FIRST REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS.

XXXV

4. That the Classes of Manufacture and Fine Arts should occupy intermediatepositions, those of the ground-lloor having each some share of frontage on theCentral Avenue.

Superintendents were in the mean time appointed to each of the thirty Classes,who, with their assistants, proceeded, 1st. To make a plan on a scale of 8 feet tothe inch of their respective Classes.

2nd. To group the Exhibitors according to the similarity of their trades andproduce, and in some instances to group those of particular towns or districtstogether, when by so doing unity and independence of action could be obtained.

3rd. To lay down on their enlarged plan the space to be occupied by the goodsor counters of each Exhibitor or group of Exhibitors, giving to each, as nearly aspossible, the space allotted by the Local Committees. (This plan, when completed,was lithographed.)

4th. To lay down on the floor of the Building the spaces thus fixed on the plan.

5th, To furnish to each Exhibitor or group of Exhibitors a plan of his or theirrespective allotments.

Gth. To give to the Exhibitors all the assistance or information necessary to them,and to see that each, in making his arrangements, attended to the rules issued fromtime to time by the Executive Commitec to ensure order, dispatch, and, above all,the punctual opening of the Exhibition on the 1st of May.

The result of these arrangements is shown in Plans 1. and II. at the commence-ment of this Report, and the principal regulations necessary to carrying themout have been embodied with the Decisions of Her Majesty’s Commissioners(Appendix Vll).

Reception of the Goods.

The reception of the goods commenced on the 12th February, and nearly thewhole of the British goods had been received and completely arranged before theday of the opening. On the foreign side great progress had also been made, butsome of the packages from abroad did not arrive till a later period. Returns areannexed (Appendix XIII. and XIV.) showing the number of packages received ineach week to the opening of the Exhibition, and also the numbers received subse-quently. In those returns the packages belonging to the United Kingdom aredivided according to the classified lists of subjects: the lbrcign packages, accordingto the country from which they came.

Tiie Exhibition.

These and all other necessary arrangements being completed, the Exhibition wasopened on the 1st of May,—the day named within six weeks after the first issuingof the Royal Commission, and many months before even the plan or size of theBuilding had been decided upon.