HONOURING THE WORKMAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 196, 20 August 1930, Page 6

HONOURING THE WORKMAN.

In papers rcoently received from England accounts are given of a national thanksgiving service held in St. Paul's Cathedral on Wednesday, June 25, to mark the completion of the restoration of St. Paul's.

The King and Queen wore present at the service, also the Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers and the Lord Mayor and one hundred and fifty bishops from all parts of the world. But a feature of the ceremony which I think was unique, though thoroughly in keeping with the significance of the building both as a great church and as' a national monument, was the reception into the building at the commencement of the service of over one hundred workmen who had been engaged on the work of reconstruction. They were escorted through the great nave to seats specially reserved for them, and it is reported that as they entered the great congregation rose to its feet and stood in honour of these men. Perhaps that was due to a feeling of real thankfulness to the men who had done the work; perhaps it was a reflection of the democratic age in which we live; but that this tribute should have been paid to a body of British workmen within the great cathedral is, I think, one of those rare events which show what a strange people we English really arc. Many thanksgiving services have been held in St. Paul's. It is in that building that the nation and the Empire has paid tribute to the deeds and to the memory of men of. science, statesmen, soldiers, sailors and men of renown in other walks of life, but I doubt if ever before in the history of the present building or of the several other sacred edifices which' preceded it on the same spot definite recognition has been given within those Avails to working men as such. —TOM BLOODWORTH.