HISTORICAL REVIEW OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



101 



The year 1888 is a red-letter year in the history of the colony as being the one 

 hundredth anniversary of its birthday, and the Centenary of New South Wales and, in 

 fact, Australia as a whole was celebrated by general public festivities. On the 24th of 

 January a statue of the Queen was unveiled in Chancery Square, Sydney ; and on the 

 25th the Centennial Intercolonial Agricultural Exhibition was opened in Moore Park. On 

 this day also a complimentary picnic was given by the Roman Catholic laity to the 

 archbishops, bishops, and other 

 ecclesiastical dignitaries of that 

 church on a visit to the city of 

 Sydney, in connection with the 

 Centenary celebrations. But the 

 great event in the programme was 

 the opening and dedication of the 

 Centennial Park on the 2/th of 

 January, 1888, just one hundred 

 years from the date of the founda- 

 tion by Captain Arthur Phillip of 

 the little settlement of soldiers 

 and convicts on the shores of 

 Sydney Cove. The reserve out 

 of which the Park has been formed 

 was previously known as the 

 Lachlan Swamps, and was for 

 many years the place whence the 

 principal water-supply of the city 

 of Sydney was drawn The area 

 of the Centennial Park is equal 

 to about one thousand acres ; in 

 the centre are four or five lagoons, 

 and the view from the higher 

 portions of the land is both ex- 

 tensive and beautiful. The occasion 



was marked by a procession from Government House, headed by the Governors of all the 

 Colonies. A naval and military parade also formed part of the programme, and between 

 thirty and forty thousand spectators were present at the ceremony. On the same day a 

 State Banquet was held in the Exhibition Building ; the city was given over to holidays 

 and rejoicings for the time being ; the streets were gaily decorated and at night they 

 presented avenues of illuminary designs. General public holidays were proclaimed 

 throughout the colony ; a national regatta, a trades and labour demonstration, a working- 

 lads' picnic, and Harbour fireworks and pyrotechnic displays by night from the ships of 

 war were also included in the festivities. The foundation-stone of the new Houses of 

 Parliament was laid in the Domain on the 3ist of January, and all denominations held 

 religious services during the week in commemoration of the one hundredth birthday of the 

 land sighted by Captain Cook in the year 1/70. The celebration of the Centenary of the 



LORD CARRINGTON. 



