KING'S JUBILEE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 106, 7 May 1935, Page 11

KING'S JUBILEE.

AUCKLAND BY NIGHT.

STRIKING ILLUMINATIONS. CROWDS IN CITY STREETS. It was in the evening yesterday that Auckland took on its carnival atmosphere. It needed the night to show off the illuminations and the decorations of city buildings, and to cast the reflection of electric light on to the city pavements. There was a holiday atmosphere in the streets. The crowd in the town was the largest for years. In Queen Street, at one stage, it was difficult to move along at an ordinary pace, while in Quay Street, just before the searchlight display began, there was a traffic jam. Motor vehicles were about six abreast from the launch steps to past the Ferry buildings, while the pavements at the various vantage points were lined with pedestrians. The crowd extended along Tamaki Drive, and while the display was actually on, care were six deep there. People crowned every vantage point from the Ferry Buildings to Bastion Point. Credit is due to the way in which the traffic was handled. Though sonic, delays were inevitable, they were small, and no inconvenience was caused either to pedestrians or motorists. The Decorations at Night.

Seeing the decorations on the buildings during the day, few people realised the added beauty which would be given by night. The Town Hall, in particular, was a thing of beauty. It was outlined in golden light. The Power Board building was literally crowned, every electric light bulb being a separate jewel. The Post Office was different. Here the light was done by floodlighting. The whole front was bathed in light, and every detail was to be seen.

Dilwortli Building was done in different effects. Here was no exterior lighting at all. But, it seemed, each light in the great building had been fitted with a rc-i bulb, so that from eaeli window shone a soft effnlgency of indefinite redness. The white of the stone captured the hue of the lights, and the entire building was quietly red. The outlines of the Waverley Hotel and Hotel Auckland were picked out in red, white and blue bulbs. The effect was beautiful —-like a thousand points of twinkling fire.

Then at the foot of the street were the portraits of Their Majesties, framed in the flag 3 of the countries of the Empire over which they rule. These were floodlighted, and the two pictures seemed to gaze up the thoroughfare seeing. all that had been done in their honour.