Title: Official Guide to the Government Court: N.Z. Centennial Exhibition

Author: Centennial Branch

Publication details: Centennial Branch, Department of Internal Affairs, 1940, Wellington

Part of: The New Zealand Centennial Publications

Conditions of use

Share:

Internal Affairs Department

The Department of Internal Affairs has not arranged a separate exhibit at the Exhibition in connection with any of its activities, but it has combined with other Departments, as hereunder noted, in order to demonstrate those phases of .its work which are closely related to the work of such Departments:—

(1)	Town Planning: Town planning is closely related to housing. As the Housing Construction Department has arranged an exhibit in connection with its activities, arrangements have been made to exhibit certain features of town planning in conjunction with the Housing Construction Department's exhibit. In the Dominion Court the Department is exhibiting a scale model of the proposed Government Centre, Wellington. This model is approximately 20ft. x 18ft. in size.
(2)	Acclimatisation: As the interests of the Department are so closely related to those of the Lands and Survey Department in connection with the preservation of flora and fauna, arrangements have been made to combine with that Department in an exhibit depicting indigenous bird life, including some birds which unfortunately are either extinct or practically so. The exhibit is located in the Land Development Section.
(3)	Fishing: A model fish hatchery is being displayed by the Marine Department, and the Department of Internal Affairs is co-operating in the production of this model.
(4)	Physical Welfare and Recreation Movement: The work of the Department in this field is a separate exhibit located in the General Exhibits Court.

Murals: There is also an exhibit of a set of four mural paintings which were executed by F. Coventry, the New Zealand artist who has achieved success in London in commercial art work. The first, "The European in New Zealand Before 1840", depicts the early visitors to the country—explorers, traders, whalers and sealers, and missionaries, and their associations with the Maori. The second panel, "The Beginning of Organised Settlement", shows the arrival of the emigrants and the virgin character of the country in which they were to settle. This is followed by the third, "Clearing and Developing the Land", showing the growth of agricultural and pastoral farming, the clearing of bush and the opening up of settlement. The last, "The Close of New Zealand's First Century", portrays the achievements of 100 years of settlement. These murals are of a permanent nature, and it is the intention of the Government to place them in some public building at the close of the Exhibition.

page 15

New Zealand Birds.

The Department of Internal Affairs is indebted to Messrs. G. A. Buddie, C. A. Fleming, P. J. O'Brien, L. E. Richdale, B. Sladden, H. Guthrie-Smith, Edgar F. Stead and A. S. Wilkinson, the Auckland Institute and Museum, and the Canterbury and Dominion Museums for kindly supplying negatives which are used in connection with its exhibit.