Gold medal, Centennial International Exhibition, Melbourne, 1888.

This medal commemorating services to the Centennial International Exhibition, Melbourne, 1888, is struck in gold. The obverse side depicts Queen Victoria encircled with the text 'Centennial International Exhibition Melbourne'. The reverse side depicts a wreath composed of oak leaves and acorns on the right, and of leaves and blossoms of Australian wattle on the left. The two sides of the wreath are bound together with a lover's knot, symbolising the ties of unity and loyalty between Britain and her Australian colonies. The date 1888 is in Roman numerals, with the Latin motto 'ARTIBUS DIGNIS HONOR INSIGNIS' ('To the deserving arts distinguished honours'). The medal is inscribed on the rim to 'SIR JAMES HECTOR K.C.M.G., M.D., F.R.S.'

The Executive Commissioners for the Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition held a competition for the design of a medal and certificate to be given to exhibition prize-winners.  The competition guidelines stipulated that the medal needed to depict Queen Victoria’s profile on the obverse, and gave designers the freedom to come up with a 'suitable design' for the reverse. The committee received nineteen entries, and selected a design by Ernst A. Altmann, a Melbourne die-sinker and engraver. However, when Altmann’s design was sent to the Melbourne branch of the Royal Mint, to be struck, they ran into problems with the almost under-cut relief. As a result, George Anderson, Deputy Master of the Mint, was asked to redesign and execute the medal. The dies were engraved by Stokes & Martin, and the medals were minted in gold, silver and bronze, in 1-1/2", 2" and 3" in diameter respectively.

The 1888 Centennial Exhibition
The Centennial Exhibition, held at Melbourne in 1888, was to celebrate 100 years of white settlement in Australia. Like all the great exhibitions held to mark national anniversaries during the late nineteenth century, the Centennial Exhibition was viewed as an excellent opportunity for patriotic celebration and nation building.

Executive Commissioner
Seeing itself as part of the trans-Tasman community of 'Australasian' colonies, New Zealand ensured that it was well represented at the Exhibition. James Hector was appointed as New Zealand's Executive Commissioner for the Exhibition. For his services he was awarded the Exhibition's gold medal from the Exhibition Commissioners.

The New Zealand Court
Despite the economic depression affecting New Zealand at the time, support from local manufacturers and other exhibitors was so strong that New Zealand's allocated display space had to be expanded to three times its original size. This space was the 'New Zealand Court'. It was described by Hector as 'having a length of 220 feet [67 metres] and a width of 100 feet [30.5 metres] ... the general arrangement of the court is intended to carry out a definite design. Down the centre there is a handsome series of trophies and show-cases representing the natural resources of the country; on the right are all the manufactures that bear upon the production of food; and on the left all such manufactures as relate to clothing and furnishing, including carriages, are displayed ... .'

And there was much more - an art gallery, a trophy of wool, 33 feet (10.5 metres) high 'surmounted by a stuffed pure-bred Romney Marsh ram', sixty bins filled with samples of 'all the grains grown in the colony'. One of the most popular attractions, reported Hector, was a 'Maori store-house [pātaka] … elevated on high supports and surrounded by a fernery.'

Hector was especially proud of two exhibits he had made himself - a 22 foot (6. 7 metre) long plaster model of New Zealand, painted to show its geological formation, and another model showing its 'landscape'.

The New Zealand Court was highly successful. Hector reported that 'the crowding of the exhibits in the Court was much more marked than almost any other court except that of Queensland, which had a much more limited area.'