Topics of the Day.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 155, 1 July 1911, Page 13

Topics of the Day.

QUEEN VICTORIA MEMORIAL UNVEILED. WHITE CITY ATTRACTIONS. A FINAL MYSTERY. (Flora Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, May 19. AN IMPRESSIVE CEREMONY. The first of the great ceremonies of the Coronation season was enacted this

week, with all the pomp and splendour of pageantry that London loves so well and achieves so admirably. This was the unveiling of the Queen Victoria Memorial, in the presence of King George, his ■cousin (the German Emperor), and a brilliant assemblage representing all sides of the nation's public life. Immense crowds, numbering upwards of 100,000, gathered in the Green Park and St. Ju'mes' Park, and at every point from which a view of the Memorial could be obtained. Most of them had to be content with a distant view, for only the privileged ticket holders could pass within the police lines, and come within close view of the ceremony. But the slopes of the Green Park formed a natural theatre for many thousands. They formed up, tier above tier, from the bottom of the slope to the top, and the broad roadway that leads from Piccadilly down to the Memorial was iterraced in this fashion along its .entire length. The roof of Buckingham Palace itself was crowded with sightseers. Full of brilliant colour was the scene in front of the memorial The sunshine ■flashed on the gilded figure of "Victory that surmounts the monument, and brought out in vivid tones the masses of scarlet and blue, violet, white and black in the brilliant arraj r of soldiers and guests. Even the gloomy ba-ckground of Buckingham Palace served to throw into stronger relief the myriad colours of the, uniform and summer dresses. Conspicuous at the base of the MemoriSil were the Gentlemen-at-Arms in their scarlet uniforms and white-plumed helmets, the King's Indian orderlies in their picturesque attire, and the beautiful blue uniform of the detachment of the German regiment of dragoons, of which Queen Victoria used to be Honorary Colonel. But brilliant as the details of the picture were, it was the general effect, rich in colour, beauty and significance, that held the eye and made the scene so memorable. The ceremony was brief, but very digntified and impressive. When the precession from the Palace, headed by the King and the Kaiser in the uniforms of British Field Marshals, had reached the dais, Lord Esher presented an address to His Majesty. "Every corner of your 3lajesty's British Overseas Dominions and Colonies" ran the address, "have contributed to the I'u-nd we were appointed to administer. The Memorial will stand for ages to come a3 a conspicuous mark of the bond of brotherhood binding the Empire together." King George an his reply also emphasised the Imperial character of the great memorial. "This monument," he said, "represents the tributes of races and regions •more various in character and' circumstances than have ever been combined before upon a common purpose." ■ Followed a brief dedication service, which ended with the well-known hymn, "O God, Our Help in Ages Past." The vast multitude joined in the singing of it, and the effect was thrilling and majestic. Then came the dramatic moment of the ceremony. The King touched a button, the curtain which veiled the Memorial parted and fluttered to the ground, and the noble statue of Victoria, seated on her throne, sceptre in hand, was revealed, amid the cheers of the I multitude. At that instant, too, the Royal salute crashed from the guns in St. James's Park, sending a great flock of birds scurrying across the skies. As j the reverberations of the cannon died jaway, the King called to Mr. Brock, the creator of the monument, and bade him kneel, and the sculptor rose Sir Thomas Brock.

Then came the march-past of the troops, a pageant of flying standards and nodding plumes, with the light of a summer sun glittering on polished weapons and accoutrements. When this was over the bands struck up "God Save the King," and the Royal procession re- ; formed and filed round the monument back to the Palace. So ended a great and memorable pageant. WHITE CITY RE-OPENS. Mr. Imre Kiralfy, the organising genius who brought the "White City" into being at Shepherd's Bush, has been stirred to grea-ter activities than ever by the competition of the Festival of Empire at the Crystal Palace. Yesterday saw the opening at the White City of the Coronation Exhibition. It aims at illustrating the resources of the British Empire, the commercial and industrial greatness, the world-wide influence of the British race. In cun- ■ ning panorama and deft pictorial illu- ! sion are reproduced far-distant scenes in the dominions overseas and the Eastern Empire. Here is the famous Taj Mahal, seen by moonlight from the river. Here is Hong Kong, rising from the harbour to the Peak. A real Niagara pours over the precipice in the Canadian building. New Zealand also ■has a real cataract to show—the Wairoa Falls, a gold-dredging scene, Mount Egmont, with Maori buildings gabled and carved, and the four chief cities of the Dominion—Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, and Dunedin. Sydney Harbour is reproduced in the Commonwealth building; so are a Melbourne park, a Tasmanian gold mine, and pastoral scenes. And so on right round the Empire. An interesting section of the Exhibition is that devoted to the Press of the British Empire. Many important journals in London, the provinces, and the Dominions overseas are represented here. The New Zealand section includes the "Auckland Star," "New Zealand Weekly Graphic," "New Zealand Farmer," "New Zealand Times," "Lyttelton Times," "Chr.istehurch Star," and "Canterbury Times." Many curiosities of journalism have been collected. Mr. Punch's famous round table, for instance, the first rotary printing press ever made, a volume of the "Farthing Post," and the earliest old wooden handpresses in existence. A romantic feature of the first rotary press is that it was never patented, the inventor (Mr. Nelson) refusing to have it protected, with the result that it was copied in every country in Europe. What an enormous fortune was thus lost can easily be imagined, Sir E. Shackleton

