A NATIONAL RECORD

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 105, 3 January 1940, Page 2

A NATIONAL RECORD

CENTENNIAL ROLL OF COMMEMORATION

HISTORIC DOCUMENT Visitors to the Centennial Exhibition have shown keen interest in the Centennial Roll of Commemoration, where everybody who obtains admission is able to register his or her attendance on a record that will be preserved for ali lim First to sign was the Governor-General, Lord Galway, who did so on opening day. At the time when the exhibition was mooted and the general manager. Mr C. P. Ilainsworth, first mentioned the idea of a visitors' book, it was suggested that the ord inarv visitors' book was warranted. As a result, the National Roll of Commemoration, and the issue of signatories of a Centennial Certificate of attendance at small cost, was decided upon.

The outcome was that facilities were provided, at a special stand in the General Exhibits Court, for every member of the public attending the exhibition to record his

name in this unique volume, and to receive such a certificate. At the close of the Exhibition, the pages of signatures, numbering some hun drcds of thousands, will be suitably bound and placed in the Dominion Museum with other documents of national interest, commemorative or the centennial.

The Centennial Certificate of Attendance. which is the personal and official memento of the fact that the holder has signed the roll and has participated in the nation's birthday party, was painted by Mr L. G. Mitchell, well known New Zealand artist. It is a work of art which every holder will be proud and delighted to possess, and which can well be framed and hung in one's home, as an object of artistic merit as well as of memorable associations. Priii led in realistic colours, its design immediately attracts attention. A beautiful woman, in classic robes, stands between a draped Union Jack and the New Zealand Ensign; she symbolises the youth and beauty of this Dominion, which has now come of age among the nations. In the background, above cloud topped hills, rises the majestic Centennial Tower, dominant architectural feature of the Exhibition.- On either side of the central figure aru period scenes —one set in the earfj' days of settlement, the other depicl ing the great modern nation of today. Native flora and fauna, and Maori traditional art and design, form an attractive setting. Reproductions ol Maori carving recall such famous exploits as Maui's fishing, when he hauled up the northern island from the depths of the sea, and the story .of Tama-te-Kapua, whose deeds led to the discovery of New Zealand by the Maoris. The Centennial Certificate bears the signatures of the Exhibition authorities, the seal of the Exhibition company, and the official centennial emblem. On his signing the Roll of Commemoration, the name of the signatory also is inscribed on it. Thus it gains a personal significance, which associates every name upon the roll with the centennial celebrations. But a certificate so remarkable in concept, and so bound lip with this great na tiona'l event, has a deeper meaning also. For the descendants of many who sign, it will be a source pride hereafter that their family is in this way imperishably associated with the centennial. The stall where the National Roll of Commemoration is housed, situated almost in the centre of the General Exhibits building, takes the form of a Maori carved house, embellished with the ancient designs most typical of New Zealand legend and history. Outside it, against a background of New Zealand scenery stands a moa, that ssiant extinct bird peculiar to New Zealand, and perhaps more than anything else symbolic of much thati the centennial means.