OUR EXHIBITION LETTER

Manawatu Times, Volume V, Issue 110, 22 January 1881, Page 3

OUR EXHIBITION LETTER

BY COSMOPOLITAN

■ No. Tin. VicTomti" aw© VicToaiAH Wood— ih» < " Bltjb-Gcii " a»d its Traw— Bknt Wood— A Ssillino Hat Bakb— A Oabdiv of Spicm— jAicsa F. Mao* xiMzts Ann* Cb.'i Mahufactobt— Automatic Appuanois— Mkbit and Mbdam— "Thb Gbbat dnwashid" — Twb iatb " Cham "—A Pieob o* Adviob— S. Capfbb akd Co.'b Labob BATIKO PBCPABATIOITI — GOVBBNmbst House Hospitalities — An AUBTBAMAX " COOK." The variety and beauty of Australian trees is very forcibly illustrated m the Exhibition bj the nrmber and yariety of applications to which the different kinds of wood and timber haTe been put. We should all lore trees, the mute companions of man from youth to age, clothing the earth with green -forms of beaut y, or of strength, m all degrees and aspects ; basking m sunshine, or hiding bj dripping springs, and o'er-shadowing gullies, beautiful m life, and afterwards, capable of being eonTwrtad into instruments for our use or our adornment. We, saw, the other day, m the Victorian Court, some interesting applications of Victorian woods at the exhibit of Mr John Perry, an old colonist and tnanufacterer of these things. We were much struck by the uses which; can be made of that wonderful specialty, the blue-gum tree. It appears to be equally available for all and any purpose' that t the renpwed ' Hickory wood was onoe alone considered the proper thing. And, its 1/ consequence, the price being considerably less, the American article is nearly ceasing to be imported into Australia: Iron bark — which is lit?rally as bard as hrojn— -is made into carriage spokes; and driving wheel bands of blackwood are also among the applications of colonial wood. In fact, '♦' Tasmanian myrtle," " jarrah wood," from all the colonies except South Australia, are used by Mr Perry, for Tarious purposes— splash * boards, shafts, hubs of wheels, and other parts of the indispensable and übiquitous "buggy !" And,' of course, at much less cost than from foreign timber.. The hay rake for one shilling is a marvel of cheapness and excellence. "As the twig is bent, so is the tr*»a inclined," runs tbV proferb : but Mr. Perry appears to be able to bend the tree after it has attained to full maturity — a feat highly interesting and instructive. Man's, dominion OTer nature seems unlimited, or limited only to his finding out the right way to exercise it. One would suppose if you took up a piece of hard wood and tried to bend it bj sheer force it would break, aid it assuredly would do so • but Mr Perry knows a more excellent way. " Steam " is .be power applied to soften the heart of the fibrous wood; and after a whole day of it the wood becomes ductile, and when the proper moment arrives, powerful machinery pomes into play, and the timber of the whilom forest-tree becomes a driving wheel band, a double bent seat-rail, a buggy bow, • big drum (minus the parchment), or anything elese required, and after, cooling for three days, retains its shape ever after. What a series of moral lessons and illustrations for sermons might be drawn from the making of bent wood. . Close by, m the Victorian Court, stands | the display of one of the oldest and most important houses m Australia engaged m the manufacture and preparation of coffee, cocoa, rice, oatmeal, and all kinds of spices — Ifessri. J. F. Mackenzie and Co.'s. We made a /isit to the manufactory m pursuance of our purpose of exploration, and interviewed the machinery and appliances en gaged m these productions. On witering one would imagine he had passed into a garden of spices, so exquisite and so conflicting is the variety of fragrant odours with which ones olfactory organs are assailed One is much impressed by the amount of automatic machinery and appliances used •• that all the various articles receive scarcely any " handling •» at all. Pearl "barley is prepared by machinery m all its three Stage*, and some ingenious machinery of which Messrs Mackenzie have purchased the patent— is used to clean and polish rice without breaking it. Thi somewhat hystencal oppfttion of shaking a sieve while clutching it In both hands is common tnough, but it is amusing to see sixteen sieves, all m rows, seixad by the hidden ppwer of machinery, and the human action of the arms imitated exactly and simultaneously. Ihh is what is done at Messrs Mac keniie's m the matter of shifting the mustard prepared by them. Machinery is most extensively used by 4fcis firm, and the extreme cleanliness of all tie processes worked out is remarkable. Klow the' ground floor are. crrpJe. 4*. m cs>Spirals, ill of which are utilised, *Hh the -desalt of tfrast economy hi space. ' Having attentively observed alt this there' can then b« no wonder that "honor, to, whom honor M doe" has been the fitting reward of so B»och •xeellanee, and that Messrs. J. F. MacWniie and Co, wemawaided a silver medal lor Victorian oatmea) ai tfa Paris Exhibition of 1878, and- aba medals for cocoa chocolate, a ß d mustard, at the lutertational Exhibitions of Philadelphia and Melbourne. Ws> have heard m past years much loose talk about "The Great' Unwashed;" and during the Paris Exhibition, one of the most amusing of the caricatures by the great •• Cham," prince, of caricaturists (alas ! sine* gone bw to the majority), was a sketch of an exhibit of Windsor Soap, with • questionable-lookiny pewon Rising at it ♦ftsUticallr and beneath the drawing was inscribed, •«- A Piece, of Advice » (by Cham) •<Don*» look at the. exhibits of soap as thou^, you saw the- article for. the. first time/ Certainly, all people that on earth do dwelt are. not equally pre-eminent for tht. deanliPMa of their ways, but the njanu, factureof exhract of sonp, washing-powder,, and blue of the bluest Mue, appears to b/a prominent manufacture m Victoria, and could not aourish be»f er mi n ? nnoot the ?*e"?r people i being, notwifchgtanding some fcfcditipnal and ignorant notions to the con-

