NATIONAL LIFE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20731, 19 May 1937, Page 8

NATIONAL LIFE

HISTORICAL SURVEY BIG TASK AHEAD OF COMMITTEE By Telegraph—Press Association WELLINGTON, May 18. The Government has decided to appoint the following to the National Historical Committee of the New Zealand Centennial, 1940:—Chairman, Mr J. Thorn, M.P.; vice-chairman, Mr J. T. Paul (Dunedin); members, the Right Rev. Herbert Williams, Bishop of Waiapu; Mr J. A. Lee, M.P., Parliamentary Under-Secretary; Professor James Rutherford, Auckland University College; Mr W. T. G. Airey, Auckland University College; the Rev. A. B. Chappell, Auckland; Professor F. L. W. Wood, Victoria University College; Dr. J. C. Beaglehole, Victoria University College; Dr. G. H. Scholefield, Wellington; Mr T. Lindsay Buick, Wellington; Professor James Hight, Canterbury University College; Mr Leicester Webb, Christchurch; Professor J. R. Elder, Otago University; Mr H. H. Cornish, Solicitor-General; Mr A. D. Mclntosh, Prime Minister's Department; Mr J. W. Heenan, Undersecretary for Internal Affairs.

In making the announcement to-day the Minister of Internal Affairs said the National Historical Committee would be one of the most important of all the committees set up for the Centennial celebrations. It was a direct result of the Government’s decision to issue in connection with the Centennial a series of historical surveys for the first 100 years of New Zealand’s national life. "This will be a big task,” Mr Parry stated, "and the time left for its accomplishment is none too long. The National Committee itself will have the general direction and supervision of this work which naturally will, in detail, require to be carried out by a number of subcommittees. It is proposed a little later to appoint a number of associate members of the National Committee. These associate members will be called to meetings of the National Committee when subjects on which they are experts are under consideration. Probably the first work the committee will have to undertake will be the fixation of the historical dates of 1840 for the purpose of deciding what should actually be celebrated in our Centennial year.”

The Minister added that the Government was looking forward to the issue of a series of historical surveys that would no doubt be widely read, a series which would give the people in 1940 a clear view not only of the beginnings of the country’s national life, but also of what had been accomplished in the first 100 years. The first meeting of the National Historical Committee will be held at Wellington on June 10.