Festival of Empire.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 19, 9 November 1910, Page 7

Festival of Empire.

NEXT YEAR’S OV’BR.SEAS VISITORS. . , LONDON, September 30. A great influx of visitors from the dominions overseas is expected in London next year on account of the Coronation, and the Council of the Festival of Empire at the Crystal Palace is taking full advantage of the situation. Elaborate arrangements will be made for the hospitable reception and entertainment of Colonial visitors to the Festival, and a committee presided over by the Duke of Norfolk is now drawing up a comprehensive programme. The ambition of the Committee is to organise a congress of the business men of the Empire, and in connection with it a series of official and semi-official functions has been decided upon. There will Ibe banquets and receptions, and opportunities for the discussion and elucidation of Imperial and commercial problems. It is also the intention of the Committee to extend its hospitality to provincial centres. A scheme is under consideration for great “county days’’ at which provincial men of mark will be specially invited to meet celebrities from overseas. The Council hopes to add to the popularity of these “county days”, by inducing the railway companies to provide special facilities in the shape of cheap fares. The Music Committee, of which the Earl of Shaftesbury is chairman, has also an ambitious programme in hand. Already arrangements have been concluded for eight Empire concerts—representing England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and South Africa. At these concerts only artists representing the individual countries will appear, and the British public will thus be introduced to entirely new' talent. Under the presidency of Princess Louise,- the postponed “Pageant of London” will be produced by Mr. Frank Lascelles on the pageant grounds, for which 13,000 citizens of London and delegates from all the colonies have been enlisted to take part. There will be an Imperial Exhibition, in which the Governments of the overseas dominions will co-operate, and arrangements have also been made for holding an Imperial sports meeting. The proceeds of the undertaking will be devoted to the King Edward sVII. Hospital Fund. Whether New Zealand will send a Government exhibit ..to ithe Crystal Palace Exhibition is,-I am informed, not yet decided, and the High Commissioner has not yet been advised by his Government with regard to their plans.

One of the features of the Exhibition will be an “All Red” tour of mono-rail observation cars, each eeating GO people, and running at two-minute intervals over 21 miles of railway. The passengers will be carried round a miniature Tepresentation of the British Empire, visiting in turn Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and India. Another part of the Exhibition will- depict a model city as it may be 200 years hence, with moving footways, wireless .telephones, aerial services, and so forth. It will be an interesting scientific forecast of what may be expected in the twenty-second century. It is announced to-day that the King has seen and approved the plans and details of the Festival of Empire, and has accorded his patronage to the entire (undertaking. Among the vice presidents ttre the Prime Minister, the Secretaries of State for Foreign Affairs and the Colonies, the present and future Viceroys of India, and the Governors-Gen-eral of all the overseas dominions.