Well-dressed guests enjoy a celebratory dinner at the Drill Hall in Timaru in 1909. The jubilee marked 50 years since the arrival of the first large group of British settlers in Timaru in January 1859. Timaru was one of many communities that recognised a 50th anniversary in the first decade of the 20th century and, as elsewhere, there was an emphasis on the progress made during the preceding half-century. In this case a large banner on the back wall compares the statistics in 1859 and 1909 for shipping tonnage in and out, the value and weight of exports and imports, the carcases of frozen mutton (which was nil in 1859), and the number of bales of wool.