FESTIVAL OF EMPIRE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10766, 15 May 1911, Page 4

FESTIVAL OF EMPIRE.

[By Electric Telegraph—Coi'i-right.]

. (Per Press; Association.) London, May 13. Yesterday's spectators at the Festival of Empire numbered 144,234.

A GREAT IMPERIAL FESTIVAL. The Festival of Empire contains the greatest pageant ever produced ;'n Great Britain. "It is a lesson in history," said the Daily Mail, • "told not in colorless. words, but by a series of colossal scenes, in which armies of trained performers will'take part." The master of the pageant, Mr Frank Lascelles, who has conducted many similar pageants; explains that it illustrates history in three chapters, which might be called "England," "Great Britain," and "Greater Britain." In the first scene the ancient Briton with his stone axe and painted body will appear in the'flesh; he will hunt deer as he did in the past ages over prehistoric London. The scene is changed, and another London appears; everywhere the Roman'soldier is in the ascendant. Another- change and the most dramatic scene in the pageant is presented. The Danes' sailing up the. Thames are stopped by "London Bridge."! In. their eagerness the gallant defenders underestimate the strength of the bridge. It breaks, and •• its living • load is hurled into the water. Again the scene changes, to the Norman Conquest. A success of scenes and Edward 11. and Queen Philippa. with knights on mailed horses, give place to the Canterbury Pilgrims. Then comes the great rebellion of 1381, the city of Loudon a prey to the advance.of Wat Tyler. Next Henry V returns triumphant from France. At the close of the Wars of the Roses begins a new era and a .new chapter. Court scenes with gaudy dress and tawdry pomp predominate. Now Sir Humphrey Gilbert appears—"and there in the presence of them all he did 'cause his commission ilnder the Great Seal of England to be openlie and solenmlie reade unto them." On that day he formally took .possession of Newfoundland "in the right of the Crown if England by digging up a turfe and receiving the same with a hazel wande." Thus is pourtrayed the founding of the first of the colonics. The 'remainder of the pageant includes scenes from colonial and Indian historv, such as the arrival of settlers at the Cape and the great Durbar of 1877, when tlip. Queen was proclaimed Empress. In the final scene the Dominions from oversea gather to be welcomed by the Mother Country, bringing with them gifts peculiar to the lands from which they come. There will bo from 12,000 to 15.000 performers in the pageant, varying in the social scale from dustmen and laborers to dukes and duchesses. , The All-Rod tour, the models of the Empire's Parliament Houses, and Canada's £70,000 exhibit, are embodied in. one of the greatest novelties of the Festival. Any traveller possessed of the necessary shilling waits on a fictitious, but very real, Liverpool docks, embarks on a magnificent "liner" and sails' slowly down the Mersey "to the broad: Atlantic. A short, quick"trip, ahd-he"is in Newfoundland, viewing r the flskiiig industry, faithfully pourtrayed by-men 'from, the famous trawling grounds. "A mono-rail car, substituted for the ordinary; train of the Canadian--1 ra'ilway, makes the trip." across Canada. fThe 1 voyage affords scope for Canada's emigration propaganda, and doubtless the £70,000 is here well spent. So-.the-journey ..goes on to other parts of the .Empire, 'including; New Zealand. The.'T'feWt.Zealand pavilion is a copy of the 'original Houses of Parliament at Wellington— 160 ft" in-' length, 150 ft in breadth, and 25ft in height. Altogether, 6000 workmen liave been engaged in preparing the grounds, and the sum expended on the Palace and grounds is. upwards of £250,000. For the Imperial Fair of Fashions, the whole of the south transept of the Crystal Palace has been transformed. This provides a delicate and artistic setting for beautiful costumes, rare laces, jewellery —everything, in fact, that a woman can desire lor her clothing and adornment.