The Daily News. TUESDAY, MARCH 31. TARANAKI'S ANNIVERSARY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 86, 31 March 1908, Page 2

The Daily News. TUESDAY, MARCH 31. TARANAKI'S ANNIVERSARY.

Tin' question occurs to us. Why does not Taranaki celebrate Hs anniversary more energetically than by the proclamation of a Bank holiday? Contrary to the honor given to the anniversary day of tile founding of the provinces of New Zealand, Taranaki, richest of all in record of herculean colonising, allows the day to slip away almost without mention. Indeed, we doubt whether ten |»cr cent of the settlers of this province pi>»sess any true knowledge of the *tupenilous work performed bv the builders of the settlement, much less the cireumst inces of the landing of Hie. first settlers. Witli the later events, particularly the main episodes of the Taranaki war, a more or less superficial knowledge i, "eueral in the generation of to-d ly. but Waireka and other engagements in which Taranaki's founders fought, and many died to lay the foundation of our present prosperity, safety, and contentment. are not the only events worth keeping in mind. Surely none would urge that in the evolution of successful sett lenient, the events of the war were of greater importance than the quiet persistent endurance which held on, in spite of difficulties almost as serious as. and certainly more depressing than, tin sufferings entailed by fighting- All honor to that advance band who, sixty-six years ago to-day, landed 011 this shore to pave the way for the settlement that was to come. How the choice, fell 011 Xew Plymouth, instead of Waitara, as the capital of the province, which then only existed on the maps of the NewZealand Land Co. in London, has been often told. There is 110 need here to follow the fortunes of the early settlers who followed soon after the survey

party. The story is one of hardship, of ondurance, of resource, and of pluck, unexcelled in the history of colonisation in the Dominion. And what is the present generation doing to keep green tile memory and the noble deeds of the founders of the province? In Otago and Canterbury, as instances, tlio Early Settlers' Associations are the most honored in the provinces. Anniversary days aro there made days of festivity. Regular re-unions of the early settlers and their descendants are held; full records of all tile early ships and the early Settlers, with the descendants, are care-

fully kept in the Early Settlers' own j public buildings; in short, these provinces are proud of Uie founders a nd progenitors, and every opportunity is availed of to keep fresh in the minds of the generation growing up in the midst of pleasant surroundings, the trials and hardships under which their grandfathers labored, flow much greater an effort should we in this favored province make to honor the memory and the deeds of Taranaki's pioneers, besides whose vicissitudes of colonisation in the South were a mere circumstance. We should liku to see some genuine effort put forth to arouse a spirit of provincial pride in Anniversary Day, and hope that, ere another year has passed, something may have been done to make the day one of true signilicance in Taranaki. To the fast-decreasing band of early settlers we express the hope that they may long be spared to live in the enjoyment of the peace and plenty theii self-denying efforts of the early ilayr have made possible to-day.