THE EXHIBITION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 263, 7 November 1939, Page 3

THE EXHIBITION.

TO OPEN TO-MORROW. OFFICIAL CEREMONY. VISITORS FROM AUCKLAND. Many Auck'landers will attend the official opening of the Centennial Exhibition by his Excellency the GovernorGeneral, Lord Gal war, to-morrow afternoon, although the main exodus from the north will not begin in earnest until next month. •South-bound expresses will be packed to-night, but the first of the specials to the exhibition will not leave Auckland Itefore F'idav evening. There is quickening interest among motorists. The Automobile Association (Auckland) states that there have been many inquiries for information regarding the exhibition, particularly the state of roads and general tourists' needs. The indications point to the main body of motorists leaving their visit to Wellington until the holidays. When the petrol restrictions are lifted next month it is expected that there will be increasing numbers of cars headed south. Provided the tine weather holds, the ceremony to-morrow afternoon should he a colourful one. His Excellency will drive down Centennial Avenue, which will be lined with troops, to the big central fountain, where a guard of honour and bands will be stationed. The actual ceremony is to take pla-ce from a special platform at one of the band shells, and the programme there, in addition to the speeches of his Excellency, the Mayor of Wellington Mr. T. C. A. Hislop, and the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, includes choral numbers with accompaniment played by tlio Port Nicholson Band. All the courts will be open after the ceremony. There is to be an official o|>ening of the United Kingdom Court on Thursday, and the Australian Court will be opened officially 011 Friday afternoon, but the public may visit these courts as soon as the opening ol the exhibition as a whole is over to morrow afternoon.^ A Wellington message states that there are numerous inquiries for acconi modation, indicating a large influx o: visitors later 011. Owing to the genera effect of the unsettled public mind, $ number of persons who had placed roonit at the disposal of the bureau have sinc< allowed friends to occupy them withoui notifying the bureau. There are, how ever, plenty of the originally arrange* 5000 beds still available, and as every body will not come to Wellington a the same time, it is not expected tha there will be any real shortage of rooms