CELEBRATIONS AT SUMNER.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11347, 9 August 1902, Page 9

CELEBRATIONS AT SUMNER.

The celebrations at Sumner were commenced yesterday afternoon. The little seaside town was gaily decorated in honour of the occasion. The" Cave Rock was surmounted with a quartette of lines of signal bunting, stretching to the top of the mast, each of the little flags representing a letter of the alphabet. In the principal street also flags had been drawn up to the summit of the different flagstoffs. A few Christchurch residents journeyed down by tram, leaving town at two o'clock, but the majority of the spectators were Sumner residents. The proceedings were by no means of an elaborate character, and the simple programme drawn up for the afternoon was gone through in a very short time. In honour of the Coronation the Sumner Council had decided to erect a memorial lamp-post and drinking fountain at the corner of Morten street and the SumnerLyttelton road, at a spot immediately opposite Brooking's Sumner Hotel. The unveiling of the inscriptions on this memorial formed the principal function of yesterday's celebrations. At three o'clock the Mayor of Sumner, Mr William Rollitt, with Councillors J. C. Hughes, J. R. Drew, F. Rowell, R. Bradbury, the town clerk, Mr J. Crawford, and the Venerable Archdeacon Thorpe, ascended the small platform erected on the side of the lamp-post. For the convenienoe of tha spectators, the tram cars had been drawn up immediately opposite the spot where the unveiling was to take place, and these were crowded to excess by a number of ladies and children. The senior Councillor, Mr J. C. Hughes, opened the proceedings by calling upon the Mayor, Mr Rollitt, to unveil the tablets. The Mayor, Mr Rollitt, said the gathering, in its twofold aspect, was unique in the experience of most of those present. He felt sure he was echoing the general feeling in expressing gladness at his Majesty's recovery. His Majesty had a difficult path to tread, in upholding the illustrious example of his late mother. Everyone fe't thac the King would worthily uphold lhat i precedent, and hoped that his Majesty and Queen Alexandra would long be spared to reign over their people. Mr Rollitt then referred to the colonies' contributions to Britain's forces in the recent war. Among the towas that had suffered had be* a Sumner, and part of the present ceremony was. the unveiling of a tablet to the memory of the two Sumner lads, Trooper Wiggins and Sergeant Rule, who had fallen in South Africa, and whose memory wat proudly cherished by their native town. He voiced the general sympathy with the parents of the fallen troopers, and* thanked tihem for sending their boys to the fron*.. The memorial was then" unveiled. j The inscription on the front tablet was as [ follows:—"King Edward VH., Coronation Memorial, 1902." On one side of the pedestal, -supporting the lamp-post, amother tablet h;id been placed, bearing this inscription—"This tablet was erected by the residents of Sumner in memory of Sergeant H. A. Rule and Trooper C. E. Wiggins, two, Sumner boys, who died of enteric fever in South Africa in the year 1900, while on active service in the great Boer war." At the back of the pedestal a deep niche had been cut, and a drinking tap had been fastened therein. After the Mayor had completed the unveiling ceremony, Archdeacon Thorpe, vicar of All Saints' Church, Suxcaier, delivered a short and appropriate address. The National Anthem was then sung, and three hearty cheers were given for King Edward. Several of the Town Councillors and Sumner residents, together with a few Christchurch friends, at the invitafon of the Mayor, adjourned to the Sumner Hotel, where the health of the King was drunk, followed by that of th® Mayor of Sumner." In the evening a fireworks' display was held. Two large bonfires were Ot on thebeach, and proved a decided attraction. In order that the footpath might ba widened where the memorial was erected. Mrs A. J. White presented the Council with a strip of land adjoining, sufficient to make the footpath the ordinary width.