‘A Momentous Year:’
Thames’ Golden Jubilee, Part 2
The story so far: in 1917, plans to celebrate the
fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Thames gold fields had taken off
with a hiss and a roar. Despite facing the ‘flood of the century’ and the everyday
struggles of living in a nation at war, Thames’ jubilee had the potential to be
the biggest event of its kind in New Zealand’s short colonial history; public
holidays, carnivals, regattas, and international tug-of-war competitions were
all on the cards. But mere weeks before August 1st, the official kick-off
date, something wasn’t quite right on Thames’ streets. The biggest event being
planned seemed to be the Thames Old Boys’ Association’s reunion up in Auckland;
nervous Thames Star correspondents wondered if Thames itself would manage to do
anything at all to celebrate its own jubilee.
With the originally-planned carnivals and races
safely postponed to sunny (and, so it was hoped, post-war) February 1918, the
Jubilee Committee’s main aim was to get something suitably grand in place to
mark August 1st. The big day, they decided, would start with a
parade.
Lining up promptly outside the Shortland Hotel (the
site of Fresho fruit and vegetable shop today) the town’s residents, and the
hundreds who had travelled to Thames for the occasion, proceeded down Pollen St
to the King’s Theatre (the modern Embassy Cinema). A civic reception hosted by
Thames’ mayor inside the theatre marked the formal launch of the jubilee, and
was followed by a luncheon for special guests and early settlers. The luncheon
was held across the road in St. James’ Hall, a room draped in white and yellow
and decorated with travelling cages to represent the aerial tramways which had
once transported ore to the batteries. Giant fake gold nuggets adorned the
stage.
Meanwhile, at the Queen’s Theatre in central Pollen
St, students from Thames High, North, Central, South and the Convent Schools
were entertained with a ‘specially selected series of pictures’ to mark the
occasion. The day was rounded off with a concert back at the King’s Theatre,
featuring both local talent and old favourites from Thames’ pioneering past.
The jubilee was a time not just for celebration,
but for reflection on both the past and the future of Thames. ‘Now though the
glories of the [gold] field are suffering a temporary eclipse,’ reported the
Thames Star, ‘there is a substantial town firmly established, containing over
5000 inhabitants, and blessed with all the advantages of civilisation… The
spirit of enterprise manifested by the early settlers still influences those
who have followed them.’ The Star was confident the town had what it would take
to blossom over the coming decades. ‘[We] will in the next half century convert
this town into a large and enterprising city, with industries giving employment
to thousands.’
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