Page image
Page image

7

H.—sa

For instance, Mr. E. H. Banks, of Christchurch, sends pearl barley, white Tuscan wheat, pea-flour, white field peas, winter tares, cocksfoot, horse beans, buck-wheat, malting barley, white Tartarian oats, Prussian-biue peas, rape seed, Hunter's white wheat, rye corn, white Canadian oats, black or Cornish oats, linseed, Eussian pearl wheat, purple-straw Tuscan wheat, and rye-grass seed. Other exhibitors show flour, farina or potato flour, oats, peas, wheats and barleys innumerable, malt, oatmeal, bran, sharps, and semolina. Though the samples are in each case small, the collection does the greatest credit to the colony. Amongst the best got-up exhibits may be noted those of Messrs. Geo. King, P. Cunningham; and Eoyse, Seed, & Co., all of Christchurch; and Mr. Thomas Harley's Nelson hops. The Canterbury District is by far the most largely represented, which is but natural; but the other provinces nearly all contribute a representative show. The remainder of this section of the Court is filled up with a miscellaneous array of minor articles. Tinned fruits from the Thames are shown by Mr. E. Hudson, and four bottles of ink by Mr. J. Hammond, of Invercargill. Sauces of all kinds abound. Preserved fish is sent from Picton, a violin from Blenheim, and a set of bagpipes made of native material from Southland. There is a small but interesting case of silk, reeled and in cocoons, though the climate is hardly warm enough for this industry to become a commercial success. Amongst the curiosities of the Court is Messrs. Stowe Brothers' new patent adding machine, which is to abolish or minimise certain arithmetical calculations. Collections of seeds occupy the hinder part of this half of the Court. The total number of exhibitors is 631, and the Executive Commissioner and his secretary, Mr. Charles Callis, must be complimented on the care they have taken to place each case in an advantageous position. Few visitors who keep their eyes open will leave the Court without gaining additional knowledge and an improved opinion of New Zealand resources. The descriptive catalogue is an admirable production, of great assistance to all who wish to study the exhibits, and the special edition of Dr. Hector's handbook, which has been prepared for this Exhibition, contains a large amount of valuable information. The New Zealand Court is rich in scientific collections. The principal one, by Dr. Hector, fully illustrates the palaeontolgy of the colony, and in addition to fossils of all the geological periods, drawings and casts are shown, together with an interesting ethnological exhibit comprising Maori skulls, weapons, implements, ornaments, and canoes. Professor yon Haast, the director of the Canterbury Museum, also sends an ethnological collection, which, however, is not confined to New Zealand objects, but also contains pre-historic stone implements from Great Britain and Ireland, France, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, Swiss Lake dwellings, Italy, the United States, Mexico, and Egypt, with the object of showing that all people in every part of the world, when arrived at a certain stage of civilization, manufacture their stone implements in exactly the same manner. Some splendid sections of coal seams are exhibited from Auckland, Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago. No less than 160,000 tons of coal of Home production were consumed in New Zealand in 1878, and it has been adopted by the coasting steamers of the Union Steamship Company. Gold, of which specimens before alluded to are sent, was discovered in New Zealand as far back as 1842; and silver, chiefly extracted from the gold obtained at the Thames, is exported in considerable quantities, amounting to £90,000 for the past ten years. Iron ores are shown, but no mines are at present being worked. Copper has been worked in Auckland to a small extent. Lead occurs as galena in Nelson, and zinc ore containing 60 per cent, of metallic zinc at Collingwood, in the same province. Antimony ore, manganese, graphyte, and petroleum oil shales are amongst the other mineral productions shown. Building stones, it is well known, exist in abundance in New Zealand. Professor yon Haast sends trachytes, dolerites, anasemite, porphyry, calcareous sandstone, and limestone, and doleritie specimens ; and some splendid blocks of marble are exhibited by the Canterbury Marble Company. The well-known freestones of this province mostly come from Banks' Peninsula, and are of volcanic origin. Nearly all the other building stones are calcareous, and He in the Waipara and Oamaru formations. The Oamaru Stone Company show an obelisk—a fine column of white calcareous limestone, as well as ornamental jars, vases, &c, carved in their stone by Mr. S. Godfrey. Mr. C. O'Neill's patent artificial Caithness flagging is laid at the main entrance to the Exhibition here, as in Sydney, where over a million people trod over it without leaving any visible mark of their presence. Pottery is remarkably well represented in this court. Messrs. Eeeves & Company, of Dunedin, have erected a capital trophy of earthenware, and Messrs. Wright & Vincent, of Auckland, Austin Kirk & Company, of Christchurch, and W. Plant, of Thames, are all well to the fore in this department. Bricks, drain-pipes, tiles, and terracotta ware are all exhibited in the same class. To Messrs. M'Leod Brothers belongs the distinction of possessing the most expensive case in the court, which is well filled with stearine shapes and candles, soaps, &c. Leather has but one representative, Mr. H. Walton, of Wellington; but some good boot-uppers, manufactured in Dunedin, are sent by Mr. John Munden. There are several cases of boots and shoes, and a curious exhibit in the same class is a bonnet made from lace-bark stripped from a New Zealand tree. Noting a small case of saddlery, the visitor stumbles against a square trophy of seventy biscuit tins, erected by Messrs. J. Bycroft & Company, of Auckland. Several other manufacturers show smaller samples of biscuits. Cheese is of course an important item in the court, no less than twenty being shown, one of which weighs a hundredweight. Beer forms another extensive display, and there are also several samples of wines made from currants, gooseberries, and other fruits. Mr. James Smith, of Nelson, seems to excel in this line. Of grape wine there are four exhibitors, one of whom, Mr. Joseph Soler, of Wanganui, has some 4,000 gallons in stock. Port, Constantia, Malaga, Muscat, and sparkling Moselle, are the principal varieties. Paper pulp, papier mache and short stuff made from phormium tenax, are shown by two Christchurch firms ; and in the immediate neighborhood are two beehives, one of which revolves, enabling the keepers to obtain the honey without destroying the bees. Petroleum in a crude state from Poverty Bay will attract attention. Tanning-bark is sent from Napier. Messrs. W. Moore & Sons, of Christchurch, show a circular-fronted brougham, and Messrs. J. Eobin & Company, of Dunedin, a landau fitted with patent automaton top and Colling's springs.

Log in or create a Papers Past website account

Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.

By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.

Log in with RealMe®

If you’ve used a RealMe login somewhere else, you can use it here too. If you don’t already have a username and password, just click Log in and you can choose to create one.


Log in again to continue your work

Your session has expired.

Log in again with RealMe®


Alert