Wellington's Welcome Week

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 8, 10 July 1923, Page 13

Wellington's Welcome Week

HIS is Wellington's Welcome Week—the week of Wellington's first Winter Carnival. Why? Why "Welcome Week" and "Winter Carnival"? .The visitor from other centres will hardly need to ask himself the question; in the majority of cases he is quite familiar with the terms. His own town has its day, or days, or week, when the chief event of the year—generally an agricultural show—is made the occasion for public celebration, holiday, the reception of visitors, and the display of all the attractions of the place at their best. He himself is full of patriotic pride in his home town (or city), and he delights to show it off to his friends from the country. His local newspaper or newspapers, and, perhaps, . even a metropolitan journal interested in the event, will devote space to describ- . ing and picturing with illustrations the beauties and advantages—with appropriate statistics to mark progress—of that prosperous centre of population in which he has the luck to live. Most New Zealand towns have or have had their-Carnivals, and know the value of the spirit engendered—the spirit of service on behalf of their centre and ' ! "~~ its district—the spirit of local patriotism which enlists the people of a town or city in a campaign, for its development, progress, and expansion. "Heaven helps those who help themselves" is true of men in the group as well as of men individually. Auckland is an outstanding example of what this spirit ran achieve in a favouring environment. But Wellington! Yes, Wellington.' It is a long time since Wellington has had a Carnival, and as for Welcome Week, all one could say is that visitors have been welcome always all the year round and no fuss made about it. Wellington people are proverbially undemonstrative, and the idea of Carnivals does seem a bit foreign to them. They have heard of such things, and may have attended them in other centres, but they have followed the principle of minding their own business too closely to worry much themselves about Carnivals. Why then this change of front and, perhaps, indeed, of spirit 1 To tell the whole story would take too long. One would first have to realise the peculiar circumstances of Wellington—the physical conditions of the very site of the city which have entailed so much labour in

the making of room for homes and offices and factories—something that no other cities of this Dominion have;.had to face. .This carving out of homes from the hills, this reclaiming of land from the sea—the very toil of it all. has left its mark indelibly in the character of the people. So much energy has had to go in this direction in the past that Wellington people feel, ,one imagines, that they have no time to waste on the purely aesthetic and little to spare for devotion to any project involving mutual sacrifice for a common end. It has been said, and doubtless with a certain measure of truth, that Wellington lacks the civic spirit and patriotic pride. It would be truer to say that these qualities are latent and dormant, and only waiting the proper stimulus to come to life. Welcome Week and the Carnival are meant to give that stimulus. Though Carnivals for Wellington have been proposed, more than once in the past, the history of the present movement which has brought a proposal to fruition does not date back many months. In February last, Mr. George Mitchell, secretary of the Central Progress League, to whose untiring activities in the last few years Wellington owes much, placed before the League a report embodying an earnest recommendation that a Carnival should be. held in Wellington during the year.

"In all other centres in our own'country, in fact the world over," said Mr. Mitchell, "there are annual or periodical ' boosting' Carnivals. Wellington stands alone in not realising the wonderful draw such carnivals are, nor their great advertising advantages and value. Wellington is under certain disadvantages, but these are only minor difficulties which can be overcome if the people of our city desire, and will . support, such a proposal: The programme of such a Carnival could be mads applicable to our centre and include:—Racing, athletic sports, swimming, rowing, cricket, stock show, horse riding and jumping contest, band contests, axemen's competitions, - industrial exhibitions, visits to works, and industries, trips viewing the sights in and around "Wellington, and other means of attraction and advertisement. Such a Carnival Week would take some time to.organise, and!would require a good initial capital, but should be made self-supporting once well-estab-lished. The initial outlay, however, would well repay our business people and citizens. generally. It would be necessary for air public bodies such as the City Council, Harbour Board, Chamber of Commerce, Industrial Association, Retailers' Association, Civic League, and all sports bodies and others to meet and co-operate if such an undertaking is to be successfully launched. I submit this suggestion for your consideration."

In putting, the case for a Carnival before the first meeting of the League to consider it, Mr. Mitchell alluded to the existence of boosting Carnivals in Dunedin, Christchurch, and Auckland. The whole idea, he said, was to bring people from tho country into the city during the 'week's Carnival. Wellington, he believed, was the only city iv the ■ Dominion where there was not somo community of interest between the country and the city..

The. meeting agreed that the proposal must have the support of the whole of the people if it was hoped to make it a success. A committee was "appointed to make the necessary inquiries in regard to a Carnival to "be held in the summer time. The Winter Carnival was apparently not contemplated at that time..

