LARGEST PROCESSION EVER IN CHRISTCHURCH CITY

Wanganui Chronicle, 19 December 1950, Page 6

LARGEST PROCESSION EVER IN CHRISTCHURCH CITY

One Hundred Years Of Progress Illustrated In Floats

CHRISTCHURCH Last Night (P.A.).—The pride of the Canterbury people in their achievements during the first century of the province’s existence was dramatically portrayed hi the long column of floats, representing almost every phase of development in industry, agriculture and social culture, which took part in the 100 Years of Progress Procession this morning.

This was one of the highlights of the Centennial celebrations and it provided a magnificent spectacle for the biggest crowd Christthurch has ever seen. Every yard of the three mile route was packed with spectators. It took 55 minutes for the procession to pass a point on the route.

From early in the morning, trains, buses and cars brought the people of Canterbury steaming to the city for the great day. The weather was fine and warm, with brilliant sunshine. There were 69 floats in the procession as well as brass, pipe and harmonica bands, teams of marching girls, service detachments and old and new motor and horse vehicles. From Latimer Square the procession went along Worcester Street, through Cathedral Square to Rolleston Avenue, along Park Terrace to Harper Avenue, to Dean’s Avenue, dispersing in Hagley Park, where the floats remained for some time for public inspection.

Every street leading on to the route lined with parked cars, in some cases for as far as a mile. The traffic problem was efficiently handleu by a big staff of inspectors from the City Council and the Transport Department, who were assisted by radio equipped cars. From the starting point everything went without a hitch, and after passing through Cathedral Square the floats halted only for a brief moment in Dean’s Avenue before going into Hagley Park. As the thousands lining the route paid a generous tribute to the procession, inside the floats drivers and their assistants peered anxiously through narrow vision slits, manoeuvred steering wheels and gear levers and perspired freely. Behind the gently swaying curtains of the Dean s home and the gaily painted exteriors of other floats the atmosphere was stifling and coats were discarded before the procession moved off over the first part of the route. The spectators were densest in Cathedral Square. Dignity, masculine and feminine alike, was forgotten as men and women of all ages perched precariously on vantage points of all kinds without regard for appearances. Although it was a holiday, business premises seemed to contain more people than on the busiest week-day and they were all at windows or on the fire escapes. About a score of tramway employees clustered on the roof of the leading tram in a group held up in Colombo Street by the procession.

At no part of the route were the spectators fewer than six deep on both sides of the road. Indeed, for most of the way they were much thicker. Many who had obviously been waiting for hours to ensure gaining good positions had brought chairs or other items of furniture with them to make the waiting as comfortable as possible. People -living along the route had adopted every conceivable method of ensuring that the expected crowds in the streets did not block their vision. Some had lorries drawn up just inside their gates and others had gone to the extent of putting up elaborate tiered platforms on their front lawns. Children, always lovers of the spectacular—and the procession was certainly that —gave the floats a great hearing. Along no portion of the journey was the applause more noisy or sustained than the part of Dean s Avenue reserved for school children.. Among those who watched the procession were the Governor-General and Lady Freyberg. and the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. G. F. Fisher, and Mrs Fisher.

It was generally agreed that this long planned and carefully organised procession fulfilled its objective of demonstrating the progress Canterbury has made in 100 years.