The Archbishop of Canterbury having offered a prayer, the Prince declared the Exhibition open. CLOSING OF FISHERIES EXHIBITION. _October 31st, 1883._ If there ever had been any doubt as to the success of the International Fisheries Exhibition, it had been thoroughly removed long before the end of the season drew near. The popular interest had been shown from the beginning, and the number of visitors exceeded all expectations. The total number of visitors was 2,703,051. The daily average of visitors, including Wednesday, when half-a-crown was the price of admission, was 18,388. The financial result was sure to be satisfactory when such vast numbers had been attracted. On the 31st of October, the day appointed for closing, Mr. Edward Birkbeck, M.P., Chairman of the Executive Committee, read to His Royal Highness the President an address, presenting the chief statistical and other official reports of the undertaking. One novel feature was the report on "the fish dinners" supplied with the co-operation of the National School of Cookery. No less than 209,673 dinners were supplied, at sixpence a head, and with satisfactory pecuniary results. A Report as to the work of the Juries having been presented by the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales thus replied to the address of the Executive Committee:-- "I have listened with great pleasure to the Report of the Executive Committee. "Her Majesty has followed with much interest the success which has so signally attended this Exhibition, and I have had the gratification of receiving, this morning, a telegram from the Queen, begging me to inform you of these sentiments, and likewise to express Her Majesty's fervent hope that lasting benefit to the fishing population may be the reward of those who have shown so much interest in the welfare of this Exhibition. And it is as much a matter of satisfaction to my brothers as to myself to have contributed towards the success of an enterprise, respecting which, at the outset, nothing was certain but the heavy responsibility of those who had engaged in it. "I am well aware that Her Majesty's Government, the Governments of Foreign Countries, and of our Colonies, through their respective Commissioners, and the various public bodies and private persons to whom you have alluded, have afforded most valuable and indeed indispensable aid to our undertaking; and I desire to add my own thanks to yours for their very important assistance. "But it is just that I should supply the only deficiency which I observe in your Report, by pointing out that without the administrative capacity and unremitting toil of the Members of the Executive Committee, and especially of its Chairman, the eminently satisfactory results which you have reported to me could not have been attained.