THE TRANSFORMATION OF GOVERNMENT HOUSE GROUNDS-A PICTURESQUE FETE IN AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIII, Issue 23, 8 December 1909, Page 19

THE TRANSFORMATION OF GOVERNMENT HOUSE GROUNDS-A PICTURESQUE FETE IN AUCKLAND.

Government House; its lawn and its Hardens never held such a crowd of laughing, light-hearted humanity as it did last week at the opening of the big fete in aid of the building fund of St. Paul’s Church. The long line of quaintly decorated stalls, paint* ed dexterously in by Mr. \V. Hutchinson, scene painter at His Majesty’s Theatre, were surmounted by the castle battlements, frowning over the portcullis'd gateway, through which the groups of attractively-garbed dance maidens made their entry. If attractive by day, the scene was brilliant at night, for everywhere ran festoons of red, white, ami blue electric bulbs, and the visitor walked under a canopy of twinkling lamps. The upper half of the page gives a general idea of the fete, ami the lower picture shows the opening ceremony, the Deputy- Mayor (Mr. A. J. Entrican) speaking from the left side of the castle gate.