exhibition

Exhibiting a century

Dodgems and Crazy Houses

Most of the 2.6 million people who filed through the turnstiles went there to be entertained at Playland, the exhibition's big amusement park. They were following a well-worn path recognised by exhibition organisers who knew that successful high-profile rides would lure patrons back for the return visits that really made exhibitions pay.

New Zealand grows up

The Centennial and Maori

Death of ‘Farmer Bill’ Massey

This 40-metre wooden structure modelled on the Eiffel Tower opened at the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition in Dunedin on 17 December 1889. It was built by the Austral Otis Elevator Company who used it to display its wares to New Zealand. The tower included an elevator that travelled about 30 m. The cost of the tower was estimated at £1200 (about $200,000 today).

It is a long way between Dunedin and Paris, but even in the 19th century ideas and technology travelled fast.

On 31 March 1889 Gustave Eiffel’s famous tower was officially completed in Paris. At 300 m high (plus a 24-m flagpole), it was the centrepiece of the 1889 Paris Universal Exhibition, and the world’s tallest tower. Not until 1929 was it eclipsed by the 319-m Chrysler Building in New York.

Just 8½ months later a 40-m wooden structure modelled on the Eiffel Tower opened at the 1889–90 New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition in Dunedin.

Coal from the Seddonville State Mine was a centrepiece of the display by the Mines Department in the 1906-07 International Exhibition at Christchurch. The government was keen to show that coal from its new state mines was as good, if not better, than that produced by the Westport Coal Company, which had its own display.