MARVELLOUS SPECTACLE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21137, 21 March 1932, Page 9

MARVELLOUS SPECTACLE.

SriKIT OF CARNIVAL.

VAST CROWD KEYED UP.

OPENING CEREMONY SCENES

SYMBOLICAL PROCESSION.

By Telepraph—Pre 53 Association— Copyright (Received March '2O. 5.5 p.m.) SYDNEY. March '2O.

The .•weather for the opening of the 6vdney Harbour Bridge yesterday was perfect. The day was cool and there was a cloudless sky.

The half million people who had a close-up view of the bridge pageant will have something tangible to remember. Thanks to the brilliant, sunny day there yas a carnival spirit everywhere. Thrills on land and water the air kept the vast surging crowd keyed up day and right.

Depression was forgotten by the huge well-dressed, well-behaved crowd which thronged every vantage point or perched on roof-tops and parapets. They saw a marvellous spectacle when the procession of floats, bands, soldiers, white-clothed school-children and Boy Scouts crossed the great bridge from south to north. The Old Order and the New.

Then there were charming tableaux depicting the finger-posts of history, industries and sport; graceful suif gh'S and gallant surfmen in costume and fullblooded aboriginals—sharp contrasts in characters.

Old-time coaches and ancient highwheeled bicycles, in fact, everything symbolical of the old and the new order of things seemed to be represented in this colourful and diversified procession.

The day having been proclaimed a public holiday, and an additional attraction being the Royal Show, the city was thronged by record crowds. Premier Declares Structure Open. The opening ceremony took place at the southern approach or city side of the bridge overlooking Observatory Park. At 10 a.m. the Governor, Sir Phillip Game, delivered the opening address. He read a message from His Majesty the King, and then pressing a button on the dais, unveiled a tablet naming the bridge .The Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The Premier. Mr. J. T. Lang, then declared tho bridge open for traffic, and unveiled a commemorative tablet. Speeches followed by the Minister of Works, the Hon. M. A. Davidson; the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Mr. Waider; the Mayor of North Sydney, Mr. Primrose, the Parliamentary representatives of the districts served by the bridge; the chief engineer of the bridge, Dr. Bradfield, and representatives of the builders, Donnan, Long and Company, Limited, Messrs. Kiteon, deputy chairman, and Ennis, director of construction.

In the presence r, f the Governor and the official party the Premier cut a ribbon stretched across the entrance to the

bridge jirop. r, to the" accompaniment of bands plaving natioTial airs, a salute of 21 guns from a battery in one of Hie parks, and the acclamations of the assembled multitudes on the neighbouiing foreshores on both side? of the harbour, and on cverv headland from which c\en a distant mow of the scene could be obtained. Thrilling Aerial Manoeuvres. Combined, aerial and aquatic' displays occupied the spectators attention. A squadron of Royal Australian Air torce mach.nes, which bad been waiting at a gr'at altitude above Paramatta. Eiver, picked up the signal and swooped clown toward the crown of the bridge arch, whence they flew away again in thrilling manoeuvres. Simultaneously a huge fleet of motor launches and similai ciaft manoeuvred on the harbour and undei the 1 H'idge.

The official party (hen crossed the bridge to the north side, where the Mayor of \Y.rth Svdiiey cut the ribbon <o signalise the opening of the thoroughfarp into the northern suburbs.

The scissm s used by the Premier at. the southern end were presented by tlie bridge builders, but those used at the northern end were the same as those used recently at a similar ceremony at Kill Hull Bridge. New York, and had been «ent bv the Mayor of New York as a goodwill offering.