PARLIAMENTARY GOVERNMENT

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27307, 25 March 1954, Page 8

PARLIAMENTARY GOVERNMENT

CENTENARY IN N.Z,

ARRANGEMENTS MADE FOR COMMEMORATION

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, March 24. Parliamentary government is to return to Auckland, its birth-place in New Zealand, briefly on May 24, the centennial of the first parliamentary assemblies in this country. As part of the commemoration arrangements on that day, which is also Empire Day, there will be meetings of the Executive Council and of the Cabinet at which the business of government will be transacted. A suitable memorial of the centuryold event will be dedicated on the site of the building in which Parliament first met. This land is to be handed over to the Auckland City Council as a park. A formal State luncheon with a guest list representative of Auckland community activities is also being arranged. Giving this information today the Prime Minister (Mr Holland) said it was desired to observe fittingly the centennial of an occasion which was undoubtedly one of the most important in New Zealand's history—the beginning of a long process which raised New Zealand from the status of a colony of pioneers to that of a sovereign nation within the British Commonwealth. Mr Holland said that apart from the meetings -of the Executive Council and the Cabinet, which would, as usual, be held privately, the commemoration programme would be public. Arrangements were being made for the participation of local (members of Parliament, local body officials, and the public ;