has contributed copies of his Antarcti newspaper, printed during his "Farthest South" expedition, and General BadenPowell has sent a complete file of the "Mafeking Gazette," which was issued, "shells permitting," during the famous siege of Mafeking. Original sketches by war correspondents, cartoons by Sir F. Carruthers Gould, Sir John Tennial and other eminent artists, and manuscripts of famous authors, such as Rudyard Kipling, Conan Doyle, and Marie Corelli, figure in this unique collection of newspaper exhibits. On a table by the New Zealand newspapers is a phonograph which will recite speeches specially contributed by the Prime Minister (Sir Joseph Ward), on "The Press of New Zealand," "The Value of Cable Communications," and "The Scenlo Glories of the Dominion." Three thousand paintings and three hundred works of sculptare adorn the galleries and sculpture hull of the Fine Art section. No fewer than 22 Royal and other societies are presented here. The section devoted to Science includes a seismograph for recording earthquakes and volcano eruptions in any part of the world, and a wireless telegraphy apparatus. The Festival of Empire at the Crystal Palace will attract its teas and hundreds of thousands, but so will the Coronation Exhibition of the White City. The former has the prestige of Government patronage, but the latter enjoys the greater accessibility for the multitude. In any case, London is so crowded with visitors this summer that there should be ample room for both of these great exhibitions within its spacious domain. LAFAYETTE'S LAST ILLUSION. A startling discovery was made at the eleventh hour regarding the identity of

the charred corpse found on the stage after the Empire Theatre fire at Edinburgh, and winch was "positively identified" as that of 1/afayette, the illusionist, Iby half a dozen people, who had known him intimately, and had assisted in his , stage productions. i The body was duly cremated in accordance with Lafayette's wish, and the ashes placed in an urn, which on the morrow was to be placed between the paws of the embalmed renuiins of the i artist's favourite dog Beauty in the ' magnificent masoleum erected by Lafayette in Jiaryhill Cemetery. At the last moment almost Mr. Lafayette's solicitor, who had had some doubts as to the correctness of the identification, because certain valuable rings always worn by Lafayette were not on j the fingers of the corpse when found,' J insisted that a further search of the j j ruins of the stage should be made. He ' i pointed out that since the fire nothing had been seen or heard of Richards, the man who acted as Lafayette's double. He had undoubtedly been on the stage when the fire broke out, and as no corpse had' been discovered which in the least resembled Richards, there must, the solicitor urged, be another body concealed somewhere in tne building. So a further search was instituted, and at length another corpse, practically unscathed hy fire, was found at the bottom of the pit into which the counterweight of the iron fire-proof curtain sinks when the curtain is raised. There was no manner of doubt whose corpse it was. It was Lafayette's. His features were practically untouched by fire, and on his fingers were the two valuable diamond rin«s his solicitor had expected to find.. There were other details in the dress he wore, and physical peculiarities observable, which left no possible doubt as to the identity of the body. Lafayette's death must have been a lingering and terrible one. Baffled in his attempts to escape through the stage door, he himself had insisted on being locked lest some Paul Pry should use I them for the purpose of getting a peep at his secrets, he had slipped down into the pit, doubtless in the hope of disj covering a subterranean exit. There was I none, and there he had lain with the fierce flames roaring over his place of I refuge, and rendering the pit tin oven, I in which , he was slowly stifled and baked to death. Horrible as was Lafayette's fate, and pathetic the mistake made, it seems in the fitness of things that the man who mystified so many in life by his " doubles " should provide a final illusion in death.