THE WATTLE

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1, 2 September 1913, Page 5

THE WATTLE

AUSTRALIA’S EMBLEM.

! SYDNEY’S CELEBRATION

t ßy Electric*Telecraph —Copvkium tlljMTEu Press Association.j

Sydney, September 1

At the Wattle Day celebrations today a good percentage of people who thronged the streets wore sprays of wattle, which was also displayed on motor cars and other vehicles.

Bunches were sold uy a bevy of young ladies in aid of the Free Kindergarten Union.

“THE QUEEN OF FLOWERS.”

It is just three years ago since “the powers that be” sat in council and elected the wattle queen of Australian flowers. For a time it seemed as though the stately waratah would be given Hist place until it was remembered that that regal flower blooms only in certain parts of the Continent, while the wattle from Port Darwin to Cape Leeuwin makes the land at this time of the year fragrant with its blossoms. And the decision arrived at gives it place among the flowers as a national emblem, place with the lotus, the rose, the fleur delis, the shamrock, and the thistle.

“ONLY FRIENDSHIP AND GOOD WILL.”

Mr J. H. Maiden, president of the New South Wales Wattle Day League, in a letter to the Sydney Daily Telegraph, says, inter alia:

“Onr celebration this year will take the same form as last, viz., the'plant* ing of a large collection of wattles, in the Centennial Park, and a public meeting in the evening.

“Our league does not identify itself with any movement for the raising of money for charitable or other purposes by means of the wattle. If other organisations do so, that is their own business. The New South Wales organisation contents itself with propagandist work. “The past year lias shown increasing use of the wattle as a national emblem. For example, the High Commissioner of the Commonwealth used it in London on the occasion of the celebration of Australia’s Anniversary Day. The wattle has boon freely used in the Commonwealth coat of arms, as accepted by the College of Heralds. It is used in the postal notes, and it is contemplated ,to use it in, the new issue of postage stamps. “The Australian community in Capetown wore wattle on the occasion of the visit of H.M.A.S. Australia.

“September 1 is a little late for the Most development of this beautiful flower in Sydney,, but it may bo confidently predicted that Monday will see the beautiful flower very freely in evidence in Sydney and throughout New South Wales. The flower breathes nothing but friendship and goodwill to all.”