KING'S JUBILEE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 102, 2 May 1935, Page 16

KING'S JUBILEE.

THANKS-OFFERINGS.

YOUTH AND MINERS.

LONDON PREPARATIONS

(By NELLE M. SCAXLAX.)

LONDON, April 12

To-night the Prince of Wales will broadcast an appeal on behalf of the Thanks-offering Trust Fund for Youth, which is to form the nation's gift to the King on his jubilee. Already large sums have been subscribed, coming in from wealthy sources in their thousands, and from the poor in their ehillings. The idea is extremely popular with every section of the community, and the good work already done, though hampered through lack of funds, will be extended, and the new generation growing up will have cause to remember the King's Silver Jubilee as the beginning of an era of better opportunities.

The pitiable plight of the coal miners during the past depressing years lias been a source of national anxiety. To mark the jubilee the South Wales coal owners propose to raise a fund of not less than £.30,000 to form the nucleus of a scheme ot old-age pensions for workers in this industry. A pension scheme has long been the miner's dream, And now it seems likely to be realised. The South Wales miners had applied for a day's wages to all workmen in the coal fields, but the founding of a pension scheme, will, as the owners state, prove of lasting advantage and not be a gift, the benefit of which will quickly vanish, and do no enduring good. The South Wales 'Miners' Federation has decided to add a further £20.000, and the hope is expressed that the Stale will make a substantial contribution also.

Tn the Durham coal districts, it was proposed to remit house rent as a special jubilee gift, but the .South Wales proposal is viewed far more favourably by the miners. Yorkshire, which is the largest, with 137,500 miners, and lesser districts, have yet to decide what form their celebration will take, but it is anticipated tl'iat the South Wales example will influence others.

The Speaker and the Brewer, 'fhe jubilee is to be a family affair. and no member of foreign Royalties will be invited. But every member of the British Royal Family will take part in the procession to St. 'Paul's on May (i.

The King and Queen will drive in a State landau, with six of the famous Windsor Greys. These burses are now being trained for the occasion, as they are seldom used. They must bo quite used to crowds and cheering, waving flags, decorated streets, and all the formal and informal demonstrations they will encounter on that important da v.

The Speaker of the House will lend a striking note to the procession. The Speaker's coach, which is 200 years old. a most ornate State coach, and has not been used for 20 years, is being brought out. It has been cleansed and polished. and the decorations have been touched up. It has also been tested, and in the early dawn, surprised the few abroad by travelling the Royal route, with its two fine brewery horses. When it was announced that Whitbreads, the brewers, would horse the coach, the anti-liipior element raised a howl of protest. It would be a degrading sight on Jubilee Day to see the Speaker's magnificent State coach drawn by two horses taken from a brewer's cart, and worse still, driven by the driver of the brewer's cart, but now all tricked out in silk stockings and embroidered velvet coat, and a cocked hat with feathers. But this is the traditional right of Whitbread the brewer to honse the Speaker's coach. Over a century ago, a relative of the Speaker married into the Whitbread family, which was even then making beer, and ever since they have retained the privilege of supplying horses and driver.

Leicester Square and Parliament Square are to be floodlit from dark till dawn, and St. Paul's Cathedral will alno be floodlit. The illuminations are to continue for a month, and the gas an electric companies are supplying much of this illumination free, as their jubilee gift.

Preparations for the Pageant. Already London is being disfigured by the erection of stands, which are being built all along the route of the procession. In their raw stage they add nothing to the beauty of London, but when completed, covered, draped and decked with flowers and massed with people, they will give a new note to the town for this one grand day, for which all are praying for fine weather.

Over 400 window boxes have been specially made for the windows of the Home Office, the War Office, Admiralty and other official buildings. The office of works will supply the flowers; azaleas, genistas, hydrangeas and cinerarias will be used, and if there is a shortage there will be reinforcements of geraniums ready to be rushed up at once.

The Ministry of Health is being decorated by the flower trade, with window boxes of hydrangeas, springcri, cinerarias and small rhododendrons. There will also be early chrysanthemums, which have been forced under glass. Bond Street and Regent Street have planned magnificent floral decorations. May 5, the day before, will be "Flower Sunday," in London, as all these decorations will then be in place, and absolutely fresh. Js'ot until that day will wo really know what will result from the- competitive spirit, the friendly rivalry between one street and another, one building and the next. It should present a memorable sight.

On Empire Day, May 24, the King; and Queen will attend an all-British concert at the Albert Hall. The programme, will consist of choral works, orchestral items and a number of solos by eminent British musicians, and the works chosen will date from the Elizabethan period to the present day. There will be a special group, representing the three great English composers, who died last year —Elgar. Delius and Hoist. Dr. Vaughan Williams will conduct an English group, Sir Hugh Robertson a Scottish one, and Sir Hamilton Ilarty an Irish erottp.

How much else is going to happen during that crowded month one cannot say, but every day some new plan bursts upon the world, and if London has a slump afterwards it will not be surprising. Private citizens are now busy spring cleaning and putting clean sheets on the spare bed, as everyone who has a relative or friend in London is planning a descent upon the city, as London will hang out the sign '''Full House" long before May C. '„