Mat I, 1S91.] THE TP.OPIOAL AQRIOULTURIST. 
THE JAMAICA EXHIBITION : 
WHY NOT A COSMOPOLITAN EXHIBI- 
TION IN CEYLON? 
(From the Hills.) 
It ia surely curious that while it is now about 
a week since the special illustrated edition of the 
Jamaica Gleaner reached hero, with a full account 
of the opening of the Exhibition at Kingston by 
Prince George of Wales, as the representative of 
his royal father, the Prince of Wales, no notice 
of the event has as yet been taken by the English 
press, judging f om the negative evidence of extracis 
in the Tropical /Igricultiu'ist at any rate. You are, 
no doubt, waiting for the promised account by Mr. 
Wm. Babonadibre, the only mention of whoso 
name in connection with the cer. monies and fes- 
tivities is the statement that, at a grand fancy 
ball given by Sir Henry and Lady Blake, ha 
appeared in the character so dear to Juveniles, of 
Santa Claus. The Governor himself appeared as 
Columbus, the discoverer of the Caribbean Island, 
while Lady Blake personated Queen Isabella, to 
whom the great navigator wrote such a glowing 
although not an exaggerated account of the beauty 
and natural resouroea of his discovery. , At the ball 
the Governor is described as specially seeking out 
a lady, Miss Espeut, who, he understood, appeared 
as Jamaica. Some of the portraits given by tbe 
Gleaner are fearful and wonderful. For the 
males it does not so much matter, but we hope 
OSS than justioo is done to the accomplished 
Lady Blake. She is sister of the Duchess of 
St. Albans and daughter of the late Mr. Bernal 
Osborne, famed for his caustic wit, which was so 
irrepressible, that, when he took office, he could 
not refrain from using it at the expense of his 
colleagues, and so had to resign. Jamaica has to 
thank the snobbishness of the Queensland demo- 
cracy, who protested against a Governor who began 
life in the Irish Constabulary, for being at present 
ruled by one of the ablest and most active men 
amongst the list of Colonial Governors. He has 
worked incessantly to make the Exhibition a success, 
not only as a spectacle, but as a means of mak- 
ing the colony and its productions better known 
and so increasing its commerce. The only un- 
pleasant inoident we see noticed is in con- 
nection with another exemplification of the fact 
that democracy can degenerate into snobbishness. 
Mr. Blaine, who does the offensive policy of the 
United States, pretended that his country had beeu 
slighted because not specially invited to take 
part in the Exhibition. Sir Henry Blake showed 
that precisely the same invitation went to the 
United States as to all other countries. But this 
does not content the blatant Blaine, whose every 
effort is directed, by means of tariff diatinotious, 
to force Canada and the West India Islands into 
“ the Union." Although Sir Henry Blake is not 
himself a lord, and was, therefore, uuaooeptable 
to the Queenslanders, his Private Secretary is Lord 
George Fitzgerald, brother of the Duke of Leinster. 
The Gleaner describes the Exhibition as “ a 
splendid Eueoess which will inaugurate a new 
era of advancement and prosperity for Jamaica,” 
There is room for improvement, for the journalist 
states: — “In manufaotuies and even handicrafts 
our people are very children. In agriculture wo are 
little further advauced than we were two hundred 
years ago. Literature, Soienoe and Art are unmean- 
ing words to 91)9 out of every thousand amongst us." 
If is added : — 
iOO 
One good at least, if none other, the exhibition 
should do and that is to give the lie to those un- 
worthy sons and residents who are perpetually decry- 
ing everything of borne growth, believing in nothing 
that is “ creole ’’ and taking a strange pride in utter- 
ing their loud contempt of everything Jamaican. The 
motto of these people has alv/ays been that nothing 
good oould ever come out of Jamaica. They have 
preaohod it from pulpit and from press, they have 
dinned it into the ears of foreigners, taking as strong 
a delight in shewing up the week points of the peoplo 
and the country as some people do in harping on 
their own maladies or as a Neapolitan beggar in dis- 
playing his testering sores. The Exhibition will prove 
these people to be miserable carpers. It will show 
our own people what can be done in Jamaica by per- 
eistont energy, by united effort. It will nerve many 
to other achievements longed for for many » day but 
looked on as almost hopdessof attaiumont in Jamaica. 
If a great lYorld’s fair is possible in Jamaica, why 
not docks in Kingston Harbour ? Why not a seawall 
on the harbour front? Why not nicely paved streets 
with commodious sidewalks ? AVhy not a thorough 
system of drainage? Why not central factories ? Why 
not smiling vineyards ? Why not a network of rail- 
ways over the Island? Why not in short a thousand 
and one things that we have beeu slumberously con- 
tent to do withcu', while the great nations of the earth 
have for years past looked upon them as necessaries 
of life ? 
Now if a World’s Exhibition has been a splendid 
Bueoess in little Jamaica with only 600.000 of popu- 
lation, and moEt of them only emerged from slavery, 
Eurtly the question arises and ou^ht to be answered, 
why Ceylon, with her three millions of population, 
her central position in the eastern world, and her 
grand harbour, the resort of mail and merchant 
ships, with passengers and tourists from all parts 
of the world, should not attempt an Exhibition of 
her own, invitiug all the countries and peoples of the 
world to take part in it ? Will the glory of having 
initiated, matured and carried to a sucoessful 
issue BO great end so undoubted’, y beneficial a 
design fall to Sir Arthur Havelock ? Will our 
Governor do for Ceylon what Sir Henry Blake has 
done .for the tropical island of the western hemi- 
sphere ? There is more good work to be done and 
more of legitimate fame to be earned in carrying 
out such a design than in tampering with sources 
of revenue, prescriptive in their nature and, however 
objectionable in the light of western ideas, quite 
consonant with eastern customs and eastern notions. 
The Ceylon Exhibition, if carried out,' oould so 
precede the great World’s Show at Chioago that most 
of the exhibits might be transported to the western 
world, after having done duty here. The effect on 
our staple product of asking all the world to oome 
and eee it in the place of its origin cannot but 
largely help the efforts that are made to render 
it acceptable by sending speoimens to the various 
countries of the world. Submitting the idea to 
readers of the Tropical Agriculturist from the Govert 
nor and Lieutenant-Governor downwards, we pro- 
ceed to notice a few further points of interest 
connected with the Jamaica Exhibition. The 
only qualification noticed in connection with 
the opening of the Exhibition is the comparative 
failure of the electric light contractors to illuminate 
the building fully at night. Besides the great 
domed building, there are 23 acres of grounds laid 
out with tropical and other plants. Canada, which 
is competing with the United Slaies for the trade 
of the West Indian Islands, occupies a commanding 
position in the collection of exhibits. A trophy of 
the finest woods of Quebec, in the form of a 
castellated wall, had to be erected in the grounds, as it 
was too largo for the interior cf the building. 
Admiral Watson and the officers of the British 
Fleet whioh aocompanied Prince George added 
greatly to the efieot of the show (the warships tvere 
