AN IMPERIAL CITY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16424, 7 May 1924, Page 2

AN IMPERIAL CITY.

WEMBLEY’S PALACES. Twelve thousand British workmen have ifcmpleted at Wembley ai maisterB piece of architectural planning. Out of (the blank chaos of n few months back there has emerged miraculously a fairy city, r . The handling of the masses wlio will come to Womblev is necessarily a. inaltter . fog most careful and expert prevision. Railway and road approaches have been, ordained upon a. settled plan. Frequent and accelerated train services, ■ facilities for tumling ’buses at the rate • .of six per minute, ample aipproaehes and easy par'wng facilities for private motor '• vehicles. .spacious eiitramccs, special railway stations—all these make for* rapid and easy transit towards the great popular resort. The new railways which dissect the exhibition, grounds have, been aesthetically interred ini cuttings of ade/quate depth,' and the central station which they feed will disgorge its thousands, into the .exhibition proper. AN EXTERN PICTURE . The lake is irregularly outlined in charming grassed banks, sinking gently to the water’s edge. Its surface is broken by numerous ornamental islets a.nd swept, by picturesque craft of every exotic, design, from canoe to catamaran. The stretch of water to the east mirrors the graceful, tapering <lome aind the slender minarets of an Eastern temple, the niaginificcin.f, PalTace of Indian Art, the .exterior of which recalls the Tay Mahal and the Jama. Masjid. The piteture, ethereal and incredible,' prompts cne to rutb one’s eyes like a. fovered desert traveller confronted by a. city of dreams. One turns 'to l the westward to find the vista, terminated' by the Uus- , tere’.y Ihamdsome facade of the New Zealand buildings, siet back with a keen eva to peuspective behind a. forecourt spread with green lawns and clear-cut paths. To the south the view is enclosed by tbe impressive neo-Greek frontage of the Canadian building and the superlb colonnaded expanse of -the < Australian, which sweeps awnv in a harmonious diminuendo some 700 ft. to the. westward. Above these two landmarks of British civilisation beyond the seas there looms- the towers of the Stadium, with its giant, amphitheatre ready to accommodate the world’s biggest. sporting crowds. To the north of tlho lake there, rise the '.biggest buildings among all this Kwtanderful collection —the twin Palaices of Industry and Engineering—in which the twhiievements of British Invention and craftismntuship will be demonstrated to the world Oil a, quite unprecedented scale. Ov<v- a floor-space equivalent to twelve Trntalgar-sq wares packed side by grant halls have beam constructed 1 under •the two roofs. In the Palace, of. Engineering there are five main divisions of exhibits grouped under tbe headings of shipbuilding, marine nind mechanical and general engineering, electrical and allied engineering, water-transport, land-trans-port, and* motor and cycle section. The ’ Palace of Industry contains twenty-three 'sections, all of them intercommunicating find each devoted to' one important )}. 'branch of production. p ' AIN*EMPIRE ;N MINIATURE. ;■ .tfVom the central lake, therefore, one h ia .permiit.fed'perhnins the most compre 1 hemivti. ground-level' view of the exhibiA tiqn. Emm it one can walk in which ~.1 direction fancy leads, exploring_nn t: p ' Empire in. miniature aind assured of meeti ’'; ing 'some spectacle- which will 1 ■ fascinate 5 and amuse/ Even the pram-lined walks Ejp are interesting, with their lamps enclosed in' terreistiaT globes, correctly ' tilted, and the British Empire outlined ort eateh. Visitors with; ai fixed l objective ■A and not on. cashail ti^ht-seeing bent will '/ - 'take cne of ‘the little electric .vun-nhont *v cairs, propellod like the lonics, which ■: ! ptndegs use so dexterously amid the, !.■' crowds oft the big railway stations. The :■ v’si tor who plans to spend l a. day at , , Wembley will hie in an unhappy pre- '■! ( .- dica.ment. since ho will not. he able to view even cursorily .more than a. smallest fraction of what is worth seeing. It will (need a superman to avoid being trapped into spending all .bis time in one or other ■ , of ai hundred enchanting spots. Who-, for example, would desert a _ Wes* African village, enclosed in delightful K (terra.,cotta, mud walls and tenanted by •reniV natives of jNigeriai. tbe Gold Coast,, find ISierra Leone, without prospecting fully'-'a wonderful achievement in realism? In such ai calse- the visitor would •be rewarded by some .really beautiful • glimpses of native architecture «nd / workmanship-reproduced in minute dctail—in. the interior construction of the : Gold . Coast , 'building. The Chinese fitregt, provided by Hong Kong, with its lrril. poirul.nt.ioin of Ce l estials, the Singalese Temple, modelled after the famous Kand'yan “Temple'of the Tooth,” v r tlhe Burmese pavilion,' with its wonderful decorative carvings, Tile coalmine, with its labyrinth of underground workings, the marine, battle spectacles on the grant water stage of the British ' . Government’s pavilion, even thet pleasure y ■ park, with its ingenious new coatings amid.whirlings, all l , have their peculiar thrills for the .visitor to Wembley. .MECHANICAL SURPRISES. The latest wonders of science arid engineering are at his disposal in his, search for diversion. The “Never Stop” rail-way,-which will transport him, in throe minutes from one side of the 250 acres of exhibition ground to the other,. is 1 ,/ something quite new to most people, g Driverless and conductorless cars will pass unceasingly along the line, slowing dciwn to two cm cl a. half m iles an hour . ' at the stations, and darting, forward inexplicably at twenty-four miles an hour - as soon: as the pla-tforoms are left be- ; hind.' The secret of their astonishing ; variation of sneeri is contained in a revdlving shaft land between the rails, to ¥. ; the bore o|, which the cal’s are connected. ;,V .Afl-'fhe stations the thread narrows, pn>peillirisr the cans at al snail’s'pace; otrt- ‘ side the thread increases greatly in width, dragging them fo.nvaird without increasing-the. rotation of the screw. The 'railway can deall with, 20,000 passengers lan hour—equal to the peak load at Ob’aring-eross Station 1 . One of the features.of t'h,e exhibition will be the system of bridges; .which, will conduct the crowd's over'the sunken railway without giving them a hint of its presence. One •' of these bridges has been constructed by a l remarkable feat of high-speed engineer..pjg j;t. the space of six_ weeks. It will carry a handsome Indian bnrawvr, complete with shops on f ithen-, side. ;>TW visitor who sets off on his tour from the bake must take care to retrace ‘ hfe steps tliither after dark. It. will he the finest spot from which to view the wonderful and elaborate effects of . the flood* lighting which at night will transform ithe exhibition into a gorgeous fairyletnd of dolor. The waiters of the lake : . itself will become luimiiuauis, as they, are thrniselves flooded by hidden submarine lights grouped around the sides of the ~ 'mutamenifjll islands.