N.Z. CENTENNIAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 150, 26 June 1936, Page 6

N.Z. CENTENNIAL.

WELLINGTON'S EXHIBITION

(By J.C.)

The national programme for the celebration of New Zealand's first century as a British colony has been outlined by the Minister of Internal Affairs, and it bears evidence of careful consideration and an adequately liberal view of the great occasion. The form that the permanent national memorial will take has yet to lie settled, but it lias been made clear that the- conventional useless monument in marble or bronze will not enter into the scheme. The Parliament House building will be completed; that is a very necessary work. But a truly national memorial of the centennial should be something more, and something that will appeal to the imagination and the hearty approval of the whole Dominion. It may be that it should take the form of a great National Forest Sanctuary to embrace all the remaining native forests on the hills in New Zealand, which should be for ever untouchable for commercial purposes. But that is a necessary and urgent work of salvage which should be proceeded with independently of the coming centenary commemoration. Ihe immediate question before the National tommittee is the form the celebrations of our first century under the British flag are to take 111 the various centres.

Pageants of history are the most attractive form of public entertainment on such an occasion, and Auckland has already an excellent series of suggestions to be elaborated in that direction. Such pageants, with the nautical, the pioneer, the military and the Maori elements forming the salient features will be particularly appropriate on the shores and waters of Auckland. Wellington, too, has a story that lends itself to spectacular revivals of the past. Site Difficulties. Wellington's Mayor and Chamber of Commerce arc intent on an exhibition, but it is not easy to discover any local enthusiasm for that form of celebration. There is not even a suitable site to begin with, and beauty and spaciousness of site are the first considerations. Exhibitions of the kind we are familiar with are not likely to appeal to the community generally; they usually consist of a lot of glorified shops and a lot of meretricious glitter, with a superabundance of side-shows. A Wellington exhibition, or an exhibition of the usual kind in any other town, would sell many motor cars, no doubt; but as a form of celebration of a nation's story it falls short of the required standard. It is a dull method of giving expression to the country's elation and pride in its past ami its achievements. The Minister and his collaborators were wise in opposing the request that a Wellington exhibition should be made the focal point of the Dominion's celebrations. A sufficient sum has been promised towards such an exhibition, and it remains to be seen whether local interest will be enthusiastic enough to carry it through by means of a company. So far Wellington has found it difficult to keep even its Winter Show going. Historical Pageantry. There is a greater prospect of arousing popular interest in the capital city by working up a series of historical pictures on an adequate scale. The moving story of the pioneers, the first ships, the early contacts between pakcha and Maori, can provide in Wellington, as in Auckland, a splendid revival ■of the life of a century ago. The £75,000 offered for an exhibition could be spent more profitably and pleasurably on such pageants, in which the maritime scenery would be the great feature. A faithful replica of the pioneer ship Tory, built to scale with every detail true to its original, could take part in a revival of the actual vessel. Such vessels, in Wellington and Auckland, could be preserved as museum ships, like New Bedford's famous whaling barques, even like England's Victory, as national mementos of a great past. This is only one of many directions in which history can be recaptured and a tangible reminder retained.