The New Zealand Centennial Exhibition took place over six months from Wednesday 8 November 1939 until 4 May 1940. It celebrated one hundred years since the signing of the

Treaty of Waitangi The Treaty of Waitangi ( mi, Te Tiriti o Waitangi) is a document of central importance to the History of New Zealand, history, to the political constitution of the state, and to the national mythos of New Zealand. It has played a major role in ...

in 1840 and the subsequent mass

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an settlement of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

. 2,641,043 (2.6 million) visitors attended the exhibition. The

New Zealand Government , background_color = #012169 , image = New Zealand Government wordmark.svg , image_size=250px , date_established = , country = New Zealand , leader_title = Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern , appointed = Governor-General , main_organ = ...

staged the exhibition with assistance from local government, New Zealand industry and the New Zealand public. The exhibition received support from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

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and other Pacific islands who either constructed their own pavilions on site or had displays in one of the exhibition buildings.

Opening

The exhibition was opened on 8 September 1939 by the

Governor-General Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...

, The Viscount Galway and the

Mayor of Wellington The Mayor of Wellington is the head of the municipal government of the City of Wellington. The mayor presides over the Wellington City Council. The mayor is directly elected using the Single Transferable Vote method of proportional representat ...

, Thomas Hislop.

Location

Aerial view of Rongotai, Wellington, 1939

The exhibition took for its site a location at

Rongotai Rongotai is a suburb of Wellington, New Zealand, located southeast of the city centre. It is on the Rongotai isthmus, between the Miramar Peninsula and the suburbs of Kilbirnie and Lyall Bay. It is known mostly for being the location of the W ...

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by ...

Edmund Anscombe Edmund Anscombe (8 February 1874 – 9 October 1948) was one of the most important figures to shape the architectural and urban fabric of New Zealand. He was important, not only because of the prolific nature of his practice and the quality of ...

designing the buildings and grounds in the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

style. Construction began on 27 April 1939 by the firm Fletcher and Love Construction Companies and over 1,000 staff were employed in the process of building the exhibition. The exhibition grounds were just over in size, with the main buildings accounting for around of this. Feature structures included: * the Centennial Tower, the main focus of attention, standing tall and weighing 700 tons. This icon featured on many of the souvenirs celebrating the exhibition. * a statue of a

Neriad In Greek mythology, the Nereids or Nereides ( ; grc, Νηρηΐδες, Nērēḯdes; , also Νημερτές) are sea nymphs (female spirits of sea waters), the 50 daughters of the 'Old Man of the Sea' Nereus and the Oceanid Doris, sisters ...

(a sea-woman on a seahorse) standing in the central fountain. * the New Zealand Railways Department stand featuring a working model-railway constructed to scale and maintained by

Frank Roberts (model maker) Frank Roberts (1882–26 June 1963) was a New Zealand pioneer in building model railways. His models were extremely accurate and reflected the history of the New Zealand railways. Early career Roberts spent his early career working for New Zealand ...

. 2,641,043 (2.6 million) visitors attended the exhibition. The last time an event of such a scale had been held was the

New Zealand and South Seas International Exhibition The New Zealand and South Seas International Exhibition was a world's fair held in Dunedin, New Zealand from 17 November 1925 until 1 May 1926, which celebrated that country and the South Seas. It was the third such exhibition held in Dunedin, w ...

in 1925–26, when 3.2 million visitors were counted at the exhibition in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

. Anscombe had also been the architect for the Dunedin exhibition.

Photography

Rollercoaster, New Zealand Centennial Exhibition, Wellington

In February 1938 tenders were invited by the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition Company Ltd for official photographer for the Exhibition. The submission of

Eileen Olive Deste Eileen Olive Deste (16 June 1909 – 2 March 1986) was a New Zealand photographer. Deste was heavily involved in photographing the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition. Biography Eileen Olive Leach was born in Croydon, Surrey, England, on 16 ...

(1908–1986) included a testimonial from

John A. Lee John Alfred Alexander Lee (31 October 1891 – 13 June 1982) was a New Zealand politician and writer. He is one of the more prominent avowed socialists in New Zealand's political history. Lee was elected as a member of parliament in 1922 ...

, under-secretary for housing in the Labour government, for a housing-exhibition project in the Kirkcaldie and Stains gallery in 1937. Deste won the exclusive right to photograph exhibits or any other object in the exhibition buildings or grounds, with a percentage of the gross takings from the sale of the photographs going to the Exhibition Company. The photography rights covered all aspects of the exhibition, from construction to closing. Deste flew above the site in a small plane to take aerial shots, a terrifying but exciting experience, as she later remembered. Deste also entered into an agreement with Coulls Somerville Wilkie Limited to supply photographs for publications and general souvenir material, and her photographs illustrate their ''Pictorial souvenir of the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition, 1939–1940''. Deste's stall in the General Exhibits Building sold photographs and postcards in black and white and colour. Much of the photography at the exhibition came from the camera of an employee, Neville d’Eresby (Des) Aickin, while Deste did the processing and printing at her studio.

New Zealand Potters

In 1939-1940 potters Olive Jones and

Elizabeth Matheson Elizabeth Matheson (born 1942) is a prominent photographer in North Carolina. Early life and education Elizabeth Matheson was born in Hillsborough, North Carolina. She earned a bachelor's degree from Sweet Briar College in 1964 before attendin ...

demonstrated and sold work at the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition for six months.

Post-exhibition war-time use

Plans envisaged using the building only for six months and then dismantling it. But with New Zealand's ongoing participation in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

(1939–1945), the

New Zealand Air Force The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) ( mi, Te Tauaarangi o Aotearoa, "The Warriors of the Sky of New Zealand"; previously ', "War Party of the Blue") is the aerial service branch of the New Zealand Defence Force. It was formed from New Zeala ...

used the site and some buildings until the end of the war. In 1946 what remained was burnt to the ground.

References

External links

Article on nzhistory

Certificate of Attendance

700 ton tower

Images and Videos of the Centennial Exhibition from DigitalNZ
{{Authority control History of New Zealand Wellington City

Centennial Exhibition The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...

World's fairs in New Zealand Edmund Anscombe buildings Regional centennial anniversaries 1940s in Wellington 1930s in Wellington 1939 festivals 1940 festivals Events in Wellington