Royal couple drawing ‘much bigger’ crowds

Press, 26 February 1977, Page 1

Royal couple drawing ‘much bigger’ crowds

By

PHILLIP MELCHIOR,

NZPA staff correspondent from Gisborne

New Zealanders are turning out in greater numbers to celebrate the Queen’s silver jubilee than for any other Royal tour in recent years.

The Secretary for Internal Affairs (Sir Patrick O’Dea), who acts as the Queen’s New Zealand secretary, said that the crowds on this tour were "much, much bigger” than on previous tours, a view which was supported by other New Zealand officials.

Yesterday was a busy day for the Royal couple who criss-crossed the North Island, flying from east coast to west, and back again to the east coast. In New Plymouth the Queen had a choice of pork or cold meats at a civic luncheon before rejoining Prince Philip, who had visited the Kapuni gas works, and flying on to Taupo. Wind problems at Taupo prompted tour organisers to send the back-up Ministry of Transport Friendship aircraft in first to test the cross winds for the

Queen’s aircraft flown by Captain Arthur Baily, who had no problems in landing.

For the Queen, however, the wind was a hazard. After almost losing her emerald-green hat in blustery New Plymouth earlier in the day, she lost it completely in Taupo and spent most of her 25-minute walkabout there clutching it in one hand, while with the other she coped with the billowing hemline of her emerald-green and white printed silk dress.

After the enthusiasm of Thursday and the warm reception the Royal couple received in New Plymouth, their walkabout amongst a large crowd at Gisborne’s Childers Road Reserve was subdued by comparison. Again the Royal couple have been lucky with the weather.

The heavy cloud at Napier in the morning cleared to give them t- superb view of snow-clad Ngaruhoe, Tongariro and Ruapehu as they flew to New Plymouth. In Taranaki the sun shone while Mount Egmont provided a scenic backdrop. Apart from the wind, the weather was also fine in Taupo. In Gisborne, pouring rain this morning made officials prepare contingency plans but the rain cleared in time for the ground to dry out.

Less than an hour after the walk was finished, the rain was pouring down again.

When the Duke of Edinburgh wheeled the big Bell 212 helicopter away from the Kapuni natural gas plant on Thursday he left an impressed workforce behind.

His three-hour early afternoon visit there was informal but brisk.

Th? Duke, who was given a guided tour of the installations, asked “countless questions,” according to a senior production supervisor for Shell-BP-Todd, Ltd, Mr lan Browning. At the end of the walk around the plant, the Duke spoke to a group of workmen and asked questions close to the tone such as what union they were in. how much they earned and if their wage was relative to other sections of the community.

The Duke arrived at Kapuni in contemporary Royal male style at the controls of the orange and white Helicopters (N.Z.), Ltd, Bell, normally used to service the Maui offshore project.