PUBLIC HOMAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 84, 11 April 1939, Page 9

PUBLIC HOMAGE.

CROWDS PAY TRIBUTE. 50,000 Pass Catafalque of Late Prime Minister. CHILDREN AMONG MOURNERS. United Press Association. —Copyright. SYDNEY, Monday. Over 50,000 people to-day filed in parties of 10 past the casket containing the body of the late Prime Minister, Mr. J. A. Lyons, lying in state at St. Mary's Basilica, and paid their last tribute of respect. Leaders in political, commercial and social life, men and women of all I stations in life, and even children, moved in solemn procession past the catafalque all day. Perhaps the most pathetic moment was when the eldest six of the children of the late Prime Minister arrived to take a last look at their dead father. Archbishop Gilroy and other Catholic dignitaries comforted them, and also received the Governor-General, Lord Gowrie, and members of the Commonwealth Ministry. There will be a Solemn Pontifical Mass at the cathedral to-morrow, followed by a State funeral through the city to Circular Quay, where the body will be put aboard the destroyer Vendetta, for conveyance to Devonport, Tasmania, for burial in the grounds of St. Joseph's Church, where Mr. Lyons aud bis wife worshipped for many years. PONTIFICAL MASS. Sorrowing Crowds Line Sydney Streets. N.Z. GUARD OF HONOUR. (Received 2 p.m.) SYnXEY, this day. Representative citizens from the Governor-General, Lord Gowrie, to the humblest resident paid last tributes to Mr. J. A. Lyons to-day, when a Solemn Pontifical Mass was celebrated at St. Mary's Cathedral, arter which the body was borne through the principal streets of the city to Circular Quay, where it was placed aboard the destroyer Vendetta, which lert immediately for Devonport. The cathedral and approaches were crowded long before the hour for commencement of the Mass. The route of the funeral procession was thickly lined with sorrowing multitudes. The celebrant of the Mass was the Apostolic Delegate Archbishop Panico. Among thousands of floral tributes was a wreath from the Government and people of New Zealand. • The guard of honour at Circular Quay I was composed of naval ratings from the Leander and from Australian warships.