The Star. SATURDAY, MAY 7, 1927. AUSTRALIA'S BIG CEREMONY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18149, 7 May 1927, Page 4

The Star. SATURDAY, MAY 7, 1927. AUSTRALIA'S BIG CEREMONY.

Rejoicings on an extensive scale will take place throughout Australia on Monday. The occasion is the opening by the Duke of York of the Federal Parliament at the new Commonwealth capital at Canberra. It is the great event of the present Royal tour and equals in historic importance that famous occasion twenty-six years ago, when the Duke of Cornwall and Y'ork, who is now King, visited Australia to open the Federal Parliament in Melbourne on the occasion of the inauguration of the Commonwealth. Hundreds of thousands of people will witness Monday's ceremony. All the members of the Commonwealth Government and the two Houses of Parliament will, of course, be present, together with the leading oflicials of the various Government Administrations, wives and families helping to swell the number. Dame Nellie Melba will sing a National Ode, and this part of the function, as well as the speeches, are to be broadcast, so listeners-in throughout New Zealand can gain an idea of what is going on. Three years ago, Canberra was an area of meadows and grassy slopes with a power station and a few houses. To-day its landscape is divided by red-white roads into the squares and circles of city design. Dominating the scene is Parliament House, a beautiful though simple structure. Canberra, however, is more than a new city. . It is a symbol of Australia’s growth to nationhood. So the Prince of Wales, after all, is not going to see a bull-light, and nobody will be greatly surprised. Not only is he following, in this decision, a strong English sentiment, but lie is taking a line that no lover of horses could deviate from. For it is the horse that is the sufferer in a bulllight, and the man who gets the bouquets. And the Prince, after all, has an abiding affection for horses. lie was probably an equestrian at heart almost before he could walk. A pony was his first mount, and he. will follow the hounds, we hope, till old age stops him. The love of horses is bis real interest. Already the E.P. ranch, as the Prince’s Canadian ranch is called, is one of the foremost cattlebreeding establishments on the Western Plains. Next July will see the Prince back again in the Dominion rusticating in this simple, out-back Canadian home, and it is his intention to introduce a hunter class of the polo type into America in place of the heavier type now there. For such a man bull-lighting could have no attractions, and it is a pity that hysterical women should have made an attack on him under a grave misapprehension. Interesting pages of early Canterbury history will no doubt be revealed in the investigations that arc being made as to whether an area of seven perches of land within the eastern boundary of the Cathedral grounds belongs to the Church authorities or to the Crown. Cathedral Square was originally set aside as one block for ecclesiastical and educational purposes, the idea being, as Sir Henry Wigram points out in “The Story of Christchurch,” to form a cathedral and college in the same enclosure in the centre of the city. The plan was modified on account of the obstruction to traffic that would have resulted, and what was first laid out as Ridley Square, in keeping with Cranmer and Latimer Squares, has now become the busiest and certainly the most striking city square in New r Zealand. The traffic threatens to grow more rapidly as the years go by, and for that reason alone it is to be hoped that if the city has any title to wdiat w'ould be a very welcome strip of roadway, it will not relinquish it for lack of foresight. The whole lay-out of Cathedral Square is already quite out-of-date for the demands of modern traffic, and while nobody would like to sec the picturesque grass plots greatly reduced in size, every legitimate elfort should be made to relieve congestion in what is now a very dangerous traffic zone.