THE CHILDREN'S DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 31, 7 February 1927, Page 10

THE CHILDREN'S DAY.

rINE SPECTACLE PREPARING.

for royal visitors.

DEMONSTRATION" OX THE DOMAIN.

EIGHT THOUSAND PARTICIPANTS.

With many thousands of Aucklandere there still remains a vivid memory of a display on the occasion of the Prince's visit, when the school children of Auckland gathered in their many ordered squads in the Domain. On that day masses of brightly clad girls manouevrcd into position to form the living word '"Welcome," about two thousand specimens of healthy boyhood marched a n drilled with admirable precision, f;^L a con( -' ouri =e advanced from all e ,g roll nd to mass into a repreaftor the n ! a f iant Union Jack - Then > moved" b ° t, *' ion ' " nd * LO cle <*r the centre of the fa\e been unique on the tour. The Irmee and Admiral Halsev entered i car to drive round the throng, but the throng Jtfcelf, swept by of enthu.iasm, waited not, and sur4d in its thousands round the ear—a % a of happy taces upturned in cheers and greetings us the motor made slow uncertain progress through it, and the Irince, genuinely touched bv the exuberance of childhood, stood on the scat, smiling and waving at the throne It Mas a dramatic ending to a <*reat event. e A Display for the Duke. It was felt that the visit of the Duke and Duchess could not he allowed to pass without some similar meeting between their Royal Highnesses and the young folk of our schools. The great display for the Prince, inspiring though it was, looked, to the spectator, so 6imple, chiefly through the splendid system of organisation with which it was carried out, but it took weeks of earnest planning and preparation. Now there will be little time for training and rehearsal, fur when the Duke arrives the school year will be but three weeks old, and one of those throe has already paused, tlioujrh not idly. The EducaKju Hoard has been prompt to act. ifvt T # uos,la - v tw <-> or three representadUfi. m , eve, y school assembled to w7. fl 7 th Mr : D - w - Du "lop. the i * »Pecta/>nl S ° a. 6chenie for { Ck t children's hour on the i ~ au evident desire

to attempt something unique, something different from previous displays, but the brief time at disposal forbade this, eo the Duke, on the morning of February 23 will witness a children's pageant similar to that which hailed his elder brother nearly seven years ago. There will be some marked differences, however, as will be gathered from the details which follow. The forthcoming display, in the spectacles it creates, will be much more emblematic of New Zealand. Preliminaries Renewed. A definite programme has not yet been drawn up but a general outline has been discussed. The details we give below are subject to alteration, but they give some idea of the plans now under discussion. A general I committee of masters and mistresses has been set up, and in charge of Messrs. F. J. Ohlson, G. H. Stubbs and B. W. Hayson, are three other small committees, each of which is handling details for an item of the big show. Care has been taken that parents will be put to no unnecessary expense. No demonstration of this kind can be run without expenditure of money, but with thousands of willing young workers cooperating with heart and hand, this expenditure, compared with the result, will be trifling. It is understood that the board only awaits Government sanction to vote small necessary funds from its own coffers. The railway department will transport country school children free on the day, and His Worship has come forward with offers of free trams for the suburban children, both for rehearsals and the event itself. Demonstration Detailed. f he neither advisable nor nrin,. J °t0 , Uie t ' lc children of our . schools in this forthcoming sent p \ C P ' cked s( l uads «ill repre- " t each school, and such squads will i*n^e C \lh fr ° m the " pper classes - But uom. Mho are not performers will not be debarred irom taking a minor Dart mi the Catherine I„ allotted portion, ot the Domain they will be marshalled under their teachers, an interested background that will really see more the participants will. \V ith tbem gather the country children from north and south who can be brought to town and returned to their homes on the same dav.

\\ hen tile Duke and Duchess reach the Domain they will find marshalled bands of children framing the big sports area. At a given signal over a thousand girls, all arrayed in white, will march on to' the centre of the green. Then in huge letters of white, one at a time, will be evolved a welcoming word typical of Maoriland—'•Haeremai." Against the green of the sward, the huge block letters formed by white-garbed, white-capped

girls will stand out strikingly. Another signal, and the word of welcome will turn into a blaze of colour as each young human component of every letter unfolds two red, white and blue flags, and with them performs rhythmic exercises. The word, but not its meaning, will fade away as these young Xew Zealand girls march off.

Following them will come a small army of youths, bare-necked, bare-kneed, clad in blue caps, white shirts, blue shorts, dark socks and white shoes. In torty columns of files they will advance towards the Royal stand till they cover an area of eighty yards square. Then, to the sound of a whistle, and following the time of a juvenile leader mounted on a platorm. nearly two thousand lads will go through a short series of physical training exercises such as are performed daily in all our schools, but the size and the alertness of this great physical jerks battalion will provide a spectacle such as no school-ground has seen. Off will go the young Aucklanders at the double, to leave the ground again clear for a lurther feature, a feature that will impress, one of our national emblems 011 the minds of all who witness it. The Final Tableau. On the ground will march a further juvenile host, girls, several thousands of them, over their dresses coloured paper to produce the necessary colour effects. In the centre will assemble a human mass of brown that will take the shape of one of New Zealand's rare birds, the kiwi. Below it will appear two great human ferns, and above, picked out in blue and gold, the letters "N.Z." Massed round this tableau will be other children in white as a setting to throw the design into effective relief. Most effective, too, it should be. The whole display will take but forty minutes, and in it over five thousand children will participate. The vast amount of organisation to embrace over sixty schools in this show, and the infinite number of details to be attended to, are known only to those in charge, but a spirit of enthusiasm, and the hearty co-operation of teachers and pupils will carry it through quite unostentatiously. To-day in the playgrounds of the city and suburbs, squads of boys and girls will commence rehearsals in earnest, and will devote probably about half an hour daily in preparation for their great e\ent. Before the actual morning, a full re ear>al will be held on the Domain, so hat for finality, everything mav go like clockwork. Ihe one item missing iu a displav of this kind is the participaton of our puh\hJZ 0 n y SCh °° ls - 11 seeuls a pitv Wherehv A"l ngM ? en . ts have been made m«« « - Va > VlSltors ean see in the ma &s the tine products of another branch of our education system.

Scouts and Guides.

In addition to the children of our schools, there will lie assembled on the Domain the various troops of boy scouts and girl guides from the citv ami surrounding country. There should be fully three thousand in these two organisations on parade. The time allotted for their part of the performance will be brief, and there may be opportunity Tor them to do little more than a march past the Royal dais and to undergo an inspection, but their appearance and their numbers will impress both visitors and public with the extent to which these, two fine organisations of Empire have grown. Altogether the morning demonstration at the Domain on February 23 should be not only a creditable, but also a memorable one' in the annals of the city, and should bring to our magnificent recreation ground such a concourse as has never previously gathered round it. Bad weather alone can mar a wonderful spectacle.