CARELESS FLAG-HANGING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21993, 27 December 1934, Page 11

CARELESS FLAG-HANGING

SOME FLYING UPSIDE DOWN PREVALENCE OF BARE POLES Although the massed effect of the street decorations in the city for the Royal visit was impressive, a closer inspection revealed a large number of cases of carelessness in the hanging of flags, especially the Union Jack, which was often upside-down, an easy mistake to make. Again, during*the night, loosely-fixed halyards had slipped and from one office window alone it was possible to count as many as sis flags at half-mast.

The indiscriminate use of British flags as part of a string of bunting often brought the Union Jack into strange company, and some of the lesser nations would probably have be6n encouraged to find themselves, for at least one brief day, with their national flags in a position senior to the Union Jack. In this respect, probably one of the most glaring instances was to be s£en on the string running from the roof of the post office to the wireless aerial. This consisted of wha£ appeared to be the Belgian flag at the top, followed by a Union Jack upsidedown, the Scottish standard with the lion standing on its head and finally the Ndw Zealand flag upside-down. The breeze on Sunday night had furled many of the flags hung across the route of the Royal procession and, although the resultant untidy effect was probably unobserved by the official party, it nevertheless was a noticeable feature of the decorations. Above all, the prevalence of bare poles on many of the city buildings seemed hardly a fitting tribute to a Royal visitor. It was probably a case of " everybody's business being nobody's business," but there was a gaunt and rather povertystricken. look about several city blocks within sight of the Royal route.