EXHIBITION PAGEANT

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 72, 25 March 1926, Page 4

EXHIBITION PAGEANT

A POPULAR SPECTACLE,

(By' Telegraph.—Press Association.)

DUNEDIN, 24th March,

Nearly a thousand, day, excursionists from the Gore friendly societies saw the Exhibition to-day, in: ideal weather.. This week's party of school children numbers between 700 and SOO. They como from the" West Coast, Kaikoura,. Waimate,. Geraldine, Queenstown, and' Central Otago. Tho tourist booking office expects record Easter traffic. A special train from. Christchurch on Good Friday morning has been heavily overbooked,- and the second is. scheduled for leave 20 minutes later.

The big pageant and military tattoo'r is drawing great crowds to the sports ground at night. Searchlights and torches are used to produce impressive, lighting effects. The pageant by means of illuminated moving tableaux,' depicts famous incidents in New Zealand, history from i'l first discovery by the Maoris to the final peace with the pakehas. Then a picturesque ceremonyof the changing guard, in which the red and white uniforms of "Victoria's time mingle with the shorts of the Senior Cadets, ushers in the tattoo. The most impressive features here are the marching by the massed bands, with tho torch-bearers' drill and maze-march-ing .by Cadets, the Scottish scena, with tho national songs and dances round tho campfire, and the full, dress artillery drive, ending in a. salvo that shakes'the hills. At the finish all the, military forces line up, while Abide With Me" is played in the semi-dark-ness, and, as the "Last Post" is sounded, the last light disappears.