AUCKLAND REGIMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 124, 29 May 1933, Page 9

AUCKLAND REGIMENT

CONSECRATION OF COLOURS

—— t COMING CEREMONY

(By Telegraph.) (Special to the "Evening Post.") AUCKLAND, May' 23. A picturesque and impressive military ceremony will take place at the War Memorial Museum on the afternoon of Sunday, June 4, when the King's Colours, of the Ist, 2nd, and 3rd Battalions, Auckland Eegiment, New Zealand Expeditionary Force, which wero presented after tho war by hia Majesty, will be consecrated by Archbishop Averill and trooped in the presence of the Governor-General Lord Bledisloe. They will afterwards be handed to the museum authorities for safe keeping. Taking a leading part in the ceremony will be Colonel S. S. Allen, C.M.G., D.5.0., Colonel A. Plugge, C.M.G., and Major the Et. Hon. J. G. Coates, M.C., Minister of Finance. These three officers brought the colours back to New Zealand after seeing active service with the Auckland Regiment during the war. The Governor-General will arrive at the museum at 3 p.m., and will be met !by Archbishop Averill, Colonel J. E. Duigan,, D.5.0., commanding the Northern Command, Colonels Allen, and Plugge, Major Coates, and tho president of the Auckland Institute and Museum, Mr. A. G. Lunn. On emerging at the front entrance of the museum, Lord Bledisloe will receive a Royal Salute, after which he will inspect the guard. The colours will be removed from the pile,of drums by three officers and handed to the Governor-General, who, as representative of the King, will hand them to three other officers. The drums will be unpiled, and, as the colburs aro unfurled, a general salute will be given. A brief address will be given by his Excellency, and the colours will be handed to the museum authorities by Colonels Allen and Plugge and Major Coates. ' Brief speeches will bo made by the three officers in turn, after which Mr. Lunn, will formally accept tho colours' on behalf of the Museum Council. A general salute will be given, and, as the colours disappear through the door of the museum, the band will play "Auld Lang Syne." Before following the colours into the museum Lord Bledisloe will be given a Royal Salute. .