trary, among tfie cleanest m the world. S. Capper and- Cos jfcxhibit, placed m one of th# beat .positions m the main aveaue, is ,surmpun£esl by; thejigure of a tiger m blue, modelled out of their ordinary manufactured blue. This ajumaL-has been adopted as their ;. trade mark. Artistic arrangements m blue alii' Whistler, piloVof sOap- powder, egg-powder, yeast-powdpr, garnished with _ handsome box&i ojC^asenceajJLeJiiotU almofld, 'clove, 4e,,,^c. I>emqpjj>3e1 > emqpjj>3e a.po.nsiderA>le. ; ppr : ; tion of thpir dt.sjjlar, but" like mady other firms th*j hitfe tWir l^|ct«»ft>et. . THeir malt and .table .vinegar is. one (3Sos.-'2gi£ad--24) ; their cuxryppxder.u;anotb / wr.- r: fll3O twptrb blue, a. more expensive preparation, butpne. If used with judgnient;iptally more economical , than' the ordinary kind: find lastly that labour-saving ' preparation— -. knife-polish. . This is so much itijlemandv that about two lons per week arer-roade afc their manufactory m Webb-street^ Fitarpy. The manufacture, packing 'and ptepAratioa for sale of all these things, employs,. quite a small army of cmplbyi$ y and gro^s, so rapidly, that some difficulty is experienced., m keeping pace with the ever-increasing demands made upon their resources. S. Papper and Co's chromotype of a lauxtdt^dii full operation is no fancy picture, and would serves as a commentary to jCham'sjcelebrated comic print. ■ . "In a multitude of councillors there is wisdom," is an apkomm which Solomon coul not have given/utterance-.to had he lived m the days. of. -universal expositions and especially one, arid that a colonial one .which numbered commissioners by the score. It is not enough, to" erect ,a spacious and mostly Palace of Artj -and gather contributions from all the corners of the earth, and then having set it going, to leave to its own devices, as though -the top would go; on spinning for ever. Everyone knows that is not enough to open a theatre and provide it with costly scenery and stage properties, but the interest must be kept up by various changes— new stars and new attractions — or its popularity will soon flag. And the Exhibition Building at Carlton will soon be growing wearisome, unless something more ; is. done to keep up the interest. Anyone accustomed to the f*tsf and almost daily recurring attraction* organised m European capitals when Exhibitions are "on," can* not fail to be struok by the very tame, spiritless way of life into which the Melbourne annut mirabilu is settling r down. Are all'those hundred and one commissioners such poor dullards that they' can originate nothing. As it- is, they have not soared even, to the organisation of ♦ display of fireworks T Anything more flat and deficient in»"g" no exhibition on record ever approached. ' Chn'viothing be done to vanise these officials into some semblance of of festiyily • We fear not. Collectively they remind us of that whibh one of the last generation.- of.- Princes, the sons of George 111. — said of another German "princeling, whose cotftinship led thcim to entsrUin. him m the jovial circles of that era. "I t: ye tried him drunk, and I have tried him sober, and V:era is nothing m him. I" was the iinqualifled verdict of royalty. The reckless: gaiety and exuberant hospitality carried on at Government House perhaps appals them. They feel it would not be m good taste to exhibit,. any appear* ance of desiring to outvie the-, magnificent and original entertainments devised by the Viceroy of the Sovereign. .... An Australian "Cook," of excursion fame is greatly needed. He would have organised cheap trips from all parts of the colonies, and thole that go remember, always induce others to follow their ■ examp'a. Cook is now a millionaire, and the system, therefore, " respectable:" Nothing eucceeds like, excess ! Those who scoffed remain to purchase and profit by hit rcirculat tick. ets. Mr Cook's first essay m that line was as' a workman, who undertook to»rga*rt'is« a cheap excursion for his. fellow-workman-. o£ the?* same temperance persuasion, from the townof Leicester to. the next' marlret f town fn „ O ther ,small .enturesfolio wed, and after little more than twenty years, Mr Cook disburses sjims of hundreds of thousands of pounds to numerous railway companifs.. 1^ ijq q«jsjcofl at the smallest beginnings. ' ■ i ■ ' /' !