ROYAL VISIT TO CHATHAMS

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28155, 19 December 1956, Page 14

ROYAL VISIT TO CHATHAMS

Busy Preparations To Welcome Duke DELAY IN DELIVERY OF DECORATIONS (From Our Own Reporter) WAITANGI (Chatham Islands), December 18. Everyone in the Chatham Islands seemed busy today. All round Waitangi, preparations were being made for the visit tomorrow by the Duke of Edinburgh, the most distinguished visitor to the islands since they were discovered. There is general disappointment that only today did the little Port Waikato arrive with much of the material needed for decorating the main settlement. The Port Waikato had been scheduled to arrive on December 7 with the islanders’ first mail for some time, new dresses for the women, who will look their best tomorrow, and even wallboard for the completion of Waitangi’s War Memorial and Centennial Hall, outside which the Duke will be welcomed to the islands. The Waitangi Post Office, which received 200 bags of mail, was one of the busiest places in the settlement today. It had to cope, too, with record telegraphic traffic from journalists who travelled to the islands today for the Royal visit. Fresh paint is in evidence on many of the buildings, and Waitangi’s rough shell-surfaced road is gay with red, white, and blue bunting and flags which have been lent to the islands by the Ashburton County Council.

This afternoon, carpenters were busy nailing down coir matting on the new decking of the wharf, where the Duke will land from the Royal barge bringing him from the Royal Yacht Britannia, which will lie in the roadstead.

Volunteers vesterday painted the tiny grandstand on the island’s racecourse, where the Duke will attend a picnic race meeting. To-night, pits will be dug and fires lit at the racecourse in preparation for the hangi—the open-air cooking of bullocks and sheep for a picnic lunch. It was thought last week that someone might have to volunteer for hospital duty as a patient, but that problem was solved at the week-end by the admission of a maternity case, so the North Canterbury Hospital Boards cottage hospital will have two inmates when it is visited by the Duke tomorrow morning. There may even be another patient, for this afternoon a girl pasenger bounced off a motor-cycle when it hit a pothole, and suffered a suspected fracture of an arm. The islands’ hotel is full, and some visiting officials are being accommodated privately, for the Duke’s visit has resulted in a record influx of visitors.

There were 32 passengers on a Sandringham flying-boat which made a charter flight from Wellington to the islands this morning. Seventeen of them were returning to their homes. The flying-boat added to the post office’s work, for it brought mail as well as 4001 b of bread. In its mixed cargo were a sheep dog and three pups. The 500 inhabitants of the islands are talking of little else than the Duke’s visit. “We think it is a great honour that he comes all these thousands of miles, just to see us chaps. Not even a Prime Minister of New Zealand has come to see us before,” said one bearded Maori farmer. The normally shy and isolated people are sure that they can provide a welcome as good as those the Duke has received on the mainland. Duke's Itinerary Arriving at 10 a.m. at the wharf, the Duke will be met by the Resident Commissioner (Mr J. Paterson) and Mr D. L. Holmes, chairman of the Chatham Islands County Council. He will drive a short distance up the hill to Waitangi’s hall, where His Royal Highness will be greeted with a powhiri by Maori women. The Duke will walk through lines of returned servicemen and schoolchildren to a dais, where there will be formal presentations. Mr Holmes will make a short welcoming speech, and present gifts to the Duke, and one also for Her Majesty. Details of these presents are being kept secret by the islanders. » m The Duke will then meet Mr T. T. Solomon. representing the Moriori race, and a son of the last full-blooded Moriori; Mr J. Pomafe, a descendant of the first Maoris to settle in the Chathams; and Mr A. Gregory Hunt, a descendant of the first European settler in Pitt Island. The Duke will then spend 15 minutes at the hospital, where he will be shown the building by Dr. R. Davidson, of Christchurch,

who is the medical superintendent, and by the matron (Sister Elida). After a visit to the radio station and Pukiokio Hill, from which he will see the south-western area of the main island, the Duke will go to the residency for a brief stay. The highlight of the Duke’s visit will be four horse races—the Queen Elizabeth Plate. Prince Charles Handicap. Duke of Edinburgh Stakes, and Princess Anne Plate. The last race is a post-entry one. closed to the winners of the first two races and all horses started in the stakes. Up to 15 horses have been entered in each event, and most of them will contest two races. Sir Redman is the best-represented sire. Progeny of King Herod, which came to the islands from Mr John Grigg’s “Longbeach” property, will also race. One horse. Rusty, is listed in the cyclostyled programme as being of unknown breeding.

Souvenir covers for the race books are still aboard the Port Waikato. Lunch in Marquee

After two races have been run. the Duke will meet Mr A. Lockett, leader of the Maori community, who will explain to him the uncovering of the food for the hangi. Then His Royal Highness will lunch in a marquee. After lunch, the Duke will start the third race, the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes, of one mile and a half, and will inspect the winner in the birdcage. After the fourth race, about 2.30 p.m., the Duke will be taken on a short informal drive, and about 3.30 p.m. will arrive at the wharf, where all the islanders will gather to wave goodbye to their visitor and to the Britannia and the escort ships, the New Zealand frigates Hawea and Pukaki.