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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 14, Issue 1 (April 1, 1939)

New Zealand's Centennial Exhibition and Celebrations

New Zealand's Centennial Exhibition and Celebrations

The people of Wellington and visitors to the Capital City are daily becoming more interested and impressed by the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition buildings and grounds as these take shape in the hands of architects, builders and landscape artists.

With the opening day still about six months away, it can be confidently anticipated that the tractive power of the Exhibition, as the hub of the Dominion's Centennial Celebrations, will greatly excel that of anything of the kind staged in this country previously and will compare favourably with the best to be seen or experienced in other lands.

Not only will there be notable representation of the various provincial districts, but the Dominion as a whole will be placed picturesquely and dramatically before the eyes of visitors; whilst other countries, with Great Britain in the lead, will contribute their part to the display of economic and cultural developments which have marked the past hundred years of progress.

But beyond the mere display element associated with the pageantry appropriate for occasions of the kind. “celebrations” call for something more. They require a joyous outpouring from the wells of happiness that reside somewhere in every soul and that can be drawn on by any appropriate occasion.

New Zealanders, although blessed with a climate and other natural endowments that help towards the fulness of life, are not as a rule demonstrative; they take their pleasures and their privileges more as a matter of course than most peoples. They won't be bustled, can't be scared, and are not easily stirred. But there is a ferment working among them now that promises the proper celebrating spirit as the hundred-year mark is approached, and as the facts regarding the vast achievements in national development and progress recorded by this country are spread and become more consciously acknowledged.

Our pioneers, our legislators, our leaders in every line of life—law, transport, primary production, manufacture, sport, education—throughout this hundred years, deserve our gratitude.

The idea of jubilee celebrations is deep rooted in the history of mankind, and the greater the occasion for gratitude the greater should the celebration be. On this ground alone New Zealanders may be expected to celebrate in a spirit worthy of the forebears whose work and enterprise, energy and courage, it is their exceeding good fortune to inherit.