The first New Zealand Exhibition was successfully opened yesterday.
His Excellency the Governor failed to arrive to perform the ceremony, as the representative of Her Majesty, and the duty was delegated to the Superintendent of the Province, John Hyde Harris, Esq.; there was no public demonstration, in the nature of a procession; the attendance was considerably less than it probably would have been had the Governor of the Colony, accompanied by the naval and military commandants, been present in the Building: but, despite the sense of disappointment at the seeming breach of a long-standing promise on the part of the representative of Her Majesty in this Colony, the merits of the confessedly very incomplete Exhibition produced a general and deep feeling of gratification.
On all hands were to be heard expressions of pleasure and surprise and congratulations that so much should have been accomplished by a first effort in so young a Colony.
The Royal Commissioners must have found solace in their anxieties, and regard for their long-continued and wearisome labors, in the unmistakeable satisfaction which was given by their work to those who yesterday had a hurried opportunity of seeing it; and they may with the utmost confidence feel that, when the Ramsay has arrived, and the varied exhibits of British, French, and Indian produce and manufactures which she has on board, have been brought into the Building and arranged, there will be but one verdict-that they have done well a great and good work.