NOTES ON A TRIP TO VICTORIA.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 4 February 1881, Page 2

NOTES ON A TRIP TO VICTORIA.

No. vnr. Having seen and heard (Tie great organ ; listened to the Strauss Band, and the amateur rendering of the Cantata, one may be said to have " done " the boss item 9on the Exhibition programme. Concerning the organ, I. will say no more, further than that it is of colonial manufacture, and will cost the country nearly £1500, the builder being a Mr Fincham, of Richmond. Regarding the Sfnuss Bjmd, about which so much has )>een iaidT I nity be fi~femark or tws. It i$ currently reported in Melbourne that the Strauss Band, so* called, is in feck not the Strauss Band at all. Four only out of the sixty performers are said to belong to Strauss' Band, and the remaining member* being merely padding, made up of second or third rate musicians. Bat, be this as it mßy, there can be no questioning the fact that they are all most excellent players. Thenr instrumentation is like so much clnck* work. An organ oould not possiWy be more regular in its movements, cr, more exquisitely perfect in its harmonies and cadences. In fact, the listener could, without the lea3t violence to the imagin* nt'on, close his eyes and fancy himself within hearing of a majestic organ. There is none of that griping brassiness about the scund, which is ordinarily associated with brazen instruments ; everything is soft and dulcet, and al hough it might be expected that so large a number of pen. formers would produce a proportionate volume of sound, the music is oo» casionally so low and sweet as to resenn ble no'hing more than the faint fiatf erings of an uEolian harp, With them, numbers do not add force and volume, but merely mellowed excellence to the strains, and as the conductor stands aloft and waves his laton in the air, the ronsie swells and dies away, and new and delicious har» monies break in responsive to every movement of his hand, as though he himself were pressing the precise beys that__produced the music. The time is faultless, and the instruments are so blended as it Were, as to effectually con» ceal all individual effort on the part of the performers, and thus the music has a graceful wave » like motion, which is as grateful to the ear as the *' murmur of the lyre." But the Band, ©tfauss or no Strauss, is after all as much out of place performing in the Exhibition building, as it would be in performing in ' edlam itSelf, for what with the shuffling of ten thousand feet upon the floor, and the muttering?, and greetings, and general buzz and hum, of such a concourse, thp real effect is entirely lost, and the music gets so diluted with noise that you can hardly tell which is which. The bandsmen are dressed in a dark coloured uniform with yellow facings, and as about seven-tenths of the number appear to be young men, ranging probably from twenty to twenty-seven or thirty years of age, they make a very nice appear* ance. The conductor is of course resplendent with gold apulets, and other warlike trappings, but whether he or any of his army ever sniffed powder, is neither here nor there. The Band was brought out as a private speculation by a company of four, and it is said the price paid was £10,000 for the trip, but whether the investment will bo a profitable one, is held in some little doubt. The " proprietors" of the Band receive so much for each performance in the Exhibition and in addition to this, hire out the players to all public demonstrations. Occasionally, the men are sent on a " starring " tour up the country, and on the whole are kept pretty well occupied. To enter upon any particular description of the exhibits would be a rather lengthy undertaking, and probably at this late period a not very interesting one. This, therefore, I shall not attempt, but in all that relates to mining and mining machinery I shall refer to at some length at a future time, contenting my« self for the present with a few general remarks upon the exhibits as a whole. To the casual visitor it must appear that acres and acres of exhibits are set out for purely advertising purpesss. Of course, all the contributions are in the nature of advertisements. bu f » these to which I refer are specifically so. There are dis» plays of common slop clothing, all very attractively arranged, Hut in general, that whicb i<: most attractively shown is the name and address of the particular slop firm, whence the clothing comes. Again there are similar shows of boots, hats, and in fact of every description of daily ware. Iben follows a similar dodge in relation to femine apparel of all kinds, and everywhere, ennepicously arranged, the si-u board cf the owners. In fact, the only thin? which one misses from the ordinary softwoods shop window display, is the price ticket pinned on to the article, and the bogus notifications of " con.

pulsory sale," '• selling-off." and "no reasonable offer refused.'' The same re<« mark applies with equal force to watches, jewellery, and plated. ware displays, and heaps of others that need not be named. These exhibits differ in ao respect from the ordinary window displays of Bourke and Collins "street, except perhaps that the creases have been smoothed out, ani the articles generally polished up a little bit, to make them look so much better than they really are. Further on, one comes across large displays of polished ironmongery — such as cross-cut saw?, cooking ranges, door knockers, brass work, &c, &c, ntt shining like so much glassware, but exhibiting nothing that is discernible to nine-tenths of the specta* tors from what can be seen every day in the week in the windows of any decently stocked ha? d ware establishment. In other places, one meets with great pyramids of sperm candles, bars of soap, &c, &c. All very neatly built up, no doubt, and all looking so beautifully and <earfallytdifferent from anything of tbe kind ttnfbas ever seen before or is ever likely to be seen Bgain— -except at an Exhibition, that one is led too reflect what a pity it is that when the Exhibition is over and the prizes won, that all these fine things will be put in the pot once more and mullocked up into the candles end soap of every day nse. There are acres and acres of this kind of thing, W to notice them all would be but to rrpea t what has already been said. Of cmirve, tbe object of encouraging this class of exhibits in theory is to stimulate and maintain competition in excellence of manufacture, but whether it succeeds be* yond the production of the one great e r a fort to carry off the Exhibition award, is a question which is in some doubt.