The Australian Visit.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 44, 22 February 1927, Page 3

The Australian Visit.

Opening of the New Federal Parliament House. After the New Zealand visit of the Duke and Duchess ends their Royal Highnesses will spend two months in Australia. They are due to arrive in Sydney on March 25, and are to spend nearly a fortnight in the State of New South Wales. Then they go to Brisbane and various places in Queensland. A visit to Hobart and the chief centres of Tasmania follows. They next visit Melbourne and the principal towns of Victoria, making a stay of about three weeks in that State, and going on to Adelaide for visits in South Australia. On May 6 they return to Melbourne in preparation for the great ceremony at Canberra. Here the rejoicings will oe on a most extensive scale. AH the members of the Commonwealth Government and of the two Houses of Parliament will, of course, be present, together with the leading omVial- <.f Die Administration, wives and families helping to swell the number. Larjrc representative delegations from the several States are expected. According to reports that have reached this country, visitors are likely to assemble in hundreds of thousands, 50,000 it is estimated arriving by motor car. For the more permanent population, suitable provision has already Wn or is being made, but for the several days over which the festivities will extend, the feeding, temporary housing and ge:iernl arrangements for accommodating so vast an assembly will entail an enormous mass of detailed organising work. Of course chief interest will centre round the Parliament buildings and offices, where the Prince of Wales laid a commemorative stone during his recent visit. The Parliament House is described as a beautiful though simple structure, an ample building of two floors, with Ministerial and Opposition rooms, Committee room 9, and all the offices appertaining to a great Parliament, on the plan of those to be found at Westminster. The Duke and Duchess remain at Canberra for six days and then return to Melbourne for a journey to Western Australia. There they spend five days, and on May 23 begin their homeward journey. Their route now will be via Mauritius, where three .?ays may be a n<l the Suez Canal, with short visits to Malta and Gibraltar. They are limed to reach Portsmouth on Monday, June 27, after an absence of nearly six months.