SYDNEY'S PAGEANT

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 28, 3 February 1938, Page 5

SYDNEY'S PAGEANT

GLORIOUS SUCCESS

NEW ZEALAND'S PRIZE

HISTORY COMES ALIVE

(From "Th« Post's" Representative* SYDNEY, January 26. Sydney's 150th anniversary processions, the high light of the opening day of three months' celebrations, exceeded the wildest flights of fancy of all the publicity men" who had been writing and talking about it for months. More vivid than the colours of an artist's palette, more realistic than words could convey it, the story of Australia's 150 years was unfolded in vivid tableaux before the eyes of a million onlookers on Wednesday. In fine and brilliant weather vast crowds, many of whom had slept all night in the city to get points of vantage, saw Australia's March to Nationhood. Thousands trekked in with seats arid rugs and umbrellas in the early morning. The city was packed by 9 a.m., when traffic was stopped-and the crowds surged towards me barriers along the threemile route. Music blared 'from loudspeakers along the procession route before 7 a.m., when, already, whiteiielmeted police had a good idea of the tremendous crowds they would have to handle later. Hyde Park became a flower garden of human faces and gay frocks. The dense harbourside scene at'Farm Cove reflected the fascination which' the historic spot holds for the Australian. NEW ZEALAND'S AWARD DISPLAY New Zealand claimed an honourable part in these proceedings. Its float arranged^ by the New Zealand Tourist Bureau won warm and well-deserved applause along the whole route, and none cavilled at the judges' decision to award it first prize in the historical section. The float was an elaborate display. Maoris stood beside a whare. On another part of the float the dairying industry was shown and behind this were big-game fishers representing one of New Zealand's.great tourist attractions. The crowd recognised the beauty, the ingenuity, and the impressiveness of the float, and gave it a rousing reception.' There was another ' New Zealand touch: A girl representing Jean Batten sat in front of the Conquest of the Air float. Mr.' Parry, New Zealand's Minister of Internal Affairs, and his country's official representative at the celebrations, was one who praised the display. "It was a great spectacle—a happy and picturesque combination of all phases of life and beauty of yesterday tod today in this great oohtinent," he said. "As the pageant passed one seemed to be stepping along in the period so realistically depicted by the scenes displayed on the floats, each picture.bringing warm feeling to mind. To those who planned the pageant— to'those who so wonderfully marshalled it—l give New Zealand's praise. It was a remarkable and unforgettable achievement." , EARLY AUSTRALIA. V A i troop: of mounted police followed by four mounted heralds in sparkling silver chain mail were the preface to March to Nationhood, and rich, symbolic pageantry told the story.\pl primitive Australia. Here were the original inhabitants, their gins cooking 'possum outside the gunyah. Blue smoke curled lazily from their camp, and they hailed spectators with nullanullas and.boomerarigs.!; Slowly; and yet perhaps a little too fast for "the imagination of some - today, this first float went by, and Captain Cook, staunch, realistic, was seen landing at Botany. Bay. Splendid, full-blooded aborigines greeted him. Then, like the flick of another slide on the magic lantern of the mind, came Phillip.It was Phillip's Day, and; when the announcement float, heralding his era—l7Bß-1792—introduced the picturesque tableau of1 Phillip, his officers, and aborigines, the crowd greeted it as if the first Governor had returned in the flesh. The. next announcement float heralded the close of Australia's first fifty years. The population in 1810 was 11,566. Truly, .Time travelled on a float. ■ Pioneers appeared as a motley, straggling, band, in. coloured shirts, scarves, and dresses,' and were seen clearing the land for cultivation. Little homes were being built'. The dashing New South Wales Corps werit grandly by playing a popular air. Those great explorers and friends, Bass and Flinders, swept into the scene of 1795 with Boy Martin and the Tom Thumb, tiny craft of a great adventure, which poised-precariously' on a great wave. The old Tank Stream, with people of the period beside it, came into view like a tender memory and a replica of the original pump used for drawing -water carried its own message to toocomplaining householders of modern times. - ' FOUNDING OF WOOL INDUSTRY. ; Float iby float,, decade by decade, epoch by epoch, the story went on. Punctuated by floral -, geriis depicting Australian flowers in a vivid, human setting, sometimes in period, sometimes modern,* the story had never-failing interest. ■ Lieutenant Shortland was shown dis 7 covering coal, but the crowning appeal to general imagination was perhaps John Macarthur, founder of the wool industry, followed by a, charming glimpse of the manners and fashions of the time—a social gathering at Camden. Governor Bligh was spared the ignominious reputation of being dragged from under a bed. He was shown "departing."' Isaac Nichols, the first postmaster, and the first post office; period bands in uniform and the first race meeting were colourfully and strikingly represented. The spirit of courage and adventure was captured in the crossing of the Blue Mountains by Blaxland, Lawson, and Wentworth in 1813. After this, the making of roadsrthe opening of coach routes, the building of the first Lansdowne Bridge, the opening of banks, the arrival of the first steam-ship-passed in vivid sequence. Then came floats depicting mid-century developments and later—the granting of self-government, Federation of the six States, and the rise of modern history. But words, let it be repeated, cannot convey the glorious glamour of that pageant. Sydney is sophisticated enough to regard such pageants as food for children and to detect the "safety pins" holding the world of make-believe together. But this 150th Anniversary pageant was more than a fairy-tale for children and there were no safety pins. Money, brains, and artistic skill had been well spent.