SORROWING CROWDS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 12 April 1939, Page 9

SORROWING CROWDS

FUNERAL OF MR LYONS SERVICE AT ST. MARY’S CATHEDRAL DEEPLY IMPRESSIVE CEREMONY [U.P.A.—By Electric Telegraph—Copvmrht' l SYDNEY, 11th April. Representative citizens, from the Governor-General, Lord Gowrie, to the humblest resident, paid their last tributes to the late Prime Minister, Mr J. A. Lyons, to-day when a solemn Pontifical Mass was celebrated at St. Mary’s Cathedral. The scene at the cathedral will long be remembered. Several thousands attended the Mass and heard a 40-minute panegyric by Monsignor King, who eloquently paid tribute to Mr Lyons’s simple greatness and his rise from humble life to the highest office in the Government of his country. Monsignor King concluded: “I give to Australia the example of the family life and home of our late Prime Minister and his amiable wife as the sovereign remedy for those ills which, unless they be cured, will yet destroy even this the youngest of nations.” The cathedral and its approaches were crowded long before the hour for the beginning of Mass had arrived. Thousands more people crowded into Hyde Park, opposite the cathedral, and listened in respectful silence to amplified service. A REVERED AUSTRALIAN In addition to the Governor-General and the Governors of other States, representatives of the Protestant churches, the Salvation Army and the Jewish and Greek churches joined within the Basilica, with members of Mr Lyons’s own faith in the last rites, paying homage to a great and revered Australian.

The celebrant of the Mass was the Apostolic Delegate, Monsignor Panico. Among the thousand floral tributes was a wreath from the Government and the people of New Zealand. After this the body was borne through the principal streets of the city to the Circular Quay, where it was placed aboard the destroyer Vendetta, which left immediately for Devonport. The route of the funeral procession was thickly lined with sorrowing multitudes. The guard of honour at the Circular Quay was composed of naval ratings from H.M.S. Leander and from Australian warships. NINE CARS OF FLOWERS While the cortege, consisting of 136 cars carrying Mr Lyons’s widow and family, the Vice-Regal representatives. Ministers and other distinguished people was passing through the city, all work and traffic was entirely suspended for more than an hour. Nine cars were piled high with flowers. A guard of honour from the Royal Australian Air Force had officiated at the Basilica and mounted police and the band of the Australian Artillery headed the funeral procession. The ccffin, draped with the Australian flag, was borne on a gun-carriage.

Muffled bells at St. Mary’s pealed for an hour. Ten Air Force planes, ir Southern Cross formation, flew over head and dipped to the salutte when the casket was taken aboard the Vendetta, which cleared the heads for Devonport at 2.15 p.m. The whole ceremony, which was deeply impressive, was broadcast throughout Australia.