The First Empire Day
Ironically, our first Empire Day was a day late. In 1903, 24 May fell on a Sunday. In Auckland the King's Empire Veterans held separate Protestant and Catholic church parades that day, but the main events took place on Monday, which was a public holiday. Empire Day observances varied elsewhere around the country. Christchurch also made a day of it by unveiling a large statue of Queen Victoria in Market (now Victoria) Square. The parades, building openings, flag salutes and earnest speeches of 1903 set the pattern for later Empire Days.
Lord Bledisloe and Empire Day
Empire Day was a special cause of Charles Bathurst, Lord Bledisloe, the Governor-General in the early 1930’s. A president of the Empire Canners' Association, he championed imperial trade and empire preference. Bledisloe's concept of 'Nation in Empire' tried to reconcile strengthening our understanding of New Zealand culture and history with membership of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Buy New Zealand goods, he told housewives during the Depression, but if that was not possible, buy British. An Empire that traded together stayed together.
When Bledisloe returned to Britain he became president of the Empire Day Movement. For many years New Zealand newspapers printed his Empire Day messages.
Empires Days End
After the Second World War, Empire Day enjoyed a brief resurgence with the Governor-General presiding over an Empire Day dinner and ball at the Hotel Cargen in Auckland, organised by the Royal Empire Society, the Victoria League and the Committee of the Patriotic Societies of Auckland. But India's independence in the late 1940’s underlined that the Empire was approaching the end of the road. Prime Minister Sid Holland may have been a 'Britisher through and through',who talked about the 'dear old Empire', but his predecessor Peter Fraser had told civil servants to stop using even the word 'Dominion'. Older New Zealanders still talked of Empire out of habit, but for younger Kiwis this was now just a name on old theatres and halls.
Empire Day segued into Commonwealth Day in 1958, when people gathered around Queen Victoria's statue in Albert Park to hear Governor-General Lord Cobham say that 'the British Empire had now given way to the noble concept of a Commonwealth of free peoples'.
Finding The Cache
You will not find the cache at the Given location but you would find yourself at Victoria University. The University was named after Queen Victoria in 1897 to mark the 60th anniversary of her coronation. To locate the cache find some information and solve the following simple questions
Look for the cache at S41 1A.BCD E174 4E.FGH where
- A = King Edward ? (1901 - 10)
- B = Last digit of the year Queen Victoria Died
- C = Lord Ranfurly was Governor of New Zealand - 18?7 to 1904
- D = New Zealand School Journal, Part III, 19?2
- E = Last digit of the year Lord Bledisloe returned to Britain
- F = In 190? Auckland public schools celebrated by saluting the flag
- G = Christchurch unveiled its Queen Victoria Statue on Empire Day 1?03
- H = In 1958 10? people gathered around Queen Victoria’s Statue
Before you rush out the door to look for the cache you can check your answer here
The cache is a round container slightly bigger than a film canister, please replace it how and where you found it.
Please bring your own pen.
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For more information about geocaching in New Zealand,
visit the New Zealand Recreational GPS Society forums or website. |