WELLINGTON’S TRIBUTE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1020, 10 July 1930, Page 1

WELLINGTON’S TRIBUTE

Long Procession to Parliament House

RESPECT FOR LOST LEADER

TJIB SEN'S Parliamentary llepo\

PARLIAMENT BLDGS., Today. IN the solemn gloom of the purple and black drapings that were hung about the main entrance of Parliament Buildings this morning, four artillerymen kept vigil with their arms reversed and heads bent by the body of Sir Joseph Ward, which was lying in state in the buildings, until the time of the carrying of the casket to the ferry steamer at 4 o'clock this afternoon.

Flanked with hangings and guarded by messengers in addition to the artillerymen, the casket made a wonderfully impressive sight banked up with magnificent wreaths from al.l parts of New Zealand. Silently aud reverently all through the driving rain of the morning the citizens of Wellington came to Parliament Buildings aud filed past the casket. Every few minutes new wreaths arrived and were placed upon the bier. By about noon there were 120 wreaths, including a magnificent one of orchids and greenery from the Mayor and citizens of Auckland. On the top of the casket were the Maori mat which had adorned it at the Requiem Mass yesterday, and a large wreath from members of the Ward family. At 10 o'clock this morning the hearse bore Sir Joseph's body for the last time to Parliament House aud behind in that quiet, impressive procession walked only the members of the late statesman's family. Troops took up their position when the coffin was placed and the guard was changed every 20 minutes, the old guard coming to the present as the new one took over. When the old guard had marched off the new came to the present, then slowly reversed arms and stood reverently and mournfully before the bier. And while this changing of ihe guard went on the citizens of Wellington in their hundreds paid their last tributes to the man whom all New Zealand had come to love. MAORIS MOURN Pass on. our elder, from the world of life. From the murmurs of the many-, and the envy of thousands. The great fish has left ! :s recess. Antares place is a gaping void. With all the poetry and pageantry of their grief, Maori people paid tribute to the memory of Sir Joseph Ward this morning, when they assembled at the catafalque in the main entrance of Parliament Buildings. Si Apirana Ngata was in charge of the gathering, which represented the Maori race from all parts of N'ew Zealand, and the Prime Minister, the Hon. G. W. Forbes, w-.s present. As the natives stood round the casket. Turuhia Hineiwhakina, a Maoti

woman with a plaintive alto voice, led the lament, which is translated above. Antares is a constellation of fish in the heavens, auil typical was the manner in which the native race expressed its grief at the parting of one it admired aud respected. Just before the lament the gathering of natives intoned a salute to the dead, and at the end of the lament filed past the bier and away. In its way, this little ceremony was one of the most impressive that has attended the demise of Sir Joseph Ward.