HAMILTON'S PREPARATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 41, 18 February 1927, Page 9

HAMILTON'S PREPARATIONS.

OPEN-AIR RECEPTION ARRANGED. ASSEMBLAGE OF CHILDREK. HAMILTON, Thursday. The arrangements for the reception of the Duke and Duchess of York, who will spend one hour at Hamilton on Saturday, February 26, have been completed. The party will arrive from Auckland at noon, and will be met at the Hamilton railway station by the Mayor and Mayoress and the town clerk. The visitors will be conveyed by motors to Steele Park, where the formal reception will lake place. One hundred men of the YVaikato Regiment, under Captain R. F. Ward, will act as a guard of honour, nnd the returned soldiers will be drawn up to the left of the guard of honour. Some 4300 children, from districts surrounding Hamilton, will take part in the reception.* These will be drawn from as far north as Whangamarino, and as far south as Taumarunui, while children from Putarura and the intervening territory, and from as far cast as Thames, will be included in the assemblage. From 1500 to 2000 children attending the Hamilton schools will also assemble at Steele Park. The Duke, after inspecting the guard of honour and the returned soldiers, will take his place with the Duchess on the dais, and the Mayor will read an address of welcome. A few representative citizen? will be presented to the Royal party, who will then move through the ranks of the school children. They will leave Steele Park at 1 p.m.. and join the Royal train at the Claudelands station. The town decorations will include an archway at the Hamilton station, and a banner bearing the word "Welcome'" will be erected in Ward Street. Flags will be flown in Victoria Street, and a banner with the words "Kia Ora*' will be suspended from the River Road subway. Luncheon will be provided for the visiting school children by the Education Board and the Hamilton Borouch Council.