N.Z. CENTENNIAL

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 228, 1 September 1939, Page 4

N.Z. CENTENNIAL

activities. Sports bodies, and organisations of every sort, realise that the Centennial offers them great scope for gatherings- and meetings to further their particular interests. The Anglican, Presbyterian, and Methodist Churches are all holding their own celebrations, and there will* be a .Roman Catholic j’jucharistic Congress during the Centennial period. Special Rugby football tournaments, a Centennial Golf Championship and an Ocean Yacht Race from Lyttelton to Wellington arc t\ pical ot this widespread! seizing of their opportunity by sports bodies. Swimming, band, basketball, lawn tennis, rowing, cricket, and shooting contests will all be held and will take on a special dignity and lustre from the Centennial. In every capacity, public; or private, New Zealanders aria determined to enjoy the occasion to the utmost, aud to derive the greatest recreational and social value from it.

SUMJUAJLt'Y OF ACTIVITIES GEINEERAL ARItANGEMENTS Tli© Government, in preparing for the Centennial, has from the first striven to put the events j we are to celebi;a|h... in£o,, a .propp,j;..his,^r| ! c ,sJej*spective*.. With, this view a research staff has been assembled, partly to help] local organisations, partly to attempt! to educate public- appreciation ol the rating, tv - ■ :/ ' , r. 'Historical and Literary Celebrations i ■ 1) Historical research and collection of original -MSS. Part of the historical work for the Centennial has been to appeal to private persons who possess material of historical interest to New Zealand to make it available to the National Histoffcfal Committee for copying .for deposit in some suitable library of reference. The response from England lias been particularly rich. ; (2) Historical, publications. The Government has • prepared a comprehensive programme of Centennial. Publications as a commemoration of Now Zealand’s hundred years of "history. (a) An Historic Atlas of New Zealand, an exceedingly detailed publication, whisir includes economic and present-day Jiiaps. . (b) A dictionary of New Zealand Biography, .' compiled by Dr. Guy H.

Scolefield, / two volumes, with 3,000 entries embracing factual biographies of the principal European and Maori personalities, before 1840 and after. (c) Pictorial surveys, a series of thirty texts, .produced in magazine form with an average of over sixty pictures. Typical subjects: “Navigators”, “Whalers and Sealers”, and “Gold”. A graphic pictorial record of New Zealand’s development in a .popular form at a cheap price. ,v ■is-:(*!)■:,Historical surveys, a series of about a dozen leading historical themes treated in about 30,000 words .by/recognised* authorities, but popular iiO>toh'e. Typical sPijects: ‘Discovery’ Dr. J. O. Beaglehole, and “Social Sefviccs”, by Dr. W. B. Hutch. (’3) In order to keep every part of the Centennial organisation in touch with all the preparations. going forward in a vast •»'variety -of (.different lields, a small magazine, the “New Zealand Centennial News”, is issued' about once a month. This is incidentally the vehicle lor many historical articles. .. ... . ;

(4),. Literary Competitions'. To...stimulate an interest in New Zealand literature the Government has called *for entries in Centennial literary competitions and! offered prizes l for a novel, a cohort poem a long pbehi,' 1 a* play, and an "essay gnu. monograph; 1.1. t(o) School Competitions. Schools have been:, invited to 'compete in the production of regional surveys* This is expected to stimulate schools to look at the district around them, making their own choice as to whether they will give their surveys an histor-

leal or present-day emphasis. (O') Musical and’-Radio Play Competitions. Under the . auspices of.Kthe National Broadcasting Service,, competitions in the composition oh orchestral and choral works, radio plays and one-act stage plays will he held, which should, enrich the National radio programmes as well as stimulate an increased! interest in music in New Zealand. . . (7) Centennial Art Exhibition. Arrangements have been made for an historical exhibition of New Zealand art to tour the of the Dominion during the ’'Centennial period. (8) The Government’s own him .studios are preparing a him that will adequately portray New Zealand’s hundred years of development. 11. Memorials. The majority of- people in New Zealand are keenly interested in the subject of their local memorials. The Government is subsidising the establishment off these £1 to £3 locally contributed, provided that the local lvfomorial is not erected' with loan inpney—' for a Centennial Memorial should be a pure gift to the future—and that the proposal is of a dignity suitable to the occasion. The Government has also suggested that projects that are socially useful are emore suitable as Centennial Memorials- than purely monumental projects. This hint has been taken by a majority of local committees, and parks, playgrounds, tree“piaiitihg schemes, and buildings of a community rather than ornamental value are being erected in most districts. Several local committees have commissioned local histories as their Centennial Memorials. The Government is helping local committees with t-ho advice of a competent architect and is also advising on the format of all publications for which a subsidy is required.. 111. The Centennial Exhibition. This is by far the best-known feature of the Centennial Celebrations umoiig the public at large, although it is actually only a portion of the Centennial activities. The Exhibition and all its arrangements are in the hands of a limited liability company, heavily subsidised, however, by the Government. The superb sea-.side site, the amusements and novelties, and the splendid epitome in a visual, material form of New Zealand’s hundred years of development will attract many visitors from the rest of the Dominion : to Wellington and people from overseas to New Zealand. The Exhibition will be open from November Bth, 1931), to .-the end of April, 1940. IV. Ceremonies. and Celebrations. Though there are celebrations purely national in character and others purely local, and though many private or sporting bodies are taking advantage of the occasion to hold functions on their own account, this brief summary does not attempt to differentiate betweenv'those, hut merely gives at summary of the most interesting Centennial features in their chronological oi’dter. In January 1940, the Boy Scouts au* to hold a Centennial Jamboree near Wellington, which is likely to attract Scouts from all over the Empire. On 2nd. January at Waimate North, Bay of Islands, where the first missionary farm was established some one. hundred and twenty years earlier, there is to be enacted a pageant ol New Zealand history from the earliest times to the present day. To give good measure to the visitor, there will be picturesque Maori liaka competitions and an axeman’s carnival, so that the wild rhythms of. the Maoii dances of war and peace may he contrasted! with the rhythms typical. of European pioneering. January 7th. is to be treated as a National Thanksgiving Day. At Auckland from Gtli. to 20th. January the series of summer New Zealand Centennial Games will be held, which are expected to attach overseas athletes. These •'have a National official status. At Auckland also, from 23rd. to 25th. January a Pageant of the Century will be given at evening performances. On 26th. and 27th. Auckland is to stage an outdoor historical procession with decorated floats.

