Queen Salote’s Body Lies In State

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30937, 18 December 1965, Page 16

Queen Salote’s Body Lies In State

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, Dec. 17. A 21-gun salute and full military ceremonial will mark the departure from Government House on Monday of the body of Queen Salote. The Queen will be borne in a coffin carried by senior officers of the three services. Army and Navy guns will combine for the solemn, final salute.

At Whenuapai the coffin will be transferred to a waiting Hercules aircraft of the R.N.Z.A.F. for the flight to Tonga. Accompanying the Queen's coffin will be Prince Tu’i Pelehake, the new Prime Minister of Tonga, and the 17-year-old Crown Prince, Prince Tafa’ahau Manumataomgo, who will arrive by air from Britain on Sunday afternoon. More than 800 Tongans, representatives of Auckland’s civic and religious institutions, and others, went silently to Government House today to past a last tribute to the Queen.

At 6.15 p.m. King Tupou IV arrived with a party of about 100 Tongans. They sang hymns and prayed for two hours.

Among the mourners were many Maoris. A group of 20 arrived in the pouring rain at 8.15 p.m. and, some weeping, sang to the memory of the Queen. At 9 p.m. the gates to Government House were closed but silent groups of Tongans prepared to keep a vigil throughout the night. The body will continue to lie in state from 9 a.nL until 10.30 a.m. on Monday. The new king, formerly Prince Tungi, will fly to Tonga on Sunday. He and his staff will travel in an R.N.Z.A.F. aircraft leaving Whenuapai at 11.30 a.m. The funeral in Tonga will be held on Thursday. The Governor-General (Sir Bernard Fergusson) and Government representatives are expected to fly there the previous day.