HISTORICAL REVIEW OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



99 



consideration of an improved ocean mail service, a policy of intercolonial Free-trade, and 

 other questions generally affecting the welfare of the various Australian Governments. 



The progress thus made by the colony was fully manifested at an International 

 Exhibition held in the year 1879, which grew out of an ambitious attempt made by the 

 Agricultural Society to enlarge its display by inviting competitive exhibits from abroad. 

 This Society, which had grown into vigorous 

 life as a consequence of the enlarged rural 

 enterprise of the colony, had successfully held 

 several Annual Exhibitions in a building erected 

 for that purpose by the City Corporation in 

 the Prince Alfred Park. These local exhibi- 

 tions proved so attractive and beneficial that 

 the Committee determined to attempt an 

 international one, but the response to its 

 invitation was so much in excess of what had 

 been anticipated, that the affair outgrew the 

 power and resources of the Society. 



To recall what had been done was, how- 

 ever, impossible ; and to prevent a failure 

 which might have discredited the colony the 

 Government took the matter over, and entrusted 

 the management to a large Honorary Commis- 

 sion. A handsome and commodious building 

 was hastily erected on a commanding site in 

 the Inner Domain; its noble dome being a 

 striking feature in the landscape as seen from 



the Harbour ; and one of the first public acts of Lord Augustus Loftus after his 

 arrival in the colony was the opening of one of those world-famous worlds' fairs of 

 which so young a country may justly feel proud. The Exhibition was a great success, 

 nearly all the civilized countries of the world being represented. It cost the colony 

 about a quarter of a million, but it was deemed that the money had been well spent. 

 The resources of the country were displayed to great advantage, and as a natural 

 consequence commerce was greatly quickened. The Exhibition Building was unfortu- 

 nately burnt down two years afterwards, the handsome erection being totally destroyed. 







A still more striking proof of the power and resources of the colony was furnished 

 in 1885, during the Administration of Governor Loftus, by the dispatch of a military 

 Contingent to the English Army then serving in the Soudan, which had been work- 

 ing its way up the Nile in the endeavour to rescue General Gordon. The death of 

 that gallant officer, and the capture of Khartoum, produced a profound impression in the 

 .colony, and the Government, under the idea that an expedition from Suakim to the 

 Nile was about to be immediately undertaken, offered to land at that point, within sixty 

 days, a body of infantry and artillery, together with the necessary supply of horses. 

 The offer was accepted. By dint of great exertion everything was in readiness by the 

 day named ; two large steam-ships, the Iberia and the Australasian, left Port Jackson 



SIR HERCULES ROBINSON. 



