HISTORICAL PAGEANT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 303, 20 November 1934, Page 7

HISTORICAL PAGEANT.

SCENES AT PORTLAND

THE CHURCH’S MESSAGE.

MELBOURNE, Nov. 19. Whereas a few aborigines watched the Hontys land at Portland from the Thistle a century ago, thousands of well-dressed citizens gazed from the cliffs and shore as scenes of a century ago were made to live again to-day. Every vantage point was crowded. A strange contrast was presented by a tiny ketch representing the Thistle and the towering hulls of the Sussex and Canberra. When the Thistle came to anchor a boat was lowered and a party dressed in costumes of the period came ashore. A weird assortment of cattle, dogs, and farming implements was ceremoniously landed with some unrehearsed incidents such as one steer fouling the anchor chains and later colliding with a motor-boat which was incongruously on the scene. The Duke of Gloucester was keenly interested in the proceedings. Mrs Coster, of New Zealand, the only surviving daughter of Stephen Plenty, was later presented to him. The ' Duke remained at Portland throughout the day, leaving in the evening. The service at dawn was conducted by the Archbishop of. Melbourne, the Most Rev. F. W. Head, the Bishop of Ballarat, Right Rev. P. C. T. Crick, Rev. J. MacKenzie, Rev. Mr Warren, and Rev. Mr Martin. Archbishop Head, in his address, said: “We should give thanks for our Empire, our Monarchy, our Church and our British character.” He added: “You people of Portland have given a lead to the city how to celebrate a centenary.” Bishop Crick spoke of those who, in humble confidence and venturesome faith, landed here a century ago and established under the Southern Cross a new home. “We thank God that those who followed built faithfully on the foundations so well and truly laid,” he added. In a farewell message to Victoria, the Duke of Gloucester said: “Having travelled the length and breadth of Victoria and met its men, women, and children from the city and the land, I feel encouraged to say that here is stock worthy of its ancestors and worthy to hold the fair land which was handed down to it.”