The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-05-19 00:00:00

A FUNERAL IN NEW ZEALAND.

A correspondent at CaMbridge, New Zealand,
writing on March 12 to the Colonies and India, says :
" Yesterday the funeral of Mrs. Wilson, wife of
Major Wilson, whore death has cast much gloom over
this neighbourhood, was the occasion of a remarkable
demonstration of fellowship between the white and the
native races. Perhaps never before in New Zealand
have the remains of any lady been borne to their last
resting-place with BO much honour and regard, and
certainly never has a funeral of a white person been
attended by such a numerous and representative
body, not only of whites, but of Maories There were
at least 60 carriages, over 100 horsemen, and altogether
about Loog, Tersons followed. The funeral service
was conducted jointly - by -Archdesineri, Willis WI
i
the Rev, Wiremu Pomar?, n English and Mari,
and was reverently joined in by all present, including
Colonel Lyon, Mr. Jowl Sheehan, M.H.R' Dr.
Buller, C. M.G., Judge Puckey, Te Ngakau, Chief
of Kawhis (who had come this long journey ex-
pressly, and who is related to Mrs. Wilson, and is
probably the most influential chief in Waikato), R.

Laishley, solicitor, Auckland, Dr. Waddington n. J
Divide*, J.P., and many other well•known colonists.
There were large numbers of Maori women clothed in
mourning, wearingigreen leaves, forming a very pic-
turesque portion or the proce,sion, all conducting
themselves with the utmost decorum. To Ngakau also
was remarkable by his head.c.iress—a profusion of black
hula feathers."
THE HYGIENIC EXHIBITION IN
-

BERLIN.
The Hygienic Exhibition which has just been opened
in Berlin includes all apparatus and appliances con-
nected net only with sanitary science and public
health, but also of the lifeboat stations and fire bri-
gades. The variety of the articles shown may be
judged by the fact that the catalogue comprises over
2,000 entries.
Although the enibition is essentially German, ea-
hibitsira from Austria and Switzerland have been also
admitted. Besides the main building, the u rt. cu ndi g
grounds, which are laid out as a park with fountains,
flower-beds, and a large pond, crossed by a bridge of
corrugated iron capable of bearing the greatest weights,
contain a great number of interesting objects.
The Stadtbahn, or Metropolitan, Railway passes
directly through the grounds in the rear of the main
building, but instead of cutting the exhibition into
two halves, the arches, over which the trains pass
every three minutes and thirty-eight of which stand
within the limits of the Exhibition grounds, have been
utilised—partly as passages from one side to the other,
and partly as receptacles for the large vehicles of the
Red Cross and St. John Societies and the boats of the
life-saving stations.
North of the Stadtbahn the grounds are closely
filled with a great number of smaller buildings and
pavilions for different specialities. A circular build-
ing contains a large iron tank, 15 feet deep, in which
a diver descends before the spectators who can watch
him not only from the seats of a small amphitheatre
surrounding and above the tank, but also through
portholes, closed by thick glass, in the sides. Then
there is a great hill, which contains in its interior the
complete arrangement of a coal mine, with tunnels
and side-walls of enormous blocks of coal. The front
of a four-storey building has been erected to serve for
the exercises of the fire brigade and their life-saving
apparatus.
Of the other numerous pavilions may be mentioned
the "Volkakirche," and coolery school; the military
kitchen, exhibited by the War Ministry, where the
nutritious food of the Prussian troops is supplied; a
miniature stage, for experiments with decorations and
theatrica machinery; a meteorological pavilion,
Chinese tea-houses, isc.

Of course there are large restaurants and beer-hall,
pavilions for the two military bands which are to per-
form daily, a post-ofEoe, telegraph, and telephone
offices, as well as police, custom-house, and fire.,
stations.

---------
For the lighting of the Exhibition the different elec-
tric systems have naturally been selected. The square
in front of the main building is illuminated by Sie-
mens' arc lights, the park by his regenerative burners,
the large concert hall of the restaurant by Edison'.
lamps placed on large chandeliers; as also the "normal
dwelling-house," which is the only exhibition building
open after six p.m. The coal mine is lighted by Sie-
mens' and Halskets electric lamps. The Exhibition,
which is under the patronage of the Empress Augusta,
is to remain open until October 15th.
In describing the building and its contents, the
Berlin Correspondent of the Daily News says
It is just one year ago, viz., on the 12th of May,
182, that the main building of the Exhibition, then
about to be opened in a few days, were totally de-
stroyed by fire. with all its contents, within less than
two hours. With the active co-operation of the
German Crown Prince, it was at once decided to re-
build the Exhibition. The Emperor gave a contribu-
tion of 100,000 marks; the city of Berlin 200,000; the
guarantee list was rapidly filled, and the result is that
to-day the new Exhibition is in a far better and more
complete state than that destroyed one year ago.
Profiting by the lesson of the fire, the new main build-
ing has been erected in a substantial manner, of fire-
proof materials only—stone, iron, end glass—and all
other material used for the decoration of the interior
has been impregnated with incombustible prepara-
tions. The architecture of the building has been
executed on a novel plan. On the outside wall of rad
decorated brickwork, 30 feet high, forming nearly
a square, is placed the iron framework, which forms
25 quadrangular courts chessboard fashion, in five
rows of five each. Twenty of these courts are covered
by flat cupolas, closed with corrugated iron and
heavy plate•glass, while the four others remain open
to admit the light. They also contain a cistern each
for rain-water. rhe central court in the south-front,
which rises higher than the ethers in the shape of
triumphal arch, forming the main entrance, fa sur-
mounted by a tower and cupola rising to a height of
140 feet. Two hydraulic elevators convey visitors to
the top, where a fine view of Berlin can be *Wind.
By this system of architecture the interior Is
divided into five parellel naves, each fifty feet ride,
which gives the general arrangement A clearness
of disposition not usually to be found in buildings
of the kind. The rear on the north side is
closed by a semi-circular apsis, covered again bp
a fiat cupola. In this part is placed the pano-
ramic view of Gastein, a fine work of art by
Professor Hertel. The entire building covers an area
of 11,500 square metre-. Over the main entrance i 3
placed a colossal group in bronzed plaster, by the
sculptor Arnold Bi Mt, representing the goddess
Hygeia, with the Red Cross in her diadem. With her
left hand she bands a child, recovering from illness,
back to its mother, who kneels beside her, and with
her right hand she holds out a life-saving belt to a
shipwrecked fisherman clinging to a broken mast.
Opposite to the portal a large cascade, supplied from
an upper reservoir, falls over five rocky terraces.

