CENTENNIAL PAGEANTRY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 April 1939, Page 2

CENTENNIAL PAGEANTRY

PRESENTING HISTORICAL EVENTS Helpful advice on the preparations’ for Centennial pageantry is given by the National Director of Pageantry, ifi the “New Zealand Centennial News.” "The word pageant conjures up visions of large crowds, mass movement and colour, processions and dances, music and romance,” he writes. "It provides unique opportunities to convey the drama of history by presenting episodes which ' show the force Cx strong ideas compelling men forward—the conflict between the individual and the mass. It may treat history from a local or a national point of view, and it can show the historical development, either realistically or symbolically, of some social, religious, or civic ideal, and pay homage to the pioneers of the country. “Pageantry will ■ play a prominent part in the New Zealand Centennial Celebrations and will probably take one of the following forms:—(a) The street pageant or procession; (b) The re-enactment of isolated historical incidents in New Zealand history at the original location, for example, the landing of Captain Cook at Gisborne; (c) The historical pageant presenting a sequence of episodes, either realistically or symbolically, bearing on the history of New Zealand, from a local or national point of view.”