Large Crowds Give Tribute

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 144, 14 December 1940, Page 12

Large Crowds Give Tribute

TERRITORIALS INCLUDED IN THE MARCH

The inflexible determination of a peace-loving country forced to take up arms was the impression created today by the parade of troops from the Trentham Camp through the city. The Nazi scourge has run the full round of the seasons, its legacy of misery and plunder unchecked save by the British family of nations; and in those fifteen months New Zealand's war mechanism has gained momentum through adversity into a unified response to the call of Empire. The heavy rain overnight gave way today to cloudy, sultry weather, with a light southerly breeze, and the business of Wellington was almost entirely suspended along the route of march to give the soldiers an enthusiastic reception after the official ceremony in the grounds of Parliament House. The ranks of spectators were thin at Parliament House, but huge crowds lined the main city thoroughfares, their applause rippling and swelling as each new unit passed.

Thousands of people seemed to hav^ profited by experience. There was a comparative handful of people in tl^.e grounds of Parliament House, where the view of the troops was restricted., but from modest dimensions in the lower section of Lambton Quay the crowd increased until it was many deep. There were rather more shoppers than usual hurriedly trying to make their purchases befox'e the start of the parade, and between 9 o'clock and 10 o'clock rapid pedestrian progress in Willis Street was impossible, as the normal practice of using the roadway was blocked by those persons who had already taken up their positions to watch the men. . .The main burden,of the morning fell on the. tramway services, particularly those from the eastern and. southern suburbs. The packed trams wer_ reminiscent of representative football days, and, unusually for Wellington, where the trams seem to be convertible into sardine-tins at rush-hours, many people were refused admission. The demeanour of the crowd was perhaps not so enthusiastic as it has been, but the atmosphere was more impressive because of the absence of prolonged cheering. Confetti, streamers, and sliced paper were in moderate use, particularly in the city's "canyon" at the junction of Lambton Quay, Hunter Street, and Featherston Street, and in Willis Street, where the crowd was most dense, spectators took up the words of the "Beer Barrel Polka" to help the men along. The small number of bands accompanying the troops was a matter of comment in the city, but for all that lack of assistance in marching the bearing of the troops, which included the First Battalion, Wellington Kegiment (City of Wellington's Own), was of a high standard. A diversion was caused at the intersection of Lambton Quay and Ballance Street by throaty and sepulchral voices passing over the heads of the crowd, and it was some moments before the source was discovered. A soldier was on duty directing the traffic, and he had stopped to chat with a traffic inspector. The loud-speaker in the inspector's car, however, had not been switched off, and what should have been a more or less private conversation became a more or less public exchange of greetings and comments. The troops paraded in the grounds of Parliament House with fixed bayonets and presented a fine sight. They bore well the strain of standing at ease—a misnomer when listening to speeches on a warm day—only slight movements occasionally disturbing the khaki ranks. Two men in the unit in front of the official dais fainted, but they quickly recovered. The usual battery of cameras was augmented by a large tripod movie camera operated by a corporal, who later was to be seen photographing the men on the march from the balcony of a building iv Willis Street. When finally the men moved off down Molesworth Street and on to Lambton Quay they saluted the honoured dead of the Great War by turning eyes right at the War Memorial.