The New Zealand Centennial, 1940

Introduction

In 1940 New Zealand celebrated its national coming of age. Maori history and the centenary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi took a back seat, however, to the celebration of a century of European effort and progress in New Zealand. Local and provincial events plugged into a full diary of national events - unveiling memorials, staging historical re-enactments, and music and drama festivals. Coupled with this, an array of specially commissioned publications recorded the stories of progress, and re-writing the country's past.

The jewel in the centennial crown, the vast 55-acre Centennial Exhibition in Wellington, came to symbolise this spirit of progress in its very buildings, the embodiment of the wonders of material progress and the ingenuity of the 'national spirit'.