A CELEBRATION

Hokitika Guardian, 25 November 1933, Page 6

A CELEBRATION

VENERABLE PAIR'RAMATTA.

EN EETE ON 145th BIRTHDAY.

SYDNEY, November 20

Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney, Australia’s most venerable town, has been celebrating its 145th anniversary. Some jpeople assert that it is only an accident that 'Sydney did not become a suburb of Parramatta, for it was certainly the intention .of the old colonists that Parramatta should be the city. Parramatta is 'but 21 miles from i&ydiiey and in the early days was more or less isolated. Now there is scarcely any vacant land between it and the city proper. . The western (suburbs, through which the electric trains, ihe buses and the trams run on their way to Parramatta, are by far the most thickly populated portions of Sydney.

The 'celebrations this week have attracted a great deni of attention. The busy streets are decked with bunting, and festoons of coloured lights beckon the traveller to tread the streets that Governor Phillip trod, and even the prosaic street lights themselves have been dressed in blue, green and yellow petticoats to prove that the occasion i s n°t an ordinary one. The first Government 'House built in the colony still stands at Parramatta, and in and around the town there are scores of homes and other places of great historic interest. In short, the history of Parramatta is the history of the State.

A feature of the celebrations is an exhibition of treasures gathered for more than a century—christening gowns worn at their baptism by men and women long dead ; pistols with which great grandfathers armed themselves against the attention of highwaymen and bushrangers; silver and fine cloths salvaged from the wreck of the Dunbar; sideboards In which the Governors’ ladies used to arrange the few household treasures they had brought with them from the Old Country; walking sticks which were also rapiers and coukl be used in “affairs of honour”; quaint uniforms in which the soldiery of the colony used to strut about the parade ground, hooks, medals, tapestries and photographs dulled with age. A notable relic is a. “World Type Writer,” which was patented in 1886 and was in use the same year by the Parramatta branch of the Commercial Banking Company. It is lighter and smaller than the most modern portable machine—but .it must have sown thoughts of savage murder in the hearts of those wh o used it. It had no keyboard. Instead, there was a dial on which the letters of the alphabet and the numerals were inscribed. The ’tyfifst haft"ttf*twist*«■' pointer to the letter or figure wanted and then hammer on the key. This action brought the roller of the machine in contact with the type. A 90-year-old sewing machine is not unlike a doll’s sewing machine of to-day. Parramatta has not been forgotten by the politicians. They have had a royal' time in the town all this week and have made speeches galore. Parramatta, has entertained many a notable guest, and this week lias been on of the proudest in its history.