THE EXHIBITION OF 1862. 
181 
No. VIII. 
THE COLONIES. 
BY THE EDITOK 
ROB ABLY it may be deemed a piece of superfluous infor- 
-L mation by many of our readers, when we state that the 
British Colonies occupied, with a display of their natural 
resources and local manufactures, the north-east transept of 
the Exhibition building; but it will most assuredly be grati- 
fying to every one, whether or not he may ha\ T e directed his 
attention to this department in the World’s Fair, to know that 
it contained unmistakable ewidences of thriving' industry, active 
enterprise, and unlimited natural resources. 
Let us return in imagination to these attractive courts, as 
they graced the ivorld’s bazar, and cast a hasty glance ‘over 
their contained treasures. 
Whether we inspect the tropical products of India, those of 
the more temperate regions of Australia, or of the vast 
Canadian forests, in whatever direction we cast our eyes, we 
meet with the same profusion of natural wealth that seems 
almost inexhaustible. But if we consider the application of 
these gifts of a bountiful Providence, as here represented, we 
are even more astonished than by the natural products them- 
selves. 
Woods— which we had supposed to be applied only to the 
coarsest uses, the lowly pine for example, associated in our 
minds Avith pitch and rosin — Ave here find polished and carved 
with such craft that no royal personage need feel ashamed to 
ran ge the furniture constructed of its planks side by side Avith 
his cabinet of satin-wood or maple ; and the almost worthless 
fruit, the “ cones,” in fact, of an allied tree, Avliich in our own 
plantations cumber the ground, may here be met Avith, trans- 
formed by the hands of our fair sisters of New BrunsAvick into 
beautiful baskets and “what-nots.” 
Stray Ave into the court of “ South Australia,” Ave find the 
natural productions of the animal and mineral kingdoms 
curiously Avrought into costly ornaments, which speak of a 
rapid progress in art and civilization ; Avhilst, at “ Natal,” the 
very sea-Aveeds are utilized and converted into the useful appli- 
ances of every-day life. 
