The New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition was an international exhibition held in Dunedin, New Zealand from 26 November 1889 to 19 April 1890.
The New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition was an international exhibition held in Dunedin, New Zealand from 26 November 1889 to 19 April 1890.
D. H. Hasting proposed the hosting of an international exhibition in Dunedin, New Zealand to celebrate the golden jubilee in 1890 of the proclamation of British sovereignty over New Zealand in 1840. A meeting was held on 25 October 1888 to form an organizing committee. John Roberts was elected president and Richard Twopeny, executive commissioner. [1] Alfred Lee Smith was one of the directors of the exhibition. [2] The national government officially recognized the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, and granted £10,000 for its organization. [3]
A site of about 121 acres was donated by the Otago Harbour Board, bounded by Crawford, Anderson's Bay, Cumberland, and Jervois Streets. The main building was designed by James Hislop and built by contractors McMath and Walker of Invercargill. The building consisted of several annexes and halls forming an irregular quadrilateral with its longest side measuring 1,162 feet and a total width of 465 feet. A huge dome 50 feet in diameter rose 80 feet above the main entrance and was covered in eight tons of lead. [4] [5]
The main building was described as being of Moorish design. Inside, there were large arches draped with velvet curtains and bordered by wooden spandrels decorated with New Zealand ferns and flowers, mirrors and baskets of flowers, and a multi-coloured decorated ceiling. [4] Friezes above the arches were decorated with inspiring mottoes on gold backgrounds: Fax mentis incendium gloriæ (Glory is the torch of the mind); Forti omne solum patria (The man of courage makes every land his home); Virtutem sequitur gloria (Merit wins credit); and Labor omnia vincit improbus (Incessant toil conquers all). [4] A statue of Queen Victoria stood on a pedestal directly under the dome. [4]
The exhibition was opened on 26 November 1889 by Governor Lord Onslow. The fair celebrated industry and products from New Zealand and overseas. Places represented included Mauritius, Canada, Costa Rica, United States, Ceylon, Japan, Syria, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Cook Islands, Fiji, Hawaii, New Guinea, New Hebrides, New South Wales, New Zealand, Queensland, Samoa, Solomon Islands, South Australia, Tonga, Victoria, and Western Australia. [6]
Exhibitions included New Zealand's Eiffel Tower, a 40-metre-high (130 ft) wooden structure built by the Austral Otis Elevator Company, based on the newly-erected Eiffel Tower in Paris. [7] The tower was estimated to cost £1200. An elevator ascended about 30 m up the tower, and there were four landings where people could alight. The elevator could carry 16 people at a time, for a fee of sixpence per adult. [8] [9] A smaller Eiffel Tower about 12 m (40 ft) high, without an elevator, was situated in an adjacent garden area near the internal courtyard of the exhibition. It was used for displaying whisky. [10] [11] Another very popular attraction was the switchback railway, similar to a roller coaster, which swooped up and down inclines on a 122-metre long (400 ft ) track. [12] [13] At the 'Anthropometrical Laboratory', visitors could have tests such as lung capacity, eyesight, and strength and have their body measurements analysed. [14]
During the 125 days the exhibition was open there was an attendance of 625,248, before the exhibition closed on 19 April 1890. [15] The exhibition made a profit of almost £900, which was distributed amongst the shareholders of the organising body, the New Zealand Exhibition Company. [16]
After the exhibition closed, the various buildings and fittings were sold off or demolished and the site was cleared. [17] [18] One of the last existing sections of the exhibition an octagonal tower, made of timber and corrugated iron, which was sold and removed to a farm at Kuri Bush near Dunedin. It was used for many years as housing for cows and chickens and as a haybarn, gradually becoming more decayed. The structure collapsed in strong winds in November 2015. [19]
John Roberts was awarded the Companionship of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George in 1891 for his services as president of the exhibition. [20]
A book was published on the occasion of the exhibition, titled Picturesque Dunedin. It was edited by Alexander Bathgate, and gave a description of Dunedin and its neighbourhood, with a short historical account of the city and its principal institutions. [21]
The Otago Daily Times (ODT) is a newspaper published by Allied Press Ltd in Dunedin, New Zealand. The ODT is one of the country's four main daily newspapers, serving the southern South Island with a circulation of around 26,000 and a combined print and digital annual audience of 304,000. Founded in 1861 it is New Zealand's oldest surviving daily newspaper – Christchurch's The Press, six months older, was a weekly paper until March 1863.
The New Zealand and South Seas International Exhibition was a world's fair held in Dunedin, New Zealand from 17 November 1925 until 1 May 1926, which celebrated that country and the South Seas. It was the third such exhibition held in Dunedin, with earlier exhibitions in 1865 and 1889. The exhibition had over 3 million visitors. It had added a new 'Special Exhibits' section focusing on art and craftwork made by women. It was a breakthrough that lifted the profile of women's art and craftwork.
