ROYAL VISIT SMOOTH CROSSING BY RANGATIRA

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29910, 25 August 1962, Page 12

ROYAL VISIT SMOOTH CROSSING BY RANGATIRA

The crossing in the Rangatira was very smooth, said the master (Captain W. H. C. Millward'. Because the ship was late in leaving and had to face a moderate southerly wind and a strong current, her speed had been stepped up to 20 knots instead of her norma) 17J. The extra speed made no difference to the comfort of the trip, however. he said. The King and Queen of Thailand were accommodated in the ship's two de luxe cabins.

After having breakfast on board, the Royal couple came down the gangway to greet the chairman and secretary of the Lvttelton Harbour Board (Messrs A A. Maefarlane and A L. Burk) and Mesdames Macfarlane and Burk and the Mayor and Town Clerk of Lyttelton (Messrs J B. Collett and J Thompson) and their wives. They waved to the crowd of about 200 who had gathered on the wharf, and had a special word for nine Colombo Plan students from Thailand who hac’ come to cheer them. The students—four men and a woman from Canterbury University, three men from Otago University, and a man from the Victoria University of Wellingtonhad been waiting since 6.20 a.m., a quarter of an hour before the ship berthed Chief Inspector A. G Beal, of Wellington, in charge of Police Department arrangements for the tour, said the ordinary passengers in the Rangatira had given no worries on security or any other grounds. They had left the ship in the normal way without embarrassing the official party Until just before the Royal couplt appeared on the gangway, the sky had been almost completely overcast, but the sun appeared at the right moment and the couple

walked to their car in a shaft of sunlight. The car was a Daimler brought from Wellington, driven by Mr N. D. Collingwood, of Christchurch, who drove Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, on her New Zealand tour a few years ago. The car, like the Rangatira flew the red and golden-yellow Thai Royal Ensign depleting the mythical kmt bird, which in ancient time was said to be an all-powerful bird standing ready to carry the King on his errands and which is still the symbol of royalty in Thailand Most of the ships in port were dressed for the occasion

Besides the crowd at the wharf, a considerable gathering was waiting to greet the Royal couple on the route through Lyttelton. The numbers thinned as the procession began to climb the hill towards Evans Pass, but there were little knots of people here and there all the way up. The Royal car was third in a line of 12. The speed of the procession approached 30 miles an hour over the hill, but dropped to between 15 and 20 at Sumner and held at that for the rest of the way. Several hundred turned out to watch the King and Queen pass through Sumner, and there were crowds at Redcliffs and Mount Pleasant From Charlesworth street to the city there was almost a continuous line of people on the left-hand side of the road, while many sat in cars on the right-hand side. There was no traffic in the other direction The crowds greeted the visitors enthusiastically, waving bunting, tree branches in blossom, sticks bearing streamers in the Thai colours of red. white and blue. British and New Zealand flags, and here and there the horizontally-striped flag of Thailand.