LANDING OF PIONEERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26621, 18 November 1947, Page 6

LANDING OF PIONEERS

RE-ENACTMENT PROJECT KEEN INTEREST AT PORT CHALMERS Port Chalmers people have become enthusiastically interested in the project to re-enact the landing of the pioneers in March of next year. A meeting of the cast chosen to represent the pioneers was held recently, when Mr A. C. Notman, who has written the script and is in charge of the production, explained the whole scheme and allocated the parts. Mrs J. Morgan, who has been appointed Wardrobe Mistress, exhibited costumes of the period and gave a preliminary talk on dressing and characters, Since the meeting members of the cast have been hunting through the public libraries, the Early Settlers’ Museum and the public Museum in search of illustrations of the clothing of the period. Mothers of children who are taking the parts of the families of the pioneers have had a more difficult job than most, as pictures of children of 1848 are not so easy to acquire. A number of women’s costumes have come to hand and there is a prospect of some others, but many more are needed and Mrs Morgan has appealed for the interest and help of any who may possess costumes of the 1848 period and would be willing to lend them for the purposes of the Centenary re-enactment. The greatest difficuty of all, said Mrs Morgan, is in obtaining men’s garments, particularly such as would have been worn by the men who arrived'by the John Wickliffe. Some of these were professional men, some were artisans and others were labourers. Most of them were young men. The Wardrobe Mistress appealed to any who might possess such garments to lend them for the occasion. Great care is promised of all clothing so borrowed.