Dominion Day Programme

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 740, 18 September 1953, Page 14

Dominion Day Programme

bs T was the opinion of everybody on board that all sorts of European | grain, fruit, plants, etc., would thrive | here. In short, was this country settled | by an industrious people they would very soon be supplied not only-with the | necessaries but many of the luxuries of life." This report by Captain James Cook, made when he returned to England after re-discovering New Zealand, had gone a long way toward coming true when, in 1907, the country was pro¢laimed a Dominion. Sir Joseph Ward, making the announcement, was able to speak in less material terms: "My message is the lesson of our history: Preserve the purity of your race from any undegirable mixture, secure equal %pportunity to all. Permit no ring fence of privilege to any class, elevate your view of manual work so that the fine dignity and eénnobling influence of honest labour may be felt and shown in a contempt for idleness and extravagance. Trust the future of our Dominion not to increasing wealth, but rather to an ever higher manhood and womanhood, to a wider’ enlightenment humanély disciplined to the needs cf industry, by temperate living and by those healthy, and beneficent tasks and trials that beset advancement and which should be the price of all promotion in a free country." To celebrate Dominion Day, September 26, the four ZB stations and 2ZA

will broadcast a documentary proegramme tracing New Zealand’s development from Cook’s landing to the proclamation of Dominion status, Entitled Discovery, the programme was. written by Allan Sleeman and produced by him at the Christchurch studios of the NZBS. It will be broadcast on Sunday, September 20, at the following times: 2ZA, 10.30 a.m.; 2ZB, 11.30 a.m.; 1ZB, 2.30 p.m.; 4ZB, 3.0 p.m.; and 3ZB, 5.0 p.m.