Jn. Wellington t-liere is a .National Celebration on 22nd. January, when the Provincial Centennial Memorial will be unveiled cm Petone Beach where the first- New Zealand Company settlers landed one hundred years before. This will be accompanied by suitable historical pageantry. Auckland again attracts the attention of the visitor on 29th. January, when its magnificent harbour will be, enlivened by a Traditional ' Regatta and Water Pageant. There will also be an Air Force display. From 27th. January to 2nd. February, there Will ■be a gathering of the Maow: race at

Auckland, where, on 2Stli. January, the Logan Campbell .Memorial to tlie Maori people will be unveiled. At Waitangi oil 6th. and' 7th. February the most important of the National Celebrations will be held. it was on this hostoric ground, given to the people of New Zeealand by Lord Bledisloe, during his term of office as Governor-General of New Zealand, that the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. The signing of the Treaty wjll be re-enacted in full costume, a ceremony that will be tlie most spectacular and impressive of all. it is, in fact, the focal point in the whole Centennial programme. Appropriately enough this is to be the scene of the North Island Maori celebrations, when the local Ngapuhi tribe will be the hosts in traditional Maori feasting. Between 17th. and 24th. February there will be extensive celebrations in Dunedliii where the Otago Provincial commemoration ceremonies will be held. Here there will be an historical street pagealYt-wjth",floats and marching units,- a cliildheiTs day, a pioneer’s •day, atrace-meeting, and many athletic find other sporting events. Otago was, of course,- founded in 1848 by Scottish settlers. At Whangarej,. between 17th. and 24th. February, novel and interesting celebrations will be held, including a children’s pageant. Whangarei is a town that is being particularly enterprising in its Centenenial programme. ’f ile next important National Celebration will take place at Akaroa from Ist. to oth. April. Akaroa is xme of the most historic localities in New Zealand, since it was the location of a small French colony founded .in 1840 and which very, nearly secured this portion of the South for France. The French colony was, -however, on a very restricted scale, being intended as a port of refreshment for South Sea whalers and possibly a convict settlement. For some years after tho sixty French settlers landed, a French warship remained in New Zealand waters for their protection. ' The events of 1840, the iirst exercise ol' British Sovereignty in the South Island and the landing of the French settlers will be re-enacted. There will be a memorial unveiled to the- French settlers whose descendants live in ,Akaroa. to" this clay. Sports, a military display, appropriate pageantry and the official Centennial gathering of the South Island Maori tribes will make this [an occasion of great colour and interfest.

The Celebrations have been decentralised., to allow centres other than Wellington, whif.li will have the prillcipal attraction • of the Cenetenniai Exhibition, to share in the celebrations to the greatest extent possible. During the autumn and winttW ol each of the towns,. Audi-" land, Wellington; . Christclutrcli, and Dunedin, will a Music Week, and at Auckland between lvth. and 31st. August- the fwi liter series of New Zealand Centennial Games will be performed. j ; On ,-9th. October v at I Gisbpr.ne , there will he a National Celebration of great interest, though it is not linked to the events ol 1840. This is a reenactment of the. landing of Captain Cook approximately on the site oi the modern town of Gisborne in 1709, tlie first recorded landing by any white man on the coasts of New Zealand. On 16th. November the final National Celebration will be held at

Wellington. An ; historical’ pageant will mark the separation of New Zea-. land from Now South Wales and its election as a separate colony. V. Organisation, Naturally there is a tremendous amcmit of intricate organisation jin ihe preparation for the Centennial, eover- . ing such a variety of activities and projects. The Government has*set up a National Centennial Council to watch over the Centennial arrangements as a whole. • The Minister of Internal Affairs,*,, ghe Hon. W. RV. Parry, is generally responsible lor the arrangements, and his Department handles the executive business arising from the Celebrations and the preparing for them. It will give some idea of the far-reaching scope of theCentennial to mention that there are committees to deal with Accommodation of Visitors, Transport, Maori Celebrations, Centennial: Music, the pinking of the Centennial Film, as well as the National Press Conimitteo and the National Historical Committee, supervising research and historical publications. In addition there arc Provincial and local Committee to give expression to local energies and sentiment. Vh—Non-Ofbciai Centennial Activities There is a great variety, of Centennial activities quite outside the Gov-ernment-sponsored celebrations' anti