THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1931. THE CITY'S BIRTHDAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20981, 18 September 1931, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1931. THE CITY'S BIRTHDAY.

Few Aucklanders, it may be ventured, think of September 18 as the birthday of their city. Yet nothing is more certain. On that date in 1840 formal possession was taken of the site of the new capital. A contemporary account of the doings of that day has in it this: "and thus concluded the ceremony of founding the first British settlement established under the auspices of the Government in this part of New Zealand." It must seem strange to many that the day usually passes without recognition. Other places in the Dominion observe with more or less note their natal days. Wellington thus keeps January 22; Nelson, February 1; Dunedin, March 23 ; New Plymouth, March 31; Blenheim, November 1, this date being recalled similarly by Napier; Greymouth and other West Coast towns, December 1; and Christchurch, December 16. These dates .are memorable in the various localities of observance because of initial events in their own history and that of their districts. The day that is noted here, year by year, is not its birthday: with it are associated happenings that took place far away, in the Bay of Islands, when what is now Auckland was an untamed waste and no official eye had looked upon it with so much as a hope that here a settlement, let alone a capital, would be established. Anniversary Day, as it is called, is celebrated as the date of Auckland's beginning, and it falls by custom on January 29, a quaint fact in view of all the circumstances. Captain Hobson's introduction of British rule in New Zealand is intended to be held in mind by this, but the date belongs no less to every other part of the Dominion. Yet this district alone makes holiday then, the rest preferring the days belonging to their own local beginnings. Instead! of the whole Dominion having a birthday—as Australia agrees to celebrate the day of Sydney's founding—what might be so kept is ignored for local reasons elsewhere, and is kept here without local reason!

The Gilbertian situation is made more comic by Auckland's keeping of January 29 instead of January 30, so that in effect the birthday of New Zealand is observed nowhere. It was on January 30 that Hobson performed the official acts that made these islands British —landed, hoisted the flag, read his commission and proclamations, and so formally took possession in the name of the Crown. By all the rules governing such things, that date has clear title to honour.. January 29 has no such claim. On that day H.M.S. Herald, bringing him to the Bay of Islands on his important mission, cast anchor —an event of no more official significance than the anchoring of any vessel, of any nationality, at any port in the world. Had he still stayed aboard as long is the vessel was in the bay, there would have been neither annexation •nor treaty. How the unimportant date, January 29, came to honour is perhaps not yet common knowledge. Auckland, having Hobson here in January, 1842, as the representative of British sovereignty, was minded to celebrate the date of his landing and proclamations in New Zealand. It attached an importance to his official entry on his annexing task above any call to note the date of its own birth. So January 30 was in mind. However, the date fell that year on a Sunday, and the celebration, which included a regatta, was therefore arranged for the preceding Saturday. Thus January 29 became the date of the first Auckland celebration, and unwittingly the precedent was followed Historical precision demands the observance of January 30, and it would be well, in the centenary year if not before, to substitute this date. To do this would not, of course, mark Auckland's birthday; it would mean only the recognition of a day significant for the whole Dominion. Nevertheless, the January rather than the September events have been so long given local honour here that the practice of regarding the former as of paramount interest may well continue, in the hope that the rest of the Dominion will eventually fall into line, following the example of Australia in substituting a common Dominion-wide date for a number of local ones. This could be achieved by a simple statute placing January 30 as Anniversary Day in the list of public holidays. Incidentally, action of this sort would give Hobson's great service a wellmerited recognition Dominion, and go far to remove the reproach of neglecting appreciative memory of him There would remain the question of recalling duly this city's actual birthday. It is notable enough to have some recognition, lor the ceremony on September 18, ?840, was fully official and elaborate, formal possession was taken in the name of Queen Victoria; the flag was hoisted and saluted; salvoes, cheers, toasts and public festivities were the order of the day; and immediately the officers of the Government, with their staffs, mechanics, labourers and others, set about building the capital. That beginning might well be kept in mind with out the declaration of a public holiday.. An orderly flying of flags and a dignified civic observance would meet the need to commemorate a brave enterprise well begun.