"South Sea Wembly"

After months and years of preparation, the New Zealand and South Seas International exposition has been thrown open at Dunedin, "most southerly of the world's large communities." As everyone knows, Dunedin is beautifully located 15 miles from the open sea, at the head of Otago harbor, famed stamping ground of the aboriginal Maoris, who manufactured there a native pigment with which they smeared their bodies, as did the early Britons. In 1861 Dunedin was the scene of one of the mad scrambles for gold which sent so many adventurers flocking to New Zealand. Now it has grown decorous, sprouted an embryo culture. As the Exposition got under way local citizens announced with pride that they had financed the whole venture except for a grant of -L-25,000 from the Dominion Government.

Spread out over an expanse of 65 acres, the somewhat scattered Exposition buildings have already been dubbed the "Wembly of the South Seas." A large domed Festival Hall, superficially resembling the U.S. Capitol at Washington, dominates a be-fountained lagoon, serves as a focus for the Expositional activities, and is expected to reverberate nightly to the syncopations of the noted Argyll and Sutherland jazz band, which New Zulanders boast of having lured from London at a cost -L-5,000 greater than the total Dominion grant to the Exposition Co.

In the Fine Arts Building, a substantial permanent structure, some 50 paintings by U. S. artists will be displayed under the auspices of the National Academy of Design (Manhattan). And a vast collection of exhibits has been sent out by the Victoria and Albert Museum, together with replicas of the chief treasures of the British Museum. Canada, Australia, and the Fiji Islands have also sent exhibits. Likewise a collection of early Roman vases, discovered in Britain, will be on display.

In the realm of sport the Exposition will provide a series of football and cricket matches, to be played off between teams from the various Dominions. Cried elated Dunedin babbitts: "See New Zuland first! See it at the "N. Z. S. S. I. E!"