THE APPROACHING ANNIVERSARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12478, 23 January 1904, Page 4

THE APPROACHING ANNIVERSARY.

It is in the nature of tilings that local anniversaries gradually cease to hold supreme place in the public regard, and it must be acknowledged that the 29th of January is not what it was once in Auckland. generation ago the city, and even the province, would at tnis time be in the pleasant excitement of preparation for the most popular holiday of the year, and for the famous regatta which a hundred canoes attended, and for which a shoal of coasting craft waited. It would be the topic of everybody's conversation, the true milestone of our gathering years. The holiday remains, and the regatta— only as the shadow of what has been. The racecourse vies with the once unrivalled and unchallenged water meeting. Excursion steamers and trains bear thousands away from the shores to which once every resident and every visitor flocked. Anniversary Day is no longer the one great holiday. It is levelled with a long row of holidays. It is no longer set on high by the founders of our city and province, for they have mostly gone to their reward and left their works to those who followed them. In all this there is matter for, mild regret, for the day has meant much to Auckland, and means much still. Yet it is consoling to remember that our Centenary Day will revive the ageing anniversary with added glory, and that at our Millenary they will still recall the worthy pioneers and the historic regatta, a fitting celebration for a water-borne and water-loving people.