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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 27

Practicability and Cost

Practicability and Cost.

I will now ask those of you who agree with me as to the efficiency of such an Exhibition, to enter into the mode of carrying it out, and the cost.

The first step obviously must be for the Governments of the colonies concerned to agree to appoint conjointly a Federal or General Commission to perform the same duties with regard to this Exhibition as are generally performed by the Commission of the nation which holds an International Exhibition. These duties may roughly be defined as follows:—To enter into communication with the participating colonies, to provide a building in which to hold the Exhibition, and to issue and carry out regulations for its management. Seeing that the work of this general Commission would be almost entirely in London, it might reasonably be composed of the Agents-General, a few prominent Anglo-Australasians and Englishmen — such as the Duke of Manchester —interested in the colonies. H.K.H. the Prince of Wales should be asked to be President, and to prevent intercolonial jealousies, and ensure influence, experience, and popularity in the executive management, I would suggest that Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen, the Director of the South Kensington Museum, and late British Executive Commissioner at Paris, be asked to take the position of Commissioner-General. The expenditure of the General Commission should be defrayed by the participating colonies pro rata to population, and, of course, each colony would have its own Commissioner, just as is done for any International Exhibition in a foreign country. As something has been said about the difficulty of federal action in the matter, I page 9 would point out that there would not, as is the ease at most Intercolonial Conferences, be any place for one colony to get an advantage over another in the working of the General Commission. Each colony would be left to further its own interests by means of its own Commission. The General Commission would be limited to those functions which could not be done by the Provincial Commissions, and by which all the .participating colonies 'would benefit exactly in proportion to the efforts they made through their Provincial Commissions.

Where is the Exhibition to be held? Here two courses present themselves. The cheaper is to rent 600,000 square feet, which I calculate to be the utmost space we could fill, in the Crystal or Alexandra Palace. The better would be to obtain permission from the Imperial Government to erect a temporary structure in the Horticultural Gardens at South Kensington, where the Fisheries Exhibition is now being held. The cost of the former plan I guess to amount to about, £18,000, that of the latter I estimate at £60,000, the contract being for use and waste only. It will be seen that this latter estimate is reasonable when I recall to your mind that the cost of the temporary portion of the Melbourne Exhibition buildings, covering an area slightly larger than 600,000 square feet, was £56,000. Take oft £16,000 for cheaper labour and materials, and add £20,000 for ornamental purposes, and you arrive at £60,000 as the cost of a building of the same size sufficiently ornamental not to disgrace the colonies.

But how do I arrive at my 600,000 square feet? Thus:—The Victorian Court at the Melbourne Exhibition occupied 178,000 square feet, New South Wales, 30,000; New Zealand, 12,000; South Australia and Queensland, 10,000 apiece. On the basis that the productions of each colony were represented as fully as those of Victoria were on that occasion, I calculate that the courts of each colony at the London Exhibition might reach the following dimensions:—Victoria, i50,000; New Zealand, 100,000; New South Wales and South Australia, 80,000 apiece; Queensland, 60,000; Tasmania, 30,000; Western Australia and Fiji, 10,000 apiece; New Guinea, New Hebrides, and other islands, 10,000 between them; refreshment and lecture rooms, 70,000—making in all, 600,000 square feet. The expenditure of each colony to fill the above areas I roughly estimate as follows:—Victoria, £30,000; New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland, and New Zealand, £20,000 apiece; Tasmania, £15,000; Western Australia and Fiji, £8,000 apiece. It must be understood, however, that these are only rough estimates, as the amount which each colony would spend on its own representation would be a matter entirely for its own consideration.

The expenses of the General Commission can, however, be calculated more easily. The following table shows alongside of my estimate the amounts expended for the same purpose, as shown on the balance-sheets of the London International of 1862, and the Melbourne International of 1880. In comparing these items, it has to be remembered that an International Exhibition deals with a larger number of widely separated countries, and an immensely larger number of small exhibits, and, further, that the Melbourne Exhibition was half as large again as the Australasian one would be, and the London one three times as large. The alternative items for building for the Australasian Exhibition represent the cost of hiring part of an existing building, or of building a temporary structure. At London the contractor was to be paid £200,000 or £300,000, according to the amount taken at the gates, £200,000 being the minimum.
Australasian. Melbourne. London.
Building £60,000,
18,000
Permanent £200,000
Ceremonies, entertainments, decorations 5,000 £8,200 9,200
Maintenance 3,000 1,800 9,200
Medals and certificates 4,000 6,100 6,400
Machinery in motion 1,000 4,800 Nil
Advertising, printing, stationery, postage and traveling 4,000 9,500 Mixed with other items.
Salaries and Wages 12,000 34,600 45,000
Lectures and pamphlets 5,000
Trains for Agricultural labourers 20,00
Total either 72,000
114,000
page 10

To recoup this outlay there would be the admissions at the gates, which might amount to anything between £50,000 and £150,000, according to the success of the Exhibition. Nor do I think that £100,000 can be considered an unreasonable mean estimate when you note that the Fisheries' Exhibition took £20,000 in admissions the first week after it was opened, and that the Electric Exhibition is reported to have taken £130,000. Should anyone think that the free opening of the buildings on Saturdays would affect the receipts at the gates on paying days. 1 would point out that in England classes do not mix as they do here, and that at nearly all public institutions there are two sets of days—2s. 6d. and Is. days—attracting two different classes of visitors.

There is no Exhibition announced in any part of the world for the year 1885, and I would therefore suggest that the Exhibition be opened on Easter Monday in April of that year, and remain open for a period of six months. At least a year's notice would be required to make the necessary preparations. If 1885 should be thought inconvenient there seem to me to be strong reasons for fixing on the year 1888 as being the centenary of the settlement of Australasia. I understand that there is a proposal on foot for holding an Intercolonial Exhibition in Sydney that year to commemorate the event. We who live in Australia know pretty well what the achievements of the first century of our existence have been. Would it not be preferable to show them to our fellow-countrymen in England? At the end of the half-year the child returns from school and proudly shows its mother the prizes of his industry. Is there an inhabitant of these colonies "with soul so dead" that he will not be proud to display for the approval and admiration of the mother-country the proofs of the achievements of her sons in Australasia during the short space of a hundred years? Surely it is in London rather than in Sydney that our centennial should be held.