KEY POINTS:
What is it about Robbie Burns that will draw thousands of people to the celebratory picnic in the Auckland Domain this coming Saturday?
Well, Scots all over the world will be celebrating the 250th anniversary (actually January 25) of the birth of the Scottish poet. And rightly so.
Burns is Scotland personified. Wherever Scots are found, there are memorials to Burns - more than 400 worldwide.
He was much more than a gifted poet and songwriter. He was a man ahead of his time.
He was first and foremost a man of the people. In his writings, Burns railed against class discrimination and proclaimed the dignity of the working man. He wrote in the Scottish dialect, for which he was panned by the critics of the day.
Burns was born into a peasant family in Alloway, Ayrshire, Scotland. Since his death in 1796 at the age of 37, his poems and songs have been immortalised. All over the world at New Year, a version of Auld Lang Syne is sung - written by Robert Burns.
It is fitting that the 250th birthday celebration will take place at the Auckland Domain, the site of Auckland's Burns memorial, which has its own special history.
The Scottish migrations of the early 19th century made an enormous contribution to the New Zealand economy and brought a vibrant culture of music, song and dance, with Robert Burns at its heart.
There are four memorials to Burns in New Zealand - in Dunedin, Hokitika, Timaru and Auckland.
Dunedin was the first city to commemorate Burns, the memorial paid for by public subscription with an unveiling ceremony on March 28, 1887, before 8000 people.
Timaru's botanic gardens is the site of the second memorial, gifted to the people by James Craigie, the district's MP and former mayor and unveiled on May 22, 1913. A third memorial to Robert Burns is in Cass Square, Hokitika, and was unveiled June 4, 1923.
The man who funded Auckland's memorial to Robert Burns was an influential Scot and successful Auckland businessman, James Milne Mennie.
Mennie was born in Methlie, Aberdeenshire, and worked as a baker in Scotland. In 1868, he emigrated to Australia and a year later came to New Zealand.
Initially Mennie set up a business in Thames baking bread and biscuits for the gold miners, but a fire at his bakery forced him to move to Auckland. He established a jam and confectionery factory in Albert St, employing up to 100 people. Mennie took a keen interest in civic affairs and served on various city council committees, the harbour board, the hospital board and so on.
Mennie was proud of his Scottish roots and was well known throughout the country for his participation in Scottish gatherings and celebrations. He was also president of the St Andrews Society.
When he retired in 1919 after 50 years in business, Mennie decided to gift a statue of Robert Burns to the people of Auckland.
He chose London sculptor Frederick William Pomeroy RA to execute the bronze for Auckland. Pomeroy had already installed a similar statue of Burns in Paisley, Scotland, and in Sydney.
It cost Mennie around 6000 ($12,000), a substantial sum for the times.
The Auckland statue broke with tradition. Instead of Burns in writer's garb holding a pen, Pomeroy created an image of Burns as the ploughman poet. Burns is shown in a tailcoat, knee breeches and a big Kilmarnock bonnet, leaning lazily against a plough and wistfully holding a pencil and notebook.
Such was Mennie's standing in Auckland that the Prime Minister, William Massey, unveiled the statue, on November 25, 1921.
As the crowds gather to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns and the Domain echoes to the skirl of the pipes and the birling lads and lassies doing the Highland fling, spare a moment to visit the bronze ploughman poet, the "peasant bard of Scotland", on his pedestal in front of the Auckland War Memorial Museum. The picnic, which is free, starts at 10.30am.
Dr Cathy Casey, an Auckland City councillor, is a Scot who has lived in New Zealand for 22 years.