'The proposal for a Carnival was taken up. with enthusiasm far greater than was oven expected then, and a public meeting, held on 9th April, was attended by a most representative gathering of citizens. It was clear from the discussion that tho idea of a Carnival had thoroughly taken root in the minds of those present. The question was chiefly of ways and means, and a strong committee was then and there sot up to go into this question. This committee evidently met with such a favourable reception that it was decided to go right ahead with the. idea of a Winter Carnival, and various sub-committees were formed, and the idea put into practical shape.

These are a few salient facts 7 in a brief record of the genesis of the present Carnival. They, deal with practical details, but behind it all is a, greater movement inspired by visions'of the good that may accrue 1.0 the city and its p'eoplc from their association in civic service. Jiie hope

is—and.it is a hope not without.sound foundation—that thus Wellington people may get the habit and come to look forward to not one Carnival only but two a year, as an expression of their faith in the future of the city.

Not. for very many years has the civic and economic atmosphere in Wellington been so propitious for any movement for the betterment of the city. The seed, long dormant during the war and the years aftei-, of feverish boom and inert slump, has begun to germinate, and the spirit of progress is in the air. Old buildings are coming down and new ones, ;vastly greater and in permanent materials, are going up. Former residential areas are giving place before the advance of industry. Large and imposing factories are rising where wooden hovels stood before, mouldering in decay. Reclaimed land is rapidly being covered with warehouses and stores. Buoyant optimism rules where before there was but a str-ixn.-mt pessimism. Things are on the up-grade. Now is the time to look ahead therefore, and plan for tie future. In such plans, if growth is not to be merely haphazard, any movement that brings citizens together for some common purpose, apart from merely personal aggrandisement and lucre, may play a very useful and, indeed, necessary part.

The idea of the Carnival Committee is to build up a fund to establish a pei-manent home for such civic efforts—a building and grounds where it may be possible to hold and house adequately, for instance, an industrial or other exhibition, to furnish the place for public celebrations, indoor games, various shows, dances, and musical festivals—all the many functions where the citizen, his wife and family, are gathered for entertainment and instruction. There is at present, for example, no building available where it is possible to accommodate satisfactorily a motor show, such as forms an important part of the present Winter Carnival. jEven the largo new Harbour Board shed is too.small for this purpose, and place has had to be found for an overflow. The last Industrial Exhibition in Wellington, it will be remembered, was similarly divided. It really' does not matter whether other cities have such facilities or not; Wellington ought to have .them as being the capital and natural centre of the Dominion.

■ It does not need a very long stretch of the imagination to conceive the possibilities of such a building as a centre for civic activities. Wellington to-day is the centre of the Dominion for the multitude of annual conferences that take place, and there is not infrequently-a certain difficulty in obtaining suitable accommodation for these functions. For a great convention, the proposed civic centre would be admirably adapted. For a musical festival on a large scale, or for a band contest, the great hall which would be a feature of the building would make a strong appeal. Under enterprising management use could be found for the building practically. all the year round. One need only mention skating and dancing to indicate its utility in the line of social amusement and entertainment. For political meetings it would accommodate the largest audience 'a New Zealand statesman would ever be likely to draw. It should be explained that these ideas are not directly put forward by the committee; they occur when once the existence of the building is assumed. ■

So far as the immediate purpose of the present Carnival is concerned, the case is put by Miv Mitchell, secretary o£ the Carnival Committee, more simply:—" Wellington has no agricultural shows and no organisation or function that brings country and town people together with one common interest. As a consequence, we do not realise the mutual ties that exist between town and country, and how much in common our interests are. Certainly, we have our big race meetings, but only a section of the public patronise

these. Wellington has a very fine race club and racecourse. Also we 'have worthy athletic sports and kindred events, and a show, remotely located as it is, at Palmerston North. But these are all more orless solo efforts. These efforts or events are diffused, and what is required is one combined, synchronised movement by all interested bodies, so that the varying interests of each organisation, club, association, or society will be a potential 'draw' to help the others, thereby making it a period of sport, pleasure, -and sight-seeing, and also a time for conferences, meetings, business, and 'boosting' generally." "■ ■'

If comp&red with other New Zealand .centres, Wellington makes but a poor showing in concrete instances of civic pride, local patriotism, and the art of boosting. New Zealand itself and its cities are far outshone by America, the birthplace and home of boosting, civic welcomes, and display. ' What would Wellington, or even Auckland, think of citizens who club together to build a million-dollar stadium, :or rather colisseum, iv ponderous armoured concrete, to seat "75,000 spectators, with a playing area or arena equal to about four Athletic Parks? Yet this is what the'citizens of Los Angeles and district are doing—all for the glory of their city, that it may be the meeting-place and rendezvous of athletes, musicians, players, or any other group of people assembled for the entertainment of vast crowds. Observe that-it is not the city or municipality of Los Angeles that is paying for this, but private citizens banded together and linked by a common spirit of service in the cause, of their city. '•. . .. .

