1939 NZ Centennial Exhibition opens

More than 2.6 million people visited the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition, which ran from 8 November 1939 to 4 May 1940 at Rongotai, Wellington.

New Zealand’s commemoration of the 1940 centennial of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi was a major event. The centrepiece was the Centennial Exhibition or fair at Rongotai in Wellington. There was also a large ceremony at Petone on Wellington’s Anniversary Day and another at Waitangi on 6 February. Communities throughout the country held pageants, with hundreds dressing up in colonial costume and parading through the streets. Christchurch’s procession on 6 April was 3 km long.

The exhibition covered 55 acres (22 ha) of land beside Wellington’s airport. After the exhibition closed the buildings were used as extra accommodation by the Air Force. Following the war they were used to store wool. The buildings burned down in September 1946. 

Image: Funland poster