EMPIRE EXHIBITION.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18369, 30 April 1925, Page 2

EMPIRE EXHIBITION.

NEW ZEALAND PAVILION.

THE CINEMA.

(rKOJI OtTB OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, March 25

At the present time the New Zealand Pavilion at Wembley is a veritable hive of industry. Carpenters, painters, and art decorators are putting the last touches to the interior of the building. Those constructing the panoramas are well, advanced with their work, bub it is yet too early to express an opinion as'to what the final effect of these scenio reproductions will be. Twenty-four New Zealand tree-ferns have already arrived from tho Dominion, and these are at present in a London hothouse under the charge of Mr Gill, the horticulturist for the Pavilion grounds. The Corinthio lias arrived with a number of travelling rugs for exhibition, blankets, additional mineral specimens, and a quantity of jams and other preserved food. The Palkeha, next week and tho Matakana on April Bth, are also bringing further similar material. Bv the latter vessel an additional supply of films and booklets is expected. The Eotorua and the lort Australia, on April 3rd and 18th respectively, are expected to bring the last of the material from the Dominion, and tli9 management will thus have ample time this year to have every detail of the Paivilion in perfect order before the opening day of the Exhibition. Five Corriedale sheep, which are due shortly, are to have pens built for them on the' concrete base which last year was occupied by the Maori house. These animals should be an attractive feature of tho exhibits.

The intention this year is to make the cinema an even greater attraction than last year. All the films shown last year have been re-edited and overhauled. Of these there are 30,000 ft. Some 12,000 ft have since come to the High Commissioner's Office, and several new films are on their way from the Dominion. There should, therefore, be about fifty films available for exhibiting this year. The Publicity Departs tment will havo control of the films, and Mr James Dykes, of Wellington, who is at present in this country, has been taken on the staff, and he will be in charge of the Cinema Hall during the progress of the Exhibition.

Wembley by Night. Plans have been completed for making the illuminations at Wembley this year an exhibition in themselves. Throughout an effort is to be made to produce an atmosphere of gaiety, particularly in those sections of the grounds in which the visitors are likely to parade in the evening! In the north gardens and at the smith-west entrance two illuminated columns, 40ft high, will be erected, and will throw a glow over a wide area. In King's Way. sixty tall standards are being erected, each of which will be fitted with festoons of. brilliant lamps. Concealed coloured lights- will throw into relief the colonnades of the Palace of Engineering and Palace of Industry, and will flood the background of the buildings with constantly changing colours. Along the tops of these buildings columns of steam, bathed in ever-chang-iug coloured light from conceded projectors, will be sent up into the night air.. Illuminated swans, ducks, JJoah's Arks, and water lilies will float in the lakes, and on the lawns lifelike penguins, frogs, huge snails, and other fantastic animals will be on view. A realistic crocodile with a luminous body and in the trees overhead flocks of gaily-coloured parrots and owls are other promised novelties. On the roof of tho Stadium and (visible for many miles will be a mammoth fan of coloured searchlight beams, which will resemble the Aurora Borealis. A battery of searchlights to produce this effect js being lent by the military authorities, and will be operated throughout the Exhibition by the 27th Anti-Aircraft Searchlight Battalion of the .Royal Engineers of the Territorial Army. Of One Family. Mr L. S. Amery has written a letter, which has appeared in all leading journals, urging every citizen of the Empire \/o help the British Empire Exhibition to full success this year by joining the Fellowship, or its Associate Branch, and so support a great Imperial enterprise. '"Members and Associates of the Fellowship are," lie reminds us, "by the certificate they receive under the signature of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, pledged to 'loyal service' to the British Empire. Al-eady there are groups of Fellows and Associates in every part of the Empire; if the strength of these groups can be increased by a generous flow of new adherents and maintained after the Exhibition at Wembley Park has closed —and this, I understand, is the aim of the organisers of tho Fellowship—l feel sure that a valuable work will be accomplished by the fostering in all Empire affairs of 'the family feeling.' In facing the common problems of Empire both in this and in succeeding generations, the keynote of our policy must be Hive are of the one family.' The Fellowship will help to keep that note constantly in the minds of all of us."