FLOODLIGHTS FOR CORONATION

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 175, 21 April 1937, Page 10

FLOODLIGHTS FOR CORONATION

Wellington Preparations PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND CITY STREETS The following item appears in the March issue of the bulletin of the Department of Overseas Trade, London.: — “The New Zealand Government has placed a contract with a British electrical manufacturer for over 130 floodlights for use with various coloured lamps. These floodlights are to be used for illuminating the main Government buildings and the railway stations in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. This is believed to be the largest single order for electric discharge floodlighting yet placed in any part of the world.” Specially-ordered for lighting State buildings during Week, the lamps have now reached New Zealand. .They will pour a total of about 2,000,000 candle-power upon the buildings selected for illumination in honour of the King. Eight of these lights, mounted on standards, were fixed on the sidewalks at the new Wellington railway station, four on the Featherston Street frontage and four along the Bunny Street facade. In addition, other “floods” are being mounted on the canopies at the entrances to the building and at other points from which the main architectural features will be best picked out by the beams in the night. The Public Works Department, which is charged with the work of illuminating selected State buildings throughout the country, hopes to achieve pleasing results with its floodlighting scheme. The old familiar method of outlining the dominant features of buildings with festoons of coloured globes has been discarded in favour of tire newer system of using softly-toned floodlights. This scheme is much in vogue overseas, and was widely employed in Britain for the silver jubilee celebrations of the reign of his late Majesty King George V. The Chicago World Fair afforded another opportunity for the large-scale use of colour in floodlighting, some strikingly beautiful effects having been obtained. Artistic Ingenuity. The artistic application of floodlights calls for some ingenuity. A good example of what can be done was seen during the jubilee, when Parliament Buildings, Wellington, were lighted externally in red. amber and green. The effect was wholly pleasing, and a tinted photograph of the buildings by night was reproduced in a brochure published by an English firm specialising in decorative lighting. Parliament Buildings will again be floodlighted in red, amber and green, and the new station in red and amber. The General Post Office will be lighted on its Jervois Quay frontage. The State Fire building is another that will be similarly treated. In purchasing the floodlights from England, the department has aimed at acquiring material that can be used on other State occasions that may follow the coronation. In addition to the lighting by night and decoration with bunting by day, a standard series of cut-outs of the King and Queen, suitably embellished, is being prepared. These are to be set up over porticoes and in the entrances to the snialler buildings. They are being made in two sizes, one 20ft. by 10ft., and the other Oft. by 4ft. Coronation Day—May 12 —is three weeks distant, but Wellington already shows activity in preparing its decorations. The city corporation is busy stringing festoons of coloured globes along the main streets. Lambton Quay. Courtenay Place and Cambridge Terrace have now been “wired,” the two first-named streets on both sides, and the terrace down the centre.

One of the large clothing stores in Lambton Quay is having its frontage outlined in electric bulbs, and other private premises will follow in a day or two.