OFF TO-MORROW.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 115, 16 May 1924, Page 7

OFF TO-MORROW.

FLEET SAILS AT 3.30 P.M. THE FINAI- FUNCTIONS. "AT HOME" AND PARTY. SEARCHLIGHT PLAY TO-NIGHT. Shortly after throe to-morrow afternoon the first of the light cruisers tvtll pet under way, and then will follow the | big Repulse and the Hood, the last-men- I tioned being timed to leave the wharf ' at about four o'clock. Yachtsmen and ' launch owners are entering enthusiastically into the arrangements for the small craft to give a fitting farewell to our guests, and if the north-easter that is now threatening to comu in will only hold off, the exit of the fleet should be almost as impressive as its entry. In order to allow the people of the far north to have a chance of seeing the ships the fleet will spend some hours in the historic Bay of Islands. The fleet will steam so as to arrive in the Bay on Sunday morning, and the ships will anchor there until noon, when they will resume their voyage to Suva, where they j are due at half-past one next Wednes- j day. The fleet will go by way of Samoa to Honolulu, where it arrives on June 0. People ashore are looking , forward ■with keen interest to the searchlight display by the fleet this evening, from nine to half-past nine. These will be twentyfour searchlights in play, the combined candle-power being nearly 5,000,000,000. Anywhere within a few miles of Auckland will be a good place to watch the display from, but the most effective view is somewhere that enables one to ■watch the light playing upon some object direct. For instance, it is most interesting to be looking across at North Shore indistinct in comparative darkness, and then suddenly to see it lit up like day, the penetrating beam travelling over the cliffs nround the waterfront and up Mt. Victoria and North Head with splendid effect, and leaving behind its vivid path a darkness that is all the more dense bycontrast. The effect of the beams thrown on shipping is also very fine, and people on the North Shore side will get a wonderfully impressive effect as the lights sweep over the city's tall buildings.