NAPIER BECOMES A CITY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 130, 17 March 1950, Page 3

NAPIER BECOMES A CITY

CELEBRATIONS BfeGIN TO-DAY (P.A.) NAPIER, March 16. Napier will become New Zealand’s thirteenth city to-morrow, and a full week of festivity will be held to mark the occasion, which coincides with the seventy-fifth jubilee of the borough of Napier. The proclamation of Napier as a city will be made by the DeputyPrime Minister (Mr K. J. Holyoake) at a ceremony at McLean Park. Before this ceremony there will be a procession of more than 160 floats through the gaily decorated streets of the city to the park. The. Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr W. A; Bodkin) will also attend the cereniony. * The occasion will be the most important in the term of office of Mr T. W. Hercock, who is retiring this year after 12 years of Napier. The .procession will be illuminated and will return to the Marine Parade at* night, when there will be a fireworks display and a fancy dress skating carnival. • During the week the celebrations will include a religious service, a “Miss City of Napier” contest, massed band concerts, and a cavalcade of fashion. On Cathedral Day the Bishop of Waiapu (the Rt. Rev. N. A. Lesser) will be on the site of St. John’s Cathedral, which was destroyed in the 1931 earthquake, to accept donations toward the cost of rebuilding the cathedral.