THE DIAMOND JUBILEE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2359, 15 January 1915, Page 4

THE DIAMOND JUBILEE

Next week Wellington will celebrate its Diamond Jubilee, and although local affairs are to a great extent overshadowed by the war, the occasion is one in which citizens old and young should take both interest and pride, for great things have been accomplished in the seventy-fivo years since the first party of immigrant's landed in Port Nicholson in 1840. It would bo a great pity if this milestone year were allowed to pass without some tribute of respect and recognition being naid to the pioneer settlers who played their part bravely and well in founding a colony which was fated to rise so rapidly to the status of a prosperous and self-governing Dominion. It is upon tho qualities of pluck, endurance, and . hardihood _ with which the New Zealand pioneers were so richly endowed that the nation and the Empire are depending to-day for their continued existence, and these qualities have nevor found better or richer expression than in the work of colonisation so successfully carried out in New Zealand and other parts of the Empire. Young New Zealanders of enterprising spirit have no need to -look abroad for examples upon which to pattern their activities. They will find the best possible examples in tho life and work of the pioneers who won this country from the wilderness, and laid so well the foundations of its development and prosperity. The chief value of the recurring anniversary celobrations i is the help they give in keeping alive the best traditions of the early days, and so impressing upon the people of today that they belong to a race which has accomplished great things in the paßt, and must continue to do so in the future if it is to live up to its history and traditions. _ Very appropriately the organisation and direction of the celebrations planned for Fridav next have been, undertaken by the Early Settlers' Association and the New Zealand Natives Association. The proposed carnival should be an interesting celebration, and' one that deserves the sympathetic, attention and support of all citizens who take the pride they should in their city and proving, and are not ungrateful to those who did the spade-work of settlement and colonisation.