The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-11-07 00:00:00

CLOSING OF THE INTERNATIONAL
EXHIBITION.

Without form or ceremony of any kind the Inter-
national Exhibition was closed to the public on
Saturday evening, not as heretofore, for the season
only, but, according to the present arrangements, for
an indefinite period. Originally it was proposed to hold
a series of these exhibitions for ten years, but owing to
their financial non-suceess, the commissioners, at a
meeting which was held some months since, decided
upon curtailing their programme, and thus terminate
an enterprise which they believed would have met
with a more extensive public support. This is the
fourth year of the Exhibitions, and although each
recurring Exhibition has shown a diminution in
the number of visitors, the fallin off of the present
compared with that of 1873 is not so great as one
might be led Willi:wine by the resolve of the commis-
sioners. In 1873 the total number of admissions were
—by season tickets, 42,368; by payment, 457,474, or
a total of 499,842. For this year the returns, including
the past week, have not been made up, but the fol-
lowing may be taken as an approximate result :
Season tickets, 40,000; by payment, 431,800, or a total
of 472,700, ore difference of 27,000 odd. In estimating
the permanent pool which has accrued from these ex-
hibitions, it may be stated that the School of Cookery,
which is new on its own resources, was successfully
started, and that the National Art School of Needle-
work is now also self-supporting, while the National
Training School for Music, which is going on pros-
perously, owes its success to the assistance which the
commissioners afforded it out of the surplus funds of
the Great Exhibition of 1851.
While the exhibitions have been closed in their
present form, the commissioners have decided upon
giving the public the benefit of their plant in another.
It is their intention, it we are correctly informed (says
the Standard) to hand over the south galleries to be
converted into a national portrait gallery. The west
galleries are to be converted into a patent museum, in
which patent inventions will be exhibited. The Indian
Museum, which commixes an increasing collection of
curiosities, is to he removed from the India Office to
the east galleries, and that portion of the building which
is now known as the French annexe will become a
colonial museum. The school of art for needlework is
to find a home in the new Belgian annexe, and the
national training school of cookery will take in ad.
ditional space adjoining its present location. A training
school, as our readers are aware, was opened last Easter
with a class of pupils, who, for a fee of two guineas,
are practically taught cookery. The system adopted
is said to have been highly successful, both as regards
the number of pupils and the proficiency attained.
But under the new regime, the executive committee
propose to form classes of ten or twelve persons of
good education, who will undertake to study with a
view of becoming certificated teachers of cookery,
available to come forward at the call of school boards,
local bodies, or in schools of cookery on their own
account. The attempt is to be made as wpm as the
school committee are in pesseesion of their new pre-
mises. The commissioners are said to be negociating
with various departments of the government as to the
disposal of other portions of the Exhibition buildings
at present unoccupied.