CANTERBURY PIONEERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 300, 17 December 1923, Page 13

CANTERBURY PIONEERS.

a AXXIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS. (By Telegraph.—Press CHRLSTCHURCH, Saturday. In celebration of Canterbury's Anniversary Day, which falls on December 16, the pioneers were honoured at a public gathering in the Botanical Gardens this afternoon. The passengers by '''the first four ships" were allotted seats of honour. The most picturesque part of the celebrations was on the old archery lawn. Seated there were some 600 pioneers. Down the lawn came five children, dressed in old-time costumes, the girls in bonnets, frills, furbebows and crinolines, and the boys in tight pants, swallow-tailed coats, brocaded vests and tall hats. These children, in the elaborate manner of a past age, walked gracefully in front of the pioneers, stopped where the passengers of "the first four ships'' were seated, and bowed and curtseyed before them. The children are the descendants of Sir Charles Bowen, Mr. Justice Gresson, Bishop Harper and Dr. Barker.