SYDNEY PAGEANT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 90, 26 January 1938, Page 5

SYDNEY PAGEANT

THREE-MILE PROCESSION.

STORY OF YOUNG NATION.

DOMINION REPRESENTATION. (United Press Association—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 2.15 p.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. The spectacular, aspect of the 150th anniversary celebrations commenced this morning with a pageant depicting the landing of .Governor Philip at Farm Cove.

The highlight of the day was a great procession through the streets, which commenced at 10 a.m. A hundred beautifully decorated floats took part, showing every aspect of the young nation’s life.

New Zealand was represented by a most attractive float, the centre piece of which was an outline of a snowcovered mountain. In front was a Maori whare, with three figures in native costume. One side depicted swordfishing and agriculture, and the other side timber and agriculture. At the back was the Dominion’s coat-of-arms and the stern piece of a Maori war canoe.

The procession was about three miles long and it was estimated that 500,000 people were in the streets. They commenced to gather at 2 o’clock in the morning and by mid-morning it was impossible to move in the streets. Special stands were provided for the official visitors, but the demand for seats in windows overlooking the route was so great that as much as ten guineas was paid for a seat.

The weather was beautifully fine. An indication of the value of the floats in the procession is tho fact that tho celebrations committee insured them against fire and rain for £*56,000. The railways and tramways wei’e unable to cope with the rush of people into the city. The trains on the various suburban lines were crammed to the doors before half their journeys into the city had been completed, and thousands of people were jamming stations nearer to the city, unable to get aboard. Preceding the main procession was a smaller one comprising Empire Games athletes, riding in cars and lorries.

The spectators cheered wildly as both processions passed.

NAVAL AND AERIAL VISITORS.

THE SYDNEY CELEBRATIONS. (United Press Association—Copyright.) SYDNEY, January 25. Aflame with colour and seething with life,*, Sydney, ready for her epochal birthday, awoke to-day to the crash of naval guns as salutes were exchanged when eight visiting warships steamed into the harbour. Crowds watched the stately ships move to their moorings from the headlands and every other vantage point. The first of the grey, advancing squadrons was the New Zealand cruiser Achilles, which glided unostentatiously to her berth at Woolloomooloo.

Then came the French sloop Regard de Genouilly, the Italian cruiser Montecuccoli, the Dutch sloop Flores, and finally, after a short interval, the American squadron of cruisers, Trenton, Memphis, Louisville, and Milwaukee.

Within an hour of berthing, the commanders went ashore to pay the customary official calls, and the officers and sailors were mingling with the crowds in the streets.

An equally stirring spectacle was the arrival of the five Royal Air Force flying-boats, with an escort of Australian Air Force find naval aeroplanes. As they swept over the city, flying in V formation, traffic came to a standstill and the crowds gazed skywards at one of the largest flotillas of aircraft seen at one time over the harbour.

The visiting flying-boats soon landed by the Air Force machines, supplemented by 10 seaplanes catapulted from the American cruisers, continued to soar over the city and suburbs in perfect formation, providing a memorable and impressive sight which was a fitting curtain-raiser to to-morrow’s pageant.