exhibitions

Events In History

Articles

The 1940 Centennial

  • The 1940 Centennial

    The centennial celebrations of 1940 marked a century of European effort and progress. Māori history and the centenary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi took a back seat.

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  • Page 2 – The Centennial Exhibition

    The New Zealand Centennial Exhibition ran from 8 November 1939 to 4 May 1940. During this time 2,641,043 people went through the main gates with a daily average attendance of

  • Page 3 – Playland

    Over the 1939/40 summer 2,870,995 people - 200,000 more than the total number who visited the centennial exhibition - spent their pounds and shillings in Playland

  • Page 4 – The Centennial and progress

    The 1940 Centennial, planned for five years and publicly funded, was a deliberate act of national self-definition by the first Labour government.

  • Page 5 – The Treaty of Waitangi

    Despite all the talk of the 'birth of a nation', the place of the Treaty of Waitangi or Māori in the centennial celebrations was less obvious.

The 1920s

  • The 1920s

    The 1920s was the decade that modern New Zealand came of age. Despite political and economic uncertainty, the country shrugged off the gloom of war to embrace the Jazz Age - an era of speed, power and glamour. Explore an overview of the decade and a year-by-year breakdown of key events.

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  • Page 8 - 1925 - key eventsA selection of key New Zealand events from
  • Coal from the Seddonville State Mine was a centrepiece of the display by the Mines Department in the 1906-07 International Exhibition at Christchurch

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