OPENING OF PARLIAMENT.

Hutt News, Volume 3, Issue 29, 11 December 1930, Page 8

OPENING OF PARLIAMENT.

The following description of the opening of Parliament has been received frdm a Hutt visitor to London:-— To-day I saw the opening or Parlia-' xaent, a truly wonderful spectacle. I was thrilled to tlSe boots, and I wish, you all could have seen" it. I arrived on the scene at £ a.m. and even then the route was lined with a huge crowd —> not a New Zealand crowd, but thousands and thousands as far as I could see. At ten o'clock the streets were picketed with police, hundreds of them, mounted and on foot. (While on the subject of police, they are wonderful; always very civil and. most obliging. They will tell one anything or direct J one anywhere, and the way they handle ' the traffic is a marvel). Then up marched the Guards Regiment in busbies and blue uniforms with drum and fife band. They were a disappointing crowd physically, although they moved and executed orders with -clockwork precision. They lined the route at 3ft intervals. At 10.30 the cars began to arrive, carrying Generals and Admirals, Lords and Ladies, Dukes and Duchesses, Diplomats and foreign Officials, the men. in gorgeous uniforms, judges in scarlet Tobes and wigs, Indian princes and Rajahs in turbans and jewels and flowing robes, ladies wearing coronets and tiaras, driven in beautiful Bolls-Boyces, and •ooaehes and pairs. Then came the Lord

Mayor and Ms coach, with footmen and coachmen. The a troop of Life Guards in Cuirass and breastplate and sabre with waving plumes and tight ( buckskin trousers and high, boots, mounted on coal-black chargers, marching to time. These preceded the Prince of Wales who came in a coach and four, fingering a tight collar and looking boied; and lastly, most gorgeous sight of all came the .Royal coach—a gilded wonder, the panels painted by great masters and the inside red satin and drawn .by eight bay horses with postilions and footmen,, while inside sat the King' and Queen just as we have seen hundreds of times in pictures, bowing*to the cheering crowd. They all passed into the -House and then buist out a peal of bells from the. Abbey and a salute of guns from a neaTby park. So Parliament was opened, let us hope 'make for a better state of a'ffajrs than exists here at present. During the long wait many women fainted and gave the St. John Ambulance men plenty to do; three Guardsmen also fainted and were carried off to an open space, while just in front of. where I was standing t&e tßishop of Worcester collapsed and died on the street in front of the crowd. He was on his way to the ceremony. When the excitement was oveT I went into Westminster Abbey which is quite close and saw the tombs and tablets of all the great men and lungs who have been laid to rest there, including the tomb of tbe Unknown Warrior.

! Everything is, very old and ancient looking; the flagged floor is worn Into grooves with the wear of countless feet. I then went to the Westminster. Cathedral, the Catholic place. This also is a wonderful building, only half completed, all .the decorations, ceiling and iwalls are of Mosaic work and grained' j marble, while all round are chapels and beautiful altars, the view from t»he spire, which is .the tallest in London, and has a, lift running up, is really' marvellous. One can see for miles and miles and see • nothing but a sea of roofs and ,chimneys dotted here and there with parks and gardens-4—a sight to remember always.