25,000 Children “Make” City’s Official Welcome

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30059, 18 February 1963, Page 12

25,000 Children “Make” City’s Official Welcome

Children “made” the official Christchurch welcome to Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh at Lancaster Park on Saturday. Twenty-five thousand of them, filling most of the oval and most of the stands, made the 2000 invited guests and the thousand or two adults on the embankment seem diminutive, and the sound of all these young voices was something to be remembered.

Youngsters streamed in from 10.30 a.m., and by the time the last arrived just before noon the park was a sea of young humanity. It swirled and eddied on the flat and crested high up in the stands as greens and blues, flecked with white, surged constantly in the sun. The children held their allotted places remarkably well, but their mounting excitement bubbled continually.

This vast assembly had come from all over Canter-bury-more than 3000 by six special trains from Timaru, Ashburton, Lyttelton, Rangiora, and Amberley; 3500 by 100 country school buses, 10,000 by 50 Christchurch Transport Board buses making three swift crips each from city schools, and the rest under their own arrangements.

Some in the south and some in the high country left after a very early breakfast and were not home till teatime But the 40 min-

utes in their Queen’s presence was worth every moment of the hours taken to get there. They formed up inside and outside a great U on the oval formed by the path of the Royal drive. A gap in the middle was the sacred cricket pitch, directly in front of the dais.

Excitement had reached fever pitch by noon, and the arrival of the mayoral car, mistaken for the Queen’s, set off cheers which resounded again and again around the enclosure. •

Eruption When the Royal couple did arrive, almost half an hour late, the children simply erupted. They cheered, they whistled, they waved, they ran, they jumped, and they jostled. As the Queen and the Duke made a circuit and a half of the oval and later

another half in the speeiallybuilt utility vehicle, there was nothing that could be desired in the childrein’s welcome. Indeed, they were so carried away that cheering continued through toe first bans of toe National Anthem.

Wendy Perks presented Her Majesty with a little pink bouquet on behalf of all toe children, and soon came their choral welcome — 3000 voices rising as one under Mr K. R. Newson’s baton with every word of six songs heard in every part of toe ground. Speeches Missed The same could not be said of toe speeches. Few children could follow them because of toe echoes, but they did not mind a bit. They cheered when adults applauded; and when the Mayor (Mr G. Manning) called formally for cheers for Her Majesty, they were the loudest anyone present had ever heard. The tumult continued until toe Royal car left the ground.