TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, 24th MAY, 1939. LOOKING BACKWARD.

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 58, Issue 4188, 24 May 1939, Page 6

TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, 24th MAY, 1939. LOOKING BACKWARD.

THE Centennial celebrations planned for observance during next year have, it can be remarked, not created a

very great deal of general public interest so far, but in certain quarters a great deal of preparation has been made, and as the actual date comes

nearer it can be accepted as assured that every individual in the Dominion will have some personal interest—either he or she plans to attend the Centennial Exhibition in Wellington,

or to participate more or less actively in local celebrations. For New Zealand to have reached the centen-

ary of its existence is a noteworthy occasion indeed, and though the Government has not sponsored anything so spectacular as the London-Mel-bourne air race that signalised the centennial celebrations on the other side of the Tasman, it is evident that special efforts will be made to enthuse the great mass of the people in New Zealand's own centenary. The charge has often been levelled at us by visitors from overseas countries that New Zealanders are lacking in a sense of appreciation of historic values. The charge cannot be altogether denied or even ignored; and the reason for this deficiency in historic appreciation could, till recently, be traced back to a school training that gave a preponderantly English bias to instruction in history. The child learned about Alfred the Great, Julius Caesar, the Wars of the Roses and of King Henry the Eighth; but the same child remained woefully ignorant of, say, the sacking of Koraroreka, the Waikato War and the Wakefield settlement scheme. The growth of a national consciousness, however, has brought in its train an altogether worthy longing to know more about the history of our own land, and it is a desire that should be encouraged and fostered in every possible way. To the great majority of the people of New Zealand, England is a land that they have never seen, and so her his-

tory must necessarily remain a matter of text books. But there is no need for that disability to rem aip with regard to New Zealand history. Those responsible for the production of the “New Zealand Centennial News”—it is issued by the Department of Internal Affairs —are serving a very useful purpose, in delving into little known tomes and pigeon holes to find items that once were of little import but which now are of very great interest. Of our own knowledge we know that provincial historical

committees have been searching, during the past several months, and the information gleaned from all sorts of sources has been checked and compiled for publication. The members of those committees are doing a remarkably fine service, and perhaps it is just as well that the centenary occurs so soon now, for without a healthy public interest being engendered and developed it is safe to say that much of the information bearing on the earlier history of this Dominion would have been lost for ever. One has only to think of his or her own school days, recall some book or picture that was treasured literally for a day, but which has been lost to sight for years. Very probably it has been destroyed, after being cast into the limbo of* forgotten things. Developments during the next few months should inculcate a healthy public interest in the aims and objectives of historical societies especially. The history of our own land is not something removed from our everyday life —it is a vital, living thing, demonstrating to us that our history is one continuous story with each one playing a part in that story.