St Joseph's Cathedral is the cathedral for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dunedin. It is located in City Rise in the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. It serves as the seat of the bishop of the Latin Church Roman Catholic Diocese of Dunedin, which was erected on 26 November 1869.
David Pinkerton was a New Zealand Member of Parliament for Dunedin City, in the South Island.
Alfred Lee Smith was a Yorkshire-born businessman from Dunedin, New Zealand. He was a member of the member of the New Zealand Legislative Council for one term from 1898 to 1905.
The Puysegur Point Lighthouse is located on a remote headland overlooking the Tasman Sea at the southwest corner of New Zealand's South Island. The Puysegur Point headland is near the entrance to Rakituma / Preservation Inlet in Fiordland National Park. The lighthouse marks the northwest point of the entrance to Foveaux Strait, separating Stewart Island from the South Island. Puysegur Point is one of the most isolated and inaccessible lighthouses in New Zealand.
Joseph Barnes Borton was a New Zealand goldfields warden and cricketer. Along with William Gilbert Rees, Gibson Turton, James Fulton, and John Kissling, he is credited with reviving interest in cricket in Otago in the 1860s.
Thomas James Bryden was a New Zealand cricketer. He played two first-class matches for Otago, one in each of the 1912–13 and 1913–14 seasons. He was killed in action during World War I at the First Battle of Passchendaele.
Charles Sydney Chadwick was a New Zealand cricketer. He played sixteen first-class matches for Otago between the 1912–13 and 1924–25 seasons.
Daniel Patrick Claffey was a New Zealand sportsman. He played two first-class cricket matches for Otago, one in each of the 1888–89 and 1889–90 seasons, and played provincial rugby union for the Otago side.
Allen Clyde Holden was a New Zealand cricketer. He played two first-class matches for Otago, one in each of the 1937–38 and 1939–40 seasons.
Arthur Stewart Mills, also known as Dick Mills, was a New Zealand cricketer. He played one first-class match for Otago in the 1947–48 season.
William Alexander Priest, also known as Alec Priest, was a New Zealand doctor and cricketer. He played two first-class matches in the Plunket Shield for Otago in the early 1930s and played in the Hawke Cup for Taranaki and Wanganui. Professionally he was a specialist in the treatment of tuberculosis who worked in a number of New Zealand hospitals and conducted research on a travelling scholarship in the 1950s.
Arthur Edmund Symonds was a New Zealand sportsman. He played one first-class match for Otago during the 1926–27 season.
Surefoot was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire whose exceptional racing ability was combined with a violent and unpredictable temperament. As a juvenile in 1889 he was regarded as the best colt of his generation in England after winning three of his four races including the Woodcote Stakes and New Stakes. He also demonstrated his precocity by reportedly siring a foal as a two-year-old. In 1890 he was an emphatic winner of the 2000 Guineas but despite being regarded as a near certainty for the Epsom Derby he finished fourth after spending much of the race attempting to savage other horses and jockeys. He went on to win a minor race at Royal Ascot and later defeated a strong field to take the valuable Prince of Wales' Stakes at Leicester Racecourse. As a four-year-old he showed little worthwhile form early in the season but returned to his best to win the Eclipse Stakes. After his retirement from racing he stood as a breeding stallion in England and France but had limited success as a sire of winners.
Semolina was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare. Bred and owned by the 6th Duke of Portland, she was one of the best two-year-olds in England in 1889 when she won thirteen times from fifteen races. In the following spring she recorded her biggest success when she won the 1000 Guineas. She went on to run fourth in the Oaks Stakes and third in the Coronation Stakes, but never won again and was retired from racing at the end of the year. She had modest success as a dam of winners.
Lily Attey Daff was a British-born designer and artist who worked in New Zealand and published watercolour paintings and line drawings of many native New Zealand birds and flowers.
The Colonial Bank of New Zealand was a trading bank headquartered in Dunedin, New Zealand which operated independently for more than 20 years. A public company listed on the local stock exchanges it was owned and controlled by New Zealand entrepreneurs and not London or Australian bankers. Still subject to the same vicissitudes as its fellow colonial banks it was bought by the Bank of New Zealand in 1895.
The Bank of Otago was a bank which successfully operated in New Zealand's Otago province from late 1863 until it was bought in 1873 by a new London incorporation, The National Bank of New Zealand, also run from Dunedin but endowed with many times more capital and plans to operate nationwide.
Dunedin Symphony Orchestra is a professional symphony orchestra based in Dunedin, New Zealand. It hosts an annual subscription series of concerts in the Dunedin Town Hall, performing repertoire from the Classical, Romantic and contemporary periods. It also regularly accompanies Dunedin stage performances by the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Opera Otago and City Choir Dunedin.
New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition
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