DELHI.

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

DELHI.

THE DURBAR.

The "Times" publishes this week the plan of the Imperial dais and amphitheatre that is being erected in the middle of the Bawari Plain for the great Delhi Coronation durbar on 13th January, 1903. The amphitheatre is in the form of a circular horse shoe, with a diameter of 57G feet and an opening of 200 feet. A slope of 1 in 3 on the exterior leads to a plateau twelve feet high and twenty feet broad. From this plateau there falls to the inner ring of turf an amphitheatre of twenty steps covered by an awning. On the plateau there will be standing room for from 3000 to 4000 people, and the amphitheatre will have sitting accommodation for nearly 8000. The Imperial dais will be at the upper end of the horse shoe, and will be reached by a circular carriage road. In front and behind the amphitheatre will be drawn up the troops, to give brilliant splendour to this gorgeous spectacle, which will put in the shade all our Coronation ceremonies here.

The camps will be placed on the parade ground of the cantonment, about two miles from the amphitheatre. The vice-regal camp will be in the centre, flanked on the south by the camips of the Governor of Bombay, and of the Commander-in-Chief of India, and the generals of the four commands, and on the north by those of the Governor of Madras _nd the Lieutenant-Governor, Chief Commissioners and Agents to the Governor-General throughout India. At the back of the central camp is being constructed a permanent residence for the Viceroy's occupation, which will hereafter be the Delhi guest house for distinguished officials and visitors. All the camps and the durbar plain will be connected by light railway and illuminated by the electric light. The road from the Viceroy's camp to the amphitheatre will pass through the principal bodies of troops encamped at Delhi. The cavalry camp will be further up the Grand Trunk-road, and on the nearer side of it will be the camp of the ruling chiefs of the Punjab. The camps of the other ruling chiefs of India will be situated at various points on the western roajd from the Lahore G*te

to Rohtak, and on the south-western road from the Ajmere Gate to the Kutb, and great will be the display and furious the firing of salutes as the Viceroy visits each of those entitled to the honour.

The ground where the durbar will take place is hallowed by historic associations, and the ridge on which the British forces made their gallant stand until reinforcements enabled them to conquer Delhi in 1857, has witnessed a succession of scenes of slaughter and plunder and pageant, from the time when the Pathan hosts of the first Mohammedan invaders swept past' to the assault of ancient Delhi and the invasion of India to the proclamation of Queen Victoria as Kaiser-i-Hind on Ist January, 1577. But next new year's Delhi bids fair to eclipse them all in splendour.