The case is by no means unique; every American city could show something like it in the shape of munificent gifts of citizens individually, or the joint contribution of some united effort of citizens in a common campaign. There have been abundant instances in the past of citizens in American towns or country districts forming "working bees" to construct better roads in their locality, not only forming working parties with a voluntary sacrifice of time and energy, but actually doing the work, making the road, and afterwards having the pleasure of using it. Here, unfortunately, we are apt to look to the Government or the City Council to do everything for, us,-and we have been disappointed, especially in the Government. .An American town on the American system would, for example, have had its new railway station long ago. So would Auckland, no doubt, in another way. If the spirit born of the Carnival movement can teach a little Belf-help in such matters] it will have been worth while. - -" .'.■'.-:.■ —-

In mentioning other cities of New Zealand in'this sketch of the purposes of Welcome Week and thei Winter Carnival, there is no suggestion of any unneighbourly feeling on the part.of Wellington. "Live and let live" has always been Wellington's unofficial motto. The official motto—" Suprema a Situ " — will explain the rest. Each centre in New Zealand has its own province and its own function to p erfortri in the scheme of things. Wellington is the.capital and the geographical centre, and consequently on. a. different footing. There is no jealousy of others; rather, on the contrary, is there pleasure in the prospect of other-cities sharing in the general progress and prosperity of the Dominion. " The Wellingtonian admires the Aucklander, if he does not imitate him in his outspoken passion for his beloved city, and his earnest desire to see the fame of its beauty and advancement advertised throughout the world! Wellingtonians have a soberer affection for "their city, but they realise now that it is time to say something about it. There is the scriptural saying that a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid—an example of supremacy of site —but the modern world, deaf with the din of the crying of wares, is inclined to overlook the modest merchant who fancies still that his wares will,sell themselves,.if they, are only set out. He has to learn the

ises and fruits of advertisement—that the public will think you have lo thing unless you say what you have. Thus there are two main aotives behind the Carnival movement: First, the desire to encourage ivic pride and the spirit of service in the citizen himself, with the Caxtival as a rallying point—the subjective motive, as it were; and, second,, he wish to make the city better known, to dispel any prejudice against t, if there is any, as a, place wholly given to business, and offering no bttractions for the visitor, to show that, on the contrary, it is a pleasant >lace in which to spend' a holiday; that it has much in the way of latural beauty of scenery and freshness of outlook to offer the visitor; md. that its citizens are no less sociable and hospitable than the inlabitants of othex- centres of the Dominion. - ■ "For these reasons, in. writing about Wellington in the articles that ollow, there has been no endeavour to parade statistics and set the city >n a pinnacle of superiority to its'neighbours in the Dominion. That has lever been Wellington's way, and there is no call to depart, from tradi;ion. We claim that Wellington is a friendly city, and that Welcome iVeek means what it say-s. Wellington has always welcomed visitors and sJways will do. ... • 'And here there is a; testimony so apt and so.generous from a recent' , Australian visitor that one cannot forbear to quote it from the files of \ a, morning contemporary. This is the'opinion of Mr. C. M. Jenkineon, bx-M.P. of Queensland and former Mayor of Brisbane, who was here last month. ■'•._. "While I was in Wellington," said Mr. Jenkinson on the eve of his return to Australia, "residents were constantly apologising for the state, of the weather, a.nd referring to its name as Windy Wellington,; as a name generally given to it. Now, from what I was able to Bee—, and several of your good' citizens, notably your Mayor, gave me an! opportunity of seeing quite a lot—l call it Wonderful Wellington,'with, its marvellous reclamations, its municipal activities,. and its singular* beauty. From beginnings which would have broken the heart of most people, its pioneers pegged out claims for posterity, and succeeding generations have built a city set on a hill, whioh should be a pride to all its inhabitants.. The business premises have an air of permanence, and are fit to meet the expansion that must come, and that must exceed the anticipations of the most sanguine of your people. In tlje daytime it is pretty, at night it is exquisite. .. .. . Bub, after all,- it iej the people who reside there that really make a city. If the,y v arG animated by a true patriotic spirit, if they have' civic, pride, they will, naturally want to make their city attractive to a stranger. And, to do that, there is nothing like the hearty handclasp, the hearty greeting. Not done with the idea of how much money am I going to make out of this man, but how can I make his stay pleasant and attractive so ihat ho will take away good impressions of our place, so that others! will want to come.. . ; „ ." And with that we leave our city to the yigitor a - . ". : /;,