MAJESTIC SHRINE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21961, 19 November 1934, Page 6

MAJESTIC SHRINE

| TRIBUTE TO THE FALLEN j homage of victoria I CEREMONY BY THE . DUKE [from OUR OffX COR respondent] I v . MELBOURNE. Nov. 12 I The most important of the many 1 Armistice Day functions in Australia | yesterday was the great gathering that j assembled in Melbourne on the occaf sion of the dedication of the wonderful 1 Shrine of Remembrance. About 300,000 { people took part in this ceremony, : which was marked by brilliant J pageantry and deeply impressive scenes without parallel in the history of Ausitralia. ' / About 30,000 sailors and troops, representing the three arms of.defence, r and including both/ British and Do- : j minion units, manned the approaches to the Shrine in impressive columns be- ■| fore the dedication 9eremony was perj formed by the Duke of Gloucester. The !l immense concourse began to assemble ( before the Shrine at the breaking of -j dawn. > The Shrine has been built on a hill | commanding the whole city, and can be i ] seen from almost every point of the i metropolis. From early morning flags were flying gaily from every mast in the city, but as a great guu boomed out to denote the eleventh hour all were hauled to half-mast —a symbolical act, which } brought to the mind of everyone the true meaning and significance of Armistice Day. At that h our ., too, the Duke laid upon the Rock of Remembrance, in the Inner Shrine of the memorial, the : King's wreath, poppies on a baok- ! ground of laurel. Duke of Gloucester Arrives Precision and simplicity were the keyj notes of the proceedings, both of the | preparatory movements and manoeuvres | and those of which the actual ceremony ■ of dedication consisted. The importance of punctuality had 'been impressed upon all those taking part in the ceremony and the distance that the Duke of Gloucester would have to walk from Domain Road to the crypt of the Shrino had been carefully measured, so that, walking slowly, he must arrive beside the Rock of Remembrance just one minute before the eye of light struck the stone. Exactly at 10.45 a.m. the Duke arrived at the poirjt where the avenue of trpops began at Domain Road and was'received by the Governor, Lord Huntingfield, who hid preceded him by cue minute. Both then joined the cor- | tege and .began the advance up the hill toward the Shrine, the narrow way being flanked at the lower end by colour parties bearing the King's Colour i of every Victorian infantry regiment ■ and sis colour parties carrying the guidons of the light horse. The upper ' half of the lane/cf troops was composed of parties of naval men from the warships in port; they stood with fixed bayonets and firms fit the "present" as the Duke passed by. Bock Df Remembrance The Inner Shrine is so designed that at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month each year the sun sheds a beam, of light on the Rock of Remembrance, revealing the simple words, "Greater love hath no jnan'" Happily, in a day that was otherwise dull, the sun broke through . the heavy, massed clouds just before j|. the eleventh hour on Sunday. Then, P having illuminated the Inner Shrine and shed its mellow glow over the brilliant scene outside, it disappeared once more behind the clouds. In 2300 years the variation in the time at which the light falls on the centre of the rock .will be about two minutes only. | The plan of ejecting a Victorian war ! memorial oreinated early in 1921, and on August 4 of that year, exactly seven years after,, the outbreak of war, a public meeting discussed the project. An executive committee of leading citizens was appointed to carry it out. An announcement was made later that the State Government and the Melbourne City Council would each contribute £50,000 over a period of 10 years in equal' instalments of £SOOO. 1 successful appeal for funds through»ut the State was made. The selection of a site caused much public discussion. A special committee, after having considered more than 20 sites, eliminated all except the area then known as the Grange, in Domain Park, which was eventually adopted. A competition for the design closed in 1922, 83 designs being submitted. The design of two returned soldiers, Messrs. Philip B. Hudson and J. H. of Melbourne, was selected. Ten Thousand Pigeons With whirring Agings, 10,000 pigeons rope above the Shrine like a huge puff of smoke when they were released from I the second balcony after the ceremony of dedication. The pigeons had come from all parts of the metropolitan area and from places in the "country. They hovered above the Shrine for a moment or two, taking their bearings, aid then flew away toward, their homes. IL The pigeons were assembled in met- [ ropolitan clubrooms of the Victorian * -Homing Pigeon Association on Satur- ' dav night, and they were transported [ in *75 panniers to this Shrine, carried S tip stairways, and placed in readiness V on the balcony. A man remained in ! charge of them all night.