Saint John Globe - 1883-10-01

Year
1883
Month
10
Day
1
Article Title
THE EXHIBITION! FORMAL OPENING OF THE GRAND DISPLAY
Author
<Anonymous>
Page Number
2
Article Type
Language
Article Contents
Address to Lt. Gov. Wilmot and His Reply. At 3 o’clock this afternoon the Dominion and Centennial Exhibition was formally opened. His Honor Lieut-Governor Wilmot was accompanied by his aides-de-camp and by Sir Leonard. Members of the Government, of the Legislature, of the Exhibition Commission, civic officials, U. S. consul, officers of the H. M. S. “Garnet” and U.S. ship “Alliance,” and others were present. The Lieut-Governor was received with a salute, fired by Battery No.10, N. B. B. G. Artillery, Capt. Armstrong. His Honor having entered the building was presented with the following address, which was read by Hon. David McLellan:- To His Honor the Honorable Robert Duncan Wilmot, Lieutenant Governor of the Province of New Brunswick, etc, etc, etc. May it please Your Honor: The Commission to whom has been entrusted the duty of organizing and holding in the City of S. John a Dominion and Centennial Exhibition, embracing agricultural, manufacturing, industrial and other exhibits from all parts of the Dominion have much pleasure in announcing to your honor that their efforts in that behalf have been generously responded to by the people of Canada. We are pleased to state that all of the Provinces of the Dominion are represented in this Exhibition in friendly rivalry for preeminence in their respective departments of industrial pursuits. It is peculiarly appropriate that this Exhibition should, this year, be held in this city. One hundred years ago, a company of men devoted to king and country, landed upon the present site of the City of Saint John. It was then a bleak and rocky shore. It is today the home of a progressive and energetic people. We may learn of our progress during the century by the evidences around us, in these buildings. Our advancement we believe, has been steady, permanent and healthy. The possibilities of our Dominion are indeed great. We are rich in the products of the field, the forest, the mine and the fisheries. In addition to these great natural resources, we have an intelligent and industrious people, rapidly increasing. The blessing of peace, without which there can be no real progress, have been ours, and the fruits thereof are seen in our midst to-day. It is our earnest prayer that an all wise beneficent Providence may, in still larger measure, continue these blessings to our common country, and preserve unbroken the bond of love and loyalty which binds us to the British throne. We are especially gratified in having your Honor with us to open this Exhibition. We look upon your as one of ourselves. A native of New Brunswick and for many years a resident of this city, you have ever taken an active interest in public affairs, and have watched we believe with pleasure the material and social progress of the Province and the Dominion at large. We thank you for your cordial readiness to be present on this occasion, and take part in the opening proceedings, and we now respectfully request your Honor to declare this Exhibition open to the public. David McLellan, President. St. John, N. B. 1st Oct, 1883 His Honor replied as follows: To the Chairman and Gentlemen of the commission for holding the Dominion and Centennial Exhibition in this city: I thank you sincerely for your kind address, and it affords me extreme gratification to know that your labors and efforts have been successful in inducing the people in the several Provinces of the Dominion to contribute specimens of their valid industries to this Exhibition, in the Centennial year of our Provincial history. Under the benign rule of our Most Gracious Queen the people of this Dominion enjoy the blessings of peace and security together with all those constitutional rights under a self-government, and it only requires wise statesmanship and patriotic legislation to enable all of them to procure the necessaries and comforts and many of the luxuries of life that the varied natural resources of this wide Dominion can, with the blessing of God, yield to intelligent and energetic industry. As a descendant of those loyal men whose motto was to fear God and honor the king, who gave the best proof of their loyalty and attachment to the British throne by abandoning their property 100 years ago and coming to the rock-bound coasts of the Maritime Provinces to hew out for themselves new homes in the perennial forest, I heartily join with you in giving honor to their memory and their energy. I have personally to thank you for your expression of kingly feelings towards myself, after a period of nearly forty years spend in public life, during a part of the time connected with the city of St. John as Mayor and Alderman, and for many years a representative in the Local Legislature of this Province as member for the city and county of Saint John, it is very gratifying to me to be assured that I still retain your confidence. It has been my anxious desire at all times in the performance of my public duties, to have a sole regard to the public interests. His Honor then started the big engine in machinery hall, and the ceremony was complete. SALUTING THE AMERICAN FLAG After the artillery salute had been fired, on the Governor’s arrival, H. M. S. “Garnet” ran up the American flag and fired a royal salute of 21 guns, in return for the salute of the British flag at the Yorktown centenary. The U.S. warship “Alliance” gave a salute in reply to that from the “Garnet.”