PROVINCE OF OTAGO.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2148, 25 March 1908, Page 2

PROVINCE OF OTAGO.

JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS.. Press Association. DUNEDIN, Alarch 24. A holiday was observed yesterday in honor of the celebration of the (10th anniversary of the settlement of Otago. Tlie principal event in connection with- the celebrations was the opening of the Early Settlers’ Hall, erected in memory of the pioneers, and which will serve as a meeting place and a storehouse for records and mementoes of the early days. The opening ceremony was attended by a large and representative gathering, and speeches were delivered by leading citizens, who referred to the energy and stout-heartedness of the early settlers. On the motion of Dr. Hocken, it was decided: “That this meeting, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the arrival of the first settlers to the settlement of Otago, express their grateful recognition of the labors of Edward Gibbon AA’ako field in the colonisation of New Zealand, and their desire that- steps should be taken to raise a suitable memorial to his memory.”

Telegrams of congratulation were received from the Prime Minister and Chief Justice, also from a number of Aucklanders who were boys in Dunedin in the fifties. A conversazione was held in the afternoon, the picnic arranged for being abandoned owing to the wet weather, and a concert was held in the evening.