The Stratford Evening Post With which is Incorporated "THE EGMONT SETTLER" (Established 1890) MONDAY, JUNE 22, 1936. NEW ZEALAND'S CENTENARY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume IV, Issue 163, 22 June 1936, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post With which is Incorporated "THE EGMONT SETTLER" (Established 1890) MONDAY, JUNE 22, 1936. NEW ZEALAND'S CENTENARY.

The Government has obvi uuely recognised that the celebration of the Dominion's Centenary calls for special effort on the part of the whole comm unity, and it is wise to formulate plans while there are still four years in which to amend the original suggestions and to incorporate novel ideas. The erection of permanent memorials must be one of the major considerations, and in the national memorial dignity should be combined with utility. The country needs a modern, wellequipped scientific research station, and the provision of such an institution might well be considered. The series of historical surveys of the first hundred years of New Zealand's national life will be invaluable in the future, and these volumes will become an additional memorial. Under the heading "suitable celebrations" is a suggestion that an exhibition be held in Wellington. Nowadays European and American countries are holding international exhibitions nearly every year, and it seems futile for New Zealand to vie with overseas countries in this direction. At best it would be mainly a huge advertising organisation, and it is very doubtful whether the knowledge that there was to be an exhibition in Wellington would induce many people to visit New Zealand. With the money available the Government could with much greater advantage organise a series of, national and provincial pageants depicting progress in the country during its first hundred years. Some such plan is already envisaged on a minor scale, for celebrations of events of national importance are included in the proposals announced by Mr. Parry. However, if the £75,000 earmarked for the Wellington Exhibition were spent on organising and advertising historical pagents, it should be possible to make New Zealand a tourist Mecca during the summer of 1940-41. The main national celebrations will necessarily be in the Auckland province and in the capital city, but the aim should be to organise a sequence of ceremonies throughout the Dominion. And if there are to be such celebrations, and if shoals of tourists are to be attracted, Taranaki, as well as the rest of New Zealand, cannot start too early to lay its ground-bait.

New Zealanci s "Centennial," The worst feature of the proposed centenary is that it is not to be a centenary but a repulsively Americanised "centennial." To avoid difficulties in the pronounciation of the word "centenary," such as occurred during the Melbourne celebrations, the suggestion of Mr. J. W. Heenan, Under-Secre-tary of the Department of Internal Affairs, was adopted by the recent conference held in Wellington to consider plans for the celebrations, and it was decided to abandon the world altogether in favour of "centennial." New Zealand, therefore, will have a centennial, not a centenary. It is perfectly true that the Oxford Dictionary authorises the use of centennial as a noun, but one has the feeling that the substantive use was admitted with difficulty and barely tolerated. It is also true that the United States had a "centennial," but it was rather the outcome of linguistic laziness than of deliberate intent. Of course it is legitimate to talk of hardy annuals and biennials, and on the same principle centennial would be permissible if New Zealand intended to "say it v/ith flowers." This happens, however, to be an historic as well as a sentimental occasion, and that word centennial should be "put on the spot" at once.