MASS PILGRIMAGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23620, 2 April 1940, Page 8

MASS PILGRIMAGE

FORT BASTION SCENE VISIT BY THOUSANDS PUBLIC'S FINAIi TRIBUTE All day yesterday Fort Bastion was the scene of a remarkable pilgrimage when thousands of people visited the last resting place of the late Prime Minister, Mr. Savage. From early morning until sunset and after crowds gathered on the headland paying a final tribute. There was a group on the grassy slopes at 7 a.m. By 8 o'clock the number had swelled to 400, and then, for many hours there was a .constant procession of people coming and going. Special buses began running from the city to Bastion Point shortly after 9 a.m., a service that was augmented in the afternoon. Private motor-cars and taxis carried hundreds of people along the waterfront road and over the inland route by way of Kopa Road. Wealth of Colour and Beauty The wreaths and greenery had been left as they were the previous day and, although they had wilted in the sun, there was still a wealth of colour and beauty. Hour after hour a crush of people moved slowly along the avenue leading to the vault, or pressed against the barrier protecting the hundreds of wreaths that carpeted a grassy slope. All admired the view of harbour and land which the fort commands. Youth and age were represented by the visitors,. although the latter were in a great majority. Many elderly people had preferred to delay a day in paying their last tributes in order to avoid the packed crowds that were at the funeral. Few, probably, had expected that huge numbers wou.d gather again yesterday. Activity of. Photographers Hundreds of amateur photographers took pictures from various vantage points during the day. Sometimes three and four cameras would be focusscd on the same subject at a time. The avenue of flowers, the carpet of wreaths, tho observation platform from which The Last Post" had been sounded, and the fort as a whole were taken, and retaken from all angles. .Meanwhile, as the visitors mo\cd about, a policeman guarded the entrance to the magazine area which workmen were engaged in boarding up. Where once in former days soldiers took up sentry posts, other policemen mounted a different duty. During the afternoon* a group of postal officials were engaged in cutting the cards from wreaths and other floral tributes and collecting them in bags. i The vault that contains the casket had been sealed the previous evening. ' I'll us it will remain until such time as a permanent memorial to mark the burial place has been decided upon. FUNERAL CROWDS PASSENGERS BY TRAM ABOUT 135,000 CARRIED A record Sunday total of about 135,000 passengers was carried on the services of the Auckland Transport Board on the occasion of Mr. Savage's funeral, according to a report by the engineer and manager, Mr. A. E. Ford, to a meeting of the board yesterday. Revenue totalled £l4Ol, compared with the previous record Sunday total of £1215 received during the Roman Catholic centenary celebrations early in 3938. Mr. Eord paid a tribute to the board's staff for compiling so expeditiously the minute details necessary to accomplish a most difficult traffic movement involving the short-shunting of cars at various points to enable the routes to be cleared jror the procession. He also expressed appreciation of the co-operation received from various bus operators. Motormen, conductors and inspectors were to be commended for the manner in which they carried out their duties, he added. Notwithstanding the very heavy vehicular traffic, no accidents involving the board's services were reported.

MOTIONS OF SYMPATHY Reference to the death of the late Prime Minister, Mr. Savage, was made by the chairman of the Auckland Stock Exchange, Mr. J. W. Frater, at the reopening of the market yesterday after the Easter vacation. Members carried a resolution expressing tlioir sympathy with the Government and the Labour movement in the loss of thenlead or. A motion of sympathy in the death of Mr. Savage was extended to the Government at a meeting of the Auckland Electric-Power Board yesterday. The interest which Mr. Savage had taken in the Auckland tramway undertaking when it was controlled by-the City Council was recalled bv Mr. J. A. C. Allum at a meeting of the Transport Board yesterday. A resolution was passed expressing the board's regret at Mr. Savage's death and recording the fullest appreciation of his nobility' of character and his untiring efforts for the welfare of the people of ' the Dominion.