Auckland may be left to celebrate its day alone

Bob Clarkson

South of the Bombays, the provinces are in revolt.

And the revolt is being led by Tauranga businessman Jim Smylie, who says he's had enough of celebrating a birthday with a whole lotta Jafas.

"Why the devil has Tauranga for 160 years celebrated the founding of Auckland?" he asked.

"We're our own city with our own heritage and history, we don't have an affinity with Auckland, so why should we celebrate their anniversary?"

It was "archaic" that many provinces continued to be the forgotten crowd at other's birthday parties, Mr Smylie said.

His business, Western Bay Finance, was stumping up with $20,000 for consultants to prepare a report on the idea of creating the Bay of Plenty's own anniversary.

"In January [on Auckland's birthday] I was sitting in my yacht having a cold beer with my wife and thinking, 'I pay 100 of my staff to have the day off and they're all celebrating Auckland's day'.

"I'm passionate about Tauranga and I thought we should be celebrating our own day."

He suggested tacking the holiday on to Queen's Birthday weekend so that big events could be arranged over a four-day weekend.

The consultant's report would look at the social and economic impact created by a change to the annual statutory holiday. It would also test public response to the concept.

Mr Smylie said Tauranga mayor Stuart Crosby and local MP Bob Clarkson were both enthusiastic about the proposed split.

If the report showed the change was favoured it would be presented to local authorities and the district's MPs, and it was hoped legislation could be enacted to endorse the idea.

In February, Wanganui mayor Michael Laws floated the idea of Wanganui splitting from Wellington's Anniversary Day celebrations. He said the anniversary days in New Zealand were a historical quirk.

The Holidays Act 1981 specifies each locality observing a provincial anniversary day to celebrate the founding days or landing days of the first colonists.

Gisborne district mayor Meng Foon said it was a good idea for provinces to stamp their own provincial mark on the anniversary.

A Waikato mayor said he was happy to share celebrations with Auckland.

Waikato district mayor Peter Harris said he had "far more interesting things to worry about" than thinking about when to have a holiday.

Street upgrades in Huntly, Ngaruawahia, and Raglan were cases in point, he said.


Our Anniversaries

* Northland - January 29
* Auckland - January 29
* Taranaki - March 31
* Hawkes Bay - November 1
* Wellington - January 22
* Marlborough - November 1
* Nelson - February 1
* Westland - December 1
* Canterbury - December 16
* South Canterbury - September 25
* Otago - March 23
* Southland - January 17
* Chatham Islands - November 30
(Source: Wikipedia)