IMPRESSIVE SCENES

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 138, 15 May 1925, Page 2

IMPRESSIVE SCENES

FUNERAL UNDER GLOOMY SKY.

GREAT SILENCE IN THE CITY,

Per Press Association^

WELLINGTON. May 14. Under a gloomy sky, tho funeral of New Zealand's late leader moved away froin Parliament Buildings to Point Halswell at one o’clock, a great and impressive, concourse standing in silence to mark their last respects. Long beforo midday on tho sidewalks ot Lambton Quay, Molesworth and Bowen streets, people congregated, the numbers steadily growing till almost one o’clock, when movement ceased, and the great concourse stood in silence. All traffic had been diverted from the streets in the vicinity of Parliament, Buildinks and the funeral cars, according to their classes and groups were drawn .up. Tho early arrangements for traffic control were carried through smoothly and without incident. With one accord, when the Artillery Band, stationed in the Parliamentary grounds, played the first bars of the “Dead March in Saul” the great gathering at the entrance gates and far along the Quay uncovered and thu9 stood motionless and

silent. The hoarse, followed by eight draped lorries bearing wonderful floral tributes to the late Dominion leader, and the official earn wound slowly down the winding carriage-way to the Quay. There, the .semi-official cars joined in from Bowen street, and after them again an apparently endless stream of. cars from Molesworth street, from Lower Lambton Quay and Bunny street. Still, as the cortege filed slowly past, almost noiselessly, car after car - , those on the roadt'ide stood uncovered, motionless and silent. The wonder of it was that so many could stand _ so very quietly. Only the mournful music of the funeral dirge played by the Petone Band at the intersection of Featherston street and Lambton Quny and tho slow toll of the Town Clock broke in upon the reverent- silence as the cortege moved on, upon either side pacing veterans of the South African campaign and men returned from the Great War. THOUSANDS OF SPECTATORS. Through moro thousands, standing jn Upper Lambton Quay and Willis street, all along Manners street, to Courtenay Place, the cortege wended its way, and when it reached the head of Courtenay Place, the veterans and returned soldiers escorting the hearse halted and stood to attention. While the funeral passed from Courtenay Place to Newtown, many thousands of people lined both sides of the streets and the noble music of the dead, which at intervals along the route pierced the muffled atmosphere, gave a most impressive and inspirational touch to the last stage of the Prime Minister’s last journey. From Const able street downward the sloping road skirting tho hillside overlooking Evans Bay permitted the cortege to. make faster progress. Every vantage point was occupied by groups of silent people. On reaching the level stretch along the head of the bay-, the footpaths were again lined by continuous crowds of mourners, and even over the final portion of the journey from the Miramar wharf to Shelly Bay—a sinuous ribbon of rough road between the rippling waters of Evans Bay and the frowning hills of the Miramar Peninsula—there were disclosed at every turn little group! of people waiting to pay silent tribute to the great man. ROAD TO THE TOP OF THE HILL.

Beyond Shelly Bay, the head of the procession fialted and the hearse, with the official party, was detached to climb a road specially made to the top of the hill, where tho casket was transferred to a gun carriage, which was drawn by N.C.O.’s of the Permanent Force a quarter of a mile to Point Halswell.

In the meantime, the rest of the procession moved on and members of the Legislature, with the official departmental heads, army and na y representatives and other prominent, people, made their way by a short cut up the hillside to the site Cf tho burial. These were grouped around the temporary vault on the flat space formerly occupied by the big gun, and a little way off the higher knolls wore quickly occupied by numbers of the public. As the guncarriage approached, headed by the First Battalion Band, playing a funeral march, every other sound ceased, except the sighing of the light northerly wind and lap-lap of the waves oil the beach below. The sun remained invisible, but the rain held off though the higher hilltops were veiled in mist. Ferry steamers, crowded with silent onlookers., cruised closo inshore, while numbers of motor launches and yachts kept them company watching the solemn proceedings on the heights above. When the cortege reached the enclosure of the burial site at 3 p.m., a corporal of Marinos with chief and petty officers of iI.M.S. Dunedin, boro the casket to the grave, the lata Prime Minister's brother and sons acting as j,all-bearers. AT' THE GRAVESIDE. A band played “Nearer, my God to TheC,” and the Rev. J. Gibson Smith, read portion of Psalm 103, verses 15 to 18: also from Revelations XIV., 13; 1. Thessaloniars IV., 13-14; 1 Conn mans, XV, 20-22, and Revelations XXI., 1-4. The body was lowered into the grave and tho Moderator of the Presbjtenan

Church, the Very Rev. George Miller,, recited the committal portion of the He then engaged in a short, prayer ans pronounced the Benediction. The trumpeter of the Permanent Force; Sergeant Baker, sounded “The Last Post,” the notes sounding sweetly subdued, as bofitting tho occasion. At about tlijs time the sun found a rift in the clouds to the westward, and shot a few beams on the harbour waters, but the murk in the fky closed :in again and sombre clouds bncoded over the scene. THE MASONIC SERVICE.

The Masonic senice was (her, read by the Deputy-Grand Master of die New Zealand Constitution (Bro. Oliver Nicholson), assisted by Bros. W. G. Girling, Rev. W. Shirer, H. L. Michel and J. A. Nash. At 3.35 the proceedings >nded with the Benediction, pronounced th- time by the Rev. Bro. Shirer. While the last few words were being recited, rain began to fall and continued for some minutes heavily, while the dead Prime Minister’s late colleague i and many friends took a last sad look at the casket; then they slowly made the r way down to the roadway and so back 1o tie city, and the thousand and one cares of public and private life. As they did no, the clouds lifted, the sun shone fitfully forth and poured its slanting, golden rays upon tho spot where, in lonely grandeur, the dead leader sleeps.