CENTENNIAL WORK

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 65, 9 December 1938, Page 8

CENTENNIAL WORK

Organization Reviewed By Mr. Parry

! FINAL YEAR AHEAD i Second Meeting Of National Council I lie progress of organization tor the centennial was reviewed by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr. Parrv, in his address as chairman at the second meeting of the New Zealand National Centennial Council' in Wellington yesterday, lhe Minister thanked those who had assisted the Government in formulating and putting into operation the general centennial organization, and expressed the conviction that centennial organizations throughout the Dominion would be in a position to attack the final year of preparation in a manner ensuring complete success for the celebrations.

Mr. Parry welcomed a.s new members the mayor of Christchurch, Mr. I{. M. Maefarlane; the mayor of Dunedin, Mr. A. 11. Allen: Sir Aplrana Ngattr, M.P., the representative of the Maori race; and the Secretary to the Treasury, Mr. G. C. Rhodda.

Native Race’s Part

-i: know that the pakeha. members will join with me in extending a particularly hearty welcome to Sir Apirtrna,” Mr. Parry said. “The fact that lie is one of the Dominion’s distinguished citizens, and that over a long period of years he has devoted his energies so successfully to the interests of the Native people, places hint in a position to give invaluable assistance to this council. “One of the pleasing features of the coming one hundredth anniversary of our country is that the Native people will take tlieir part in the observances, side by side with the pakeha. I feel that both races can congratulate themselves on the fact that after a period of nearly 100 years of pakeha colonization the Maori is taking an increasingly prominent part in the public affairs of the country, that he is responsible for a big share of its production, that he has his representatives in all our cultural, economic and social activities, and that as a race he is increasing in numbers and in importance.” Mr. Parry, referring to the work of the national historical committee, said the main series of surveys would cover such important phases of national development as the initiation of settlement, the creation of the machinery o£ government, the establishment of the farming industry and the part played by women throughout the course of New Zealand’s history. Taken together, they would provide a picture of national life that would endure not only as a memorial to the .past, but as a stimulus to achievement in the future. Centennial Atlas.

“These surveys will be supplemented by a rather more popular series which will be largely pictorial, though each number will contain an important historical essay on some phase of our history,” Mr. Parry said. “The series will cover topics as diverse as the early whaling Industry, the ibuHdiug of our transport system, our houses during the century and the voyage out on the early sailing ships. “The most ambitious single publication is, however, a centennial atlas, which, when completed, will present a comprehensive record of the New Zealand environment and people. It will contain reproductions of the charts of Tasman and Cook, maps iliuslruling successive phases in the history of thy Maori people, maps on the soil and climate of the Dominion and a series tracing the course of European occupation. Nothing on the same scale has been attempted in New Zealand before.” Mr. I’arry said the national committees which had already been appointed and begun their work of assisting the council, were the national transport committee, the national ■ accommodation committee and the national Maori celebrations committee. The national centennial Press committee would hold its first meeting early in the New Year.

Press Co-operation.

“The necessity for having the full co-operation of the whole of the news* papers of the Dominion will be obvious to you all, and I am pleased to be able to announce that such co-opera-tion is assured,’’ Mr. Parry said. “Tn the heavy volume of newspaper clippings relating to the exhibition and the t&ntennial observances generally which pass through my hands daily are in themselves ample confirmation of the desire of the newspaper, interests to make the observance of NewZealand’s one-hundredth anniversary an outstanding success.” Additional committees, such as the national centennial music committee and the national centennial pageantry committee would be set up in due course.

“In a few districts there remains an impression that the marking of the centennial by celebrations and memorials is a matter solely for the local bodies,” Mr. Parry said. "This is not the position. It is the desire of the Government Hint every section of the people, through their community organizations and societies shall bo associated with the observances, and Unit. as far as possible, every individual will be given an opportunity of subscribing Io the centennial fond, or assisting in some way with the centennial celebrations and memorials. • Local Body Assistance. “This council and the Government could not possibly have put the organization into effect without the whole-hearted assistance of the local bodies, but my point is that in any centre where consideration is being given to the establishment of a memorial or the holding of celebrations it is essential that they be a duly constituted unit of the provincial cenleunial organization representing all interests in the district concerned. Though, in most cases, such memorials will be vest ed in the local body event mtlly, only those projects either for celebrations or for memorials, which are submitted by a duly constituted centennial committee will lie regarded as eligible to be considered for the subsidy. “II: has come to my notice also that in one ease at least, a county council contemplates Ihe provision of a centennial memorial by raising a loan and collecting the interest and sinking fund by means of a rate. Such a proceeding is at variance with the Government's conception of a centennial memorial, which should at least l> ( . p gift to posterity and not an obligation, and as a matter of policy it has already been decided that loan moneys will not bo subsidized-”