was found that the public of the colony had taken up the matter of the Exhibition with such interest that it became necessary to apply by cable on the 27th January for an extension of the space allotted to New Zealand to 20,000 ft. of floor-space, excluding fernery and art-gallery. It was not until the 17th February that the Secretary at Melbourne replied that the Space Committee had recommended the General Committee to grant New Zealand only 5,000 ft. of annexes, having 50ft. frontage to the grand central Avenue of Nations, 2,000 ft. for fernery, &c, between the main hall and the annexes, also space for machinery in eastern machinery annexe. As this was considerably less than the Commissioners had applied for, it was at once decided to send Mr. Seed, one of the Commissioners, to Melbourne, to confer with the International Commission, in order to represent that it would be impossible to make anything like an adequate representation of the colony with the small amount of space offered, and to endeavour to obtain the whole 20,000 ft. applied for. Mr. Seed visited Melbourne, and was successful in obtaining the concessions required. Mr. Seed also successfully arranged many important preliminaries for the representation of the colony at the Exhibition, and by his active exertions greatly obviated the inconvenience which had been caused by the late date at which the Commissioners commenced their duties. A sub-committee was appointed to arrange for the compilation of a suitable handbook of the resources of the colony for distribution at the Exhibition; but, as Government subsequently intimated that an official handbook was being prepared by the Hon. the Minister of Lands, the Commission decided to confine their action to issuing fly-leaves and tables of statistics in the official catalogue. Arrangements were made with the Harbour Board for storing the exhibits coming to hand in the wharf-sheds free of charge, and with the Union Steamship Company's agents at Melbourne to receive and forward to the Exhibition, on behalf of the Commissioners, the goods sent from New Zealand. The Union Company undertook to convey the exhibits to Melbourne at ordinary rates of freight, bringing back return-exhibits free. On the 17th March, the latest date for receiving applications, the total amount of space applied for from all parts of the colony was 25,787 ft. A communication from the Hon. C. H. Pearson, Minister of Instruction for Victoria, with regard to forming an Educational Court at the Exhibition, was referred to the Education Depart^ ment, who replied that they Sid not propose to send any articles to the Centennial International Exhibition to represent the educational method in use in New Zealand, but that it was jrossiblc that some competent person might be sent to report on the educational appliances collected at the Exhibition. •