CENTENNIAL ROLE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 300, 20 December 1939, Page 9

CENTENNIAL ROLE

WANGANUI PEOPLE WHO HAVE SIGNED HISTORICAL DOCUMENT OF COMMEMORATION Visitors to the Centennial Exhibition have shown keen interest in the Centennial Roll of Commemoration, where everybody who obtains admission is able to register his or her attendance on a record that will be preserved for all time. First to sign was the Governor-General, Lord Galway, who did so on opening day. Wanganui people who have signed the roll so far, are: —J. Cant, Marjorie Lett, Lucy Hooker, J. Mary Smith, Mrs. C. Morrison, Mrs. M. McLeod, Joyce McLachlan, Annie S. Munro, Donald Munro, Ellen Kendrick, Elwyn Low, H. E. Windle, J. D. Rivers, E. M. Rivers, G. Murch, Mrs. H. Flynn, G. M. Ching, D. A. Henderson, M. T. Mitchell, L. C. coung, Lorna Evetts, K. F. Walker, F. J. Sexton, Margaret Cripps, N. T. Tyler, T. C. Laidlaw, J. A. Readman, S. G. Cheesman, W. J. Stewart, Alice E. Russell, E. James, H. M. Trickett, Mrs. Amy Tyerman, H. R. Mete King), R. L. and P. Mete Kingi, Jessie M. Glenny, Ethel Parsons, F. G. Brown (Castlecliff), Eva E. Tipper, J. McFarlane, W. Moore. At the time when the Exhibition was mooted and the general manager, Mr. C. P. Hainsworth, first mentioned the idea of a visitors' book, it was suggested that on the hundredth birthday of the nation something more than the ordinary visitors' book was warranted. As a result, the National Roll of Commemoration, and the issue to signatories of a Centennial Certificate of Attendance at small cost, was decided upon. Roll to Be Bound The outcome was that facilities were provided, at a special stand in the General Exhibits Court, for every member of the public attending the Exhibition to record his name in this unique volume, and to receive such a certificate. At the close of the Exhibition, the pages of signatures, numbering some hundreds of thousands, will be suitably bound and placed in the Dominion Museum with other documents of national interest, commemorative of the Centennial. The Centennial Certificate of Attendance, which is the personal and official memento of the fact that the holder has siged the roll and has participated in the nation’s birthday party, was painted by Mr. L. C. Mitchell, well known New Zealand artist. It is a work of art which every holder will be proud and delighted to possess, and which can well be framed and hung in one’s home, as a object of artistic merit as well as of memorable associations. Printed in realistic colours, its design immediately attracts attention. A beautiful woman, in classic robes, stands between a draped Union Jack and the New Zealand Ensign; she symbolises the youth and beauty oi this Dominion, which has now come oi age among the nations. In the background, above cloudtopped hills, rises the majestic Centennial Tower, dominant architectural feature of the Exhibition. On either side of the central figure are period scenes—-one set in the early days of settlement, the other depicting the great modern nation of to-day. Native flora and fauna and Maor traditional are and design form an attractive setting. Reproductions o Maori carving recall such famous exploits as Maui’s fishing, when h< hr.ultd up the northern islands frorr the depths of the sea, and the storj of Tama-te-Kapua, whose deeds ’ed t< the discovery of New Zealand by the Maoris. Centennial Certificate The Centennial Certificate bears the signatures of the Exhibition authorities, the seal of the Exhibition company, and the official centennial emblem. On his signing the Roll oi Commemoration, the name of the signatory also is inscribed on it. Thus it gains a personal significance, whicl associates every name upon the rol with the centennial celebrations. Bui a certificate so remarkable in concepi and so bound up with this great national event has a deeper meaning also. For the descendants of many who sign, it will be a source of pride hereafter that their family is in thi.= way imperishably associated with the centennial. The stall where the National Roll of Commemoration is housed, situated almost in the centre of the general exhibits building, takes the form of a Maori carved house, embellished with the ancient designs most typical of New Zealand legend and history. Outside it, against a background of New Zealand scenery, stands a moa, that giant extinct bird peculiar to New Zealand, and perhaps more than anything else symbolic of much that the .centennial means.