266 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



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It was fitting that so important a collection of the world's best 

 work should have an imposing inauguration, and the opening cere- 

 mony was conducted with befitting pomp and circumstance. Six 

 Australian Governors, with their families and official suites, took 

 part in the formal procession. All the Colonies were represented 

 by their leading men, Cabinet Ministers, Judges, Parliamentary 

 Speakers and Presidents, and the Military Commandants. The 

 Admiral of the Station, supported by his officers and a large detach- 

 ment of bluejackets, offered a pleasing contrast to the prevalent 

 scarlet uniforms. The gathering included a fine body of naval 

 officers from the foreign warships in the bay ; a group of distinguished 

 foreign commissioners with unfamiliar orders on their coats ; and 

 a blaze of gold lace and mysterious uniforms disguised the Con- 

 sular body, numbering over a score. There was one absentee 

 from the procession which made the judicious grieve. The Chief 

 Justices of New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania 

 walked without their brother of the Supreme Court of Victoria. 

 Mr. Higinbotham conceived that his office commanded precedence 

 next to the Lieutenant-Governor. The newly elected Speaker of 

 the Assembly claimed to be, as in England, the first commoner, 

 and to be in front. The Chief Justice, declining to accept this read- 

 ing of the code of preference, stayed away. Those who knew the 

 man realised that it was no question of personal pique, but only an 

 exaggerated sense of the importance attached to detail lest prece- 

 dent be created. But there were plenty of people, and some journals, 

 ready to condemn what they were pleased to describe as an exhibition 

 of bad temper. 



The Exhibition remained open for six months, and was formally 

 closed by Sir Henry Loch on the 31st of January, 1889. The attend- 

 ance, or, more correctly, the admissions to the building, numbered 

 very nearly 2,000,000, running up on public holidays to as high as 

 40,000 in one day. For the control of this vast concourse a force 

 of 100 policemen was told off, and nothing could speak more highly 

 for the sobriety and the orderly character of an Australian crowd 

 than the fact that during the whole six months only eight persons 

 were arrested for drunkenness. The manner in which the expendi- 

 ture on this great industrial fair mounted up beyond all anticipation 