The Times, in a leader, says :—A calamity, such as
befell a year ago the Berlin Sanitary Exhibition
would have daunted any promoters but Germans,
and any philanthropists but sanitary reformers.
Instead of regarding the conflagration of 1882 as
a warning to concentrate their operations elsewhere,
the sanitary leaders of Berlin and their foreign
coadjutors treated it as a mere opportunity for self-
improvement. Fire is the most efficacious sanitary
agent known. For many ages of the world it was
the only one. The organizers of the Hygienic Exhibi-
tion took its rebuke in good part, and have remodelled
their enterprise in a manner which has converted a
disaster into a boon, Visitors to the renewed Interna-
tional Hygienic Exhibition will see the range of sanitary
science and its appliances with a completeness sever
before equalled or attemptel. So wide, indeed, is the
sense in which the compass of sanitary science has
been interpreted at Berlin that the ouly wonder is
the display should stop within its present limits.
A hygienic exhibition which carries its survey to
diving and potted meats might have supervised
many other conditions and necessaries of life not
lees material for the maintenance of health.
Business and holiday-making, the amassing and the
spending •of money, all of them are liable to
hygienic merits and defects in the highest degree. A
hygienic exhibition, when it has reached its final de-
velopment, will doubtless show men in all stages
of rank and fortune and intelligence as they
ought to live, and as they ought not to live and do
live. It is not from any timorousness in the pre,.
fessore of the science that its exhibitions halt as 2
yet at a point rather short of that ultimate stage.
Meanwhile, they have embraced as ample a eirtmit •
of arts and apparatus at Berlin as the most diligent
student could hope to examine and comprehend in the -
few months the subjects are to remain on view. Before -
the Crimean War no such thing as the science of
health can be said to have existed. In thirty yearei t -
has swelled to a size and has developed aspirations so
extraordinary that it is as hard to atsert what it does
not include as what it does include.

On Tuesday the Emperor William visited the
Hygienic Exhibition, and remained two hours, with-
out showing the least sign of fatigue. His Majesty -
was highly pleased with all he saw, and expressed xia4:
admiration to the committee.

The REPORT of the DEPUTY-MASTER
OF THE MINT.

-
The Deputy-Master of the Mint in his thirteenth '-
annual report states that the year ISB2 was almost
entirely occupied in the work of re-organising the
buildings and machinery of the Mint, and the amount
of coinage executed during the year therefore WAS
inconsiderable.
No gold was received for coinage, and the value of 1?
the silver coined slightly exceeded £206,000. All the .2
bronze coinage required was executed by contract at
Birmingbaw.
A sum of £3500t0 fourpences was withdrawn from -"
circulation, and as none of these coins hs.ve been
issued since 1856 and the withdrawals have been large,
the number of circulation has become insignificant.
The bronze coin made by contract weighed 100 tons,
being of the value of £42,560.
The medals required for the Fisheries Exhibition
are now in course of preparati,n at the Mint.
The Deputy• Master again remarks on the unsatis-
factory condition of the gold coinage, and the neces-
sity of taking steps for the withdrawal and recoinage
of the large amount of light coin in circulation.

BILL TO AMEND THE GROUND GAME
ACT.

The amendment bill jointly promoted by Sir
Alexander Gordon and Mr. Borlase is as follows :
" Whereas it is expedient to remove doubts which
have arisen with respect to the meaning of the word
rabbit-hole ' in the Ground Game Act of 1880, gold
slk.o to amend the sixth section of that Act: Be it
therefore enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent
Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the
Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this
present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of
the same as follows :

"1, For the purposes of the Ground Game Act,
1880, the word ' rabbit•hole ' shall mean and include
the ground within a distance of one foot from the
roofed opening of any rabbit-burrow, and any ran.
burrow, or creep made under or through a wire
other fence.

"2. At the end of section six of the Act forty-three
and forty-four Victoria, chapter forty-seven, the
following words shall be added, viz., the words,
' Provided that nothing in this section shall prevent
any person from taking or killing ground game by
any method which, before the passing of the Act, was
lawful.'
"3. This Act may be cited for all puposes as the
Ground Game Act, 1880, Amendment Act, 1883: "

A seribtis accident happened to a' party. ot.exotir
sioiiiste'rear Kidderminster on Tuesday. The carriave
in which they wcre driving was overturned. Mrs.
Roden, the wife of the chief cashier of a large carpet
manufactory, was killed on the spot. Mr. Hepworth,
chemical manufacturer, sustained a fracture of the
leg, and two other persons were badly injured. The
carriage was ran aaliedi