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Story: Wellington region

Centennial Exhibition

Video file

Sprawling across a large site at Rongotai, the Centennial Exhibition ran for six months in 1939–40. It celebrated New Zealand’s progress since its founding in 1840. The exhibition’s designer, architect Edmund Anscombe, filmed visitors to the site. This clip (from one of New Zealand’s first colour movies) shows the central concourse, William Trethewey’s statue of Kupe, a plane landing at Rongotai airport, a miniature railway, and the roller coaster.

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Private collection

by Edmund Anscombe

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How to cite this page

Chris Maclean, Wellington region – Boom and bust: 1900–1940, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/13257/centennial-exhibition (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Chris Maclean, published 3 March 2009, updated 1 August 2015.

Comments

Diane Cooper
15 January 2020
I have a tatting cloth and a certificate given to my mother depicting the buildings.