TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 242, 11 October 1902, Page 3 (Supplement)

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

(Continued from page 1.)

"TREATING" THE SHAH

PYROTECHNICS AND PARROTS

If the Shah had been a schoolboy and the British nation a generous uncle it could not have given him a better holiday treat than was provided last week. It has taken him to Madame Tussaud's, the Empire, the Hippodrome, it has shown him the ships at Spithead, the guns at Maxim's and the artillery at Woolwich, and it has rounded off his week with fireworks a,t the Crystal Palace, and the lions of the Zoo.

Saturday's outing began with £ visit to Windsor late in the afternoon. After the Shah had laid or Queen Victoria's tomb in the Mausoleum at Frog-more a wreath of yellow roses, the Persian national flower, he was shown over Windsor Castle where he had tea. The train too3< him thence to the Crystal Palace. Here the first novelty was the "looping the loop" railway. After seeing one of his suite whirled round upside down and return in safety, the Shah seemed half inclined to venture himself, but caution prevailed and he passed on to dinner in the King's rooms, Peaches a la Melba were one of the attractions of the menu. At nine o'clock the Shah, Prince Arthur of Counaught, Lord Lansdowne, and their suite, came out on the Royal balcony above the terrace, and were greeted with cheers by the 75,000 people massed below. The programme of fireworks that followed was one of the most brilliant pyrotechnic displays ever projected on a black sky by Messrs Brock. There were salvoes of rockets, whistling and otherwise, huge shells, gas balloons, with festoons of jewels of changing hues, the rayon d'argent cloud, the swarm of dragon flies, the national cloud of red, white and blue, the silver corn sheaf, showers of lilac and laburnum sprays, fountains with dancing globes, showers of emeralds, rubies and pink pearls, gigantic trees festooned with garlands of multi-coloured blossoms, clouds transformed from old gold to burnished silver, and from a mossy bank to a bed of violets, a "silent weird white waterfall 200 feet in length." The pieces de resistance were a colossal fire portrait of the Shah fired by electricity by Prince

Arthur of Conuaug-ht and a grand Coronation device with portraits of the King and Queen fired by the Shah, the Arms of Persia, "tbe lion and the sun," "the Niagara of fire, a torrent of molten gold covering an area of many thousand square feet, falling from the height of 100 feet, with a roar resembling a cataract and rebounding in a brilliant fiery spray," and a motor car race (living fireworks carried out by asbestos-clad men), in the course of which one chaffeur hurriedly attempted repairs with up-to-date tools with terrible consecpiences After a "melee by multitudes" of shells, candles, fiery glow-worms and writhing cobras came a grand finale of fire with some wonderful effects in aluminium. The two water towers in the ground were transformed into temples of falling fire, cascades of aluminium globules forming sheets of the brightest and whitest liirht known to modern science. Some hundreds of fountain jets of aluminium were disposed about the grounds, resulting in a dazzling spectacle, succeeded by pitchy darkness and a drenching downpour.

On Sunday morning the Shah went to the Zoo. The lions, tigers and monkeys had no particular interest for him, but he closely inspected the seals, the diving birds, the great anteater and the kangaroo. He was anxious that a performance should be given by the latter of the operation of taking the young out of and placing it in the pouch, and was disappointed when the superintendent informed him that the animal would not do this even "by Royal command." The hippos he declared ought to be all shot and exterminated. He wanted to know if the giraffes were good to eat. They might be, said the superintendent, but they would be expensive as a pair cost £1600. The reptiles had a fascination for him, as he watched them swallowing eggs and live rats. He wanted to prod them with his stick, and only desisted when he was told he would certainly lose his stick. But what specially took his fancy was the parrot house. He promptly expressed a desire to purchase" half the brilliantly plumaged birds to take back to Persia, and when he was told that they were not for sale, commissioned the superintendent to form a new collection for the Persian court.

Early on Monday morning the Shah took his departure for France, having proved himself a very punctual and considerate guest. __c has made a number of purchases while here, including mauser pistols, cameras, kegs of gunpowder, which had to be hurriedly removed from Marlborough House, an Edisonograph, showing his inspection of the Woolwich batteries, and ten motors. He has proved a grateful guest, and seems likely to carry away plea?ant recollections of his week in London.