Sir E. Davis Appeals For Loyalty

Northern Advocate, 15 May 1939, Page 3

Sir E. Davis Appeals For Loyalty

“The pioneers gave us the New Zealand which to-day is ours. It is worth every sacrifice to retain it as such, and still further to improve it for the benefit of the generations to come.”

In this vein, Sir Ernest Davis, Mayor of Auckland, addressed the Auckland Provincial Centennial Committee when delegates met in Whangarei on Saturday night. “Much water has passea under the Centennial organisation bridge since we first assembled three years ago to discuss the preliminaries of our plans for 1940.” said Sir Ernest. “To-day, seven months before the great event arrives, Auckland Province is well advanced with its arrangements, and, barring the outbreak of a war, it will, I am confident, commemorate the attainment of its 100th birthday in the manner in which it is striving —appropriately to an historical occasion.

Unity of Ideals,

“Centennial committees shoulder a dual responsibility in that they are answerable for memorials as well as celebrations, and I must confess from my own experience that the memorial question is not an easy one to handle. “In the other parts of the province the executive has dealt with approximately the identical number of memorial applications as that now submitted by Northland A Zone, namely, 32.

“The majority have been submitted to the National Council for approval. Moreover, many of them are similar in character, such as the provision of, or improvement to, parks, reserves, playing areas, women’s rest rooms, and libraries.

“The point emerging from this is, I think, that the people of the province are consciously uniting in ideals to provide memorials expressing a tribute to the past and demonstrating faith in the future.

“How better can we show our belief in the future than by providing for our children. Some generations removed. we are the children of the pioneers, and we know what their efforts on behalf of posterity meant.

Duty of To-Day,

“So long as the spirit of the pioneers is kept alive, so long will New Zealand fulfil its destiny as .a, progressive nation, but let that spirit vanish, and with it will disappear our future development and prospect of our ultimate survival. “Let our resolve for Centennial year be to keep burning in the second century the torch of pioneer endeavour. “Leaving the abstract for the concrete, I would like to remind districts which are experiencing, or expect to experience, difficulties in the raising of funds for Centennial purposes, that such obstacles —imaginary or real — which be encountered pale into insignificance before the ordeals which confronted and were overcome by the pioneers whose memory we are now seeking to honour. In fact, those great people of the past, could they but communicate with us now, would doubtless indicate a greater appreciation of our efforts if they knew our way through to fruition was to bo an uneven one.

“No difficulties we face in our organ!'alien fer celebrations or memorials can measure up to those which the pioneers so cheerfully surmounted as a matter of course. “If X may, I offer that thought as a watchword against what may at times become a psychological tendency to community defeatism. “Finally, may I congratulate tlm zone on the fruitful crops of memorial applications, each of which, inter-zom: committees may be assured, will be treated on its merits, and within the terms of the National Council’s definition. “It is inevitable that all cannot qualify for approval, but in my opinion a substantial majority of them will.”