THE CENTENNIAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 September 1939, Page 9

THE CENTENNIAL

MANY FORMg OF CELEBRATION

HISTORICAL AND LITERARY.

NUMEROUS MEMORIAL PROJECTS

The Government, in preparing for the Centennial, has from the first striven to put-the events we are to celebrate into a proper historical pel - spective. With this end in view, a research staff has been assembled, partly to help local organisations, partly to attempt to educate public appreciation of the historical events we are celebrating.

Historical and Literary Celebrations. (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 Historical Committee for copying for deposit in some suitable library of reference. The response from England has been particularly rich.

(2) Historical publications. The Government has prepared a comprehensive programme of Centennial publications as a commemoration of New Zealand’s hundred years of history. (a) An Historical Atlas of New Zealand, an exceedingly detailed and ambitious publication, which includes economic and present-day maps. (b) A Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, compiled by Dr. Guy H. Scholefield, two volumes, with 3000 entries embracing factual biographies of the principal European and Maori personalities, before 1840 and after. (c) Pictorial Surveys, a series of thirty short texts, produced in magazine form with an average of over sixty pictures. Typical subjects: ‘Navigators and Explorers,” “Whalers and Sealers,” and “Gold.” A graphic pictorial record of New Zealand's development in a popular form at a cheap price. (d) Historical Surveys, a series of about a dozen leading historical themes treated in about 30,000 words by recognised authorities, but popular in tone. Typical subjects, “Discovery,” by Dr. J. C. Beaglehole, and “Social Services” by Dr. W. B. Stitch.

(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 fields, a small magazine, the “New Zealand Centennial News,” is issued about once a month. This is incidentally the vehicle for many original 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 for a novel, a short story, a long poem, a short poem, a play, and an essay or monograph. (5) 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 historical or present-day emphasis. (6) Musical and radio play competi tions. Under the auspices of the National Broadcasting Service, competitions in the composition of orchestral

and choral works, radio plays and oneact stage plays will be held, which should enrich the national radio programmes as well as stimulate an in-ceased-interest in music in New Zealand. (7) Centennial Art Exhibition. Arrangements have been made for ah historical exhibition of New Zealand art to tour the main towns of the Dominion during the Centennial period. (8) The Government’s own film studios are preparing a film that will adequately portray New Zealand’s hundred years of development. Memorials. The majority of people in New Zealand are keenly interested in the subject of their local memorials. The Government is subsidising the establishment of these £1 to £3 locally contributed, provided that the local memorial is not erected with loan money—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 more suitable as Centennial memorials than purely monumental projects. This hint has been taken by a majority of local committees, and parks, playgrounds, tree-planting 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 the advice of a competent architect and is also advising on the format of all publications for which a subsidy is required. Centennial Exhibition. This is by far the best-known feature of the Centennial celebrations among 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 seaside 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 8, 1939. to the end of April, 1940.