PEACE DAY CELEBRATION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 39, 9 November 1918, Page 3

PEACE DAY CELEBRATION

Sir,--I would like to offer a few suggestions to the authorities, recognising that in view' of the near approach of this long looked-for day such suggestions will be gladly received no matter from whom they may come. Let us make tins day, then, a memorable one in every way—from one end. of New Zealand to the other, for it may be hundreds of years—perhaps never—before such a great and glorious victory fought and won by British and allied arms will be celebrated throughout the British Empire and the countries of pur bravo Allies.' For the children's sake—more than for tho sake of us adults—the events on this great day .must be' such that the memory of them will live forever—to' tell their children's children in the days to come how they remembered Peace Day in the great world war. The children of to-day 1 are- the defenders of our Empire, in tiie future, and on their shoulders will rest the responsibilities of keeping the Empire great and even greater than it is to-day. Let us then, tor the- sake of Empire, make this day —when it comes—be the most important one in the history of their lives. I suggest a salute of 101 guns be fired from the barracks and the forts. Why not? The military to turn out in full strength after the salute, including boy scouts, artillery with guns and wagons, army service with wagons, etc.; headed by bauds; all friendly societies, lodges, etc.; every vehicle in the city that has wheels to concentrate from the G.P.O. along Jervois Quay and Kent Terrace' as far as possible; everybody with a motorcar or motor-wagon,-motor-cycles, push bicycles, one long, continuous procession on wheels, every vehicle to be decorated according to the owner's own idea;'everA horseman that can borrow a horse to' parade at a given point to form a mount- i ed brigade—one long procession starting' frpni the G.P.0., moving along Customhouse Quay, Lambton Quay, Willis, Manners Streets, Courtenay Place, Cambridge Terrace, Basin Reserve, Adelaide Road, Riddiford Street, around Newtown Park, ■and out by the Zoo gates, Roy Street and back to town via Vivian and Cuba Streets—say, moving twice round the town, back to the G.P.0.; the soldiers to fire blank cartridges en route, at intervals to be decided upon; the head of the procession to halt at stated points for this. In addition, a procession of tramcars, the service to be suspended and resumed at fixed hours, children and their parents-only to be carried (free); every bell, be it school or church, every whistle to be sounded and rung for, say, half an hour at a stated time, either before or whilst the procession is on; every train, goods and passenger, throughout the country to blow its whistle—short and long blasts at intervals—as it races along tho iron way, conveying to the settlers in out-of-the-way places, far from telegram and telephone, the glnd tidings; each engine could carry a flag or one could be hoisted from the guard's van. It may be many hours, perhaps days, before .some of these worthy settlers receive definite news of peace. To them, then, let there be no mistake when the goods news does come. The signal to be recognised could bo flashed through the country now to prepare every settler what to'expect, and to rejoice when everybody olse is rejoicing. I commend this in particular to the Government for consideration;' Ever)' post office clockbell to be rung; every boat in- port to steam or sail around the harbour.in ■proeessioti;'..blowing.their whistles; public buildings- to be illuminated; every oiti?,en to put lights in their windows in the evening—that at night-timo each town will bo a blaze of light and colour. Perhaps huge . bonfires could be made all over tho country in the most conspicuous places to convey to the wayback sottlers the great nows. These could bo put in hand by the postal people and local authorities in every place whfj2 there is a post office, or the highesc hill in the neighbourhood. If it ie possible to do this let it be dono so that every citizen throughout the country will hear- and seo and he convinced. Let there be no wild rumours about: it. Thanksgiving sen-ices could be held in the morning, also speeches, and rejoicing in the afternoon and evening.—l an'i, etc H. HAMILTON. November 5. Sir,—lf we are going to have a celebration of the coming of peace worthy of the occasion, we must be doing. There is not a spare moment. There is only one proper celebration in whjch the ijjcoplo who have dono the work can take par,t, and that is by music. That is the dictum of a great general", a ureat statesman; and a great musician in one, King David. Ido not admit that on this or on any other occasion we can safely disregard the experience of history. Music has. always been the accompaniment of victory; and if the soldiers had had no bands at the front in pretty constant exercise, we can safely say that tliey would have had vastly different experiences to relate, hard as their actual experiences have been. Manifestly the Government is not going to touch the musical part of; the programme; and I do not know that the City Council is quite the right body to entrust .with the direction of music. They have not made much of a hand of it hitherto; moro important things to attend to, no doubt. And the citizens without direction will do nothing worth doing. Let the City Council call at once a meeting of musicians, including bandmasters, ask them to arrange a programme or several programmes of band-playing and songs, which will give all the people who wish to express their fervour in that way the opportunity of doing" so. And they will be the most of the people of Wellington, I'll bo bound. If some such course of_ practice is followed as I have in my mind, to-morrow morning we shall have Mr. Parker conducting a practice of several thousand voices at the band rotunda in Victoria Street, Mr. Watkins another as large in the Basin Reserve, Mr. Page another on Anderson Park, Mr. White another on Kelburn Parkweather always consulted first, and hu-, moured tremendously. And every ono' of the singers lifting up hie voice in satisfaction as much at the prospect of some sort of order in the celebrations as for the beauty, of the sound. This means that tho City Council will havto print at once, say, 50,000 leaflets of the words of the songs to be sung, euierscribed in red capitals: "Please preserve carefully until after the peace celebrations," and to give these out gratis, or sell at one penny, to the singing en wds. Copies of words and music could ai.d should be printed. These to be sold, at a small figure, say, sixpence. The sale would pay for the whole printing, for everyone would keep a memento of the occasion at that figure.'

This is only an outline of the project which veterans like the musicians I have named—and others who do not occur to me at the moment—can capably fill out. Tho difficulty is to find the words and the music. • I have been all over the city, and believe at this minute that I have skinned the shops of their available supplies for the very modest effort I propose to make with a very modpsl choir. The wholo cost to iho corporation would be less than paper, printing tho words with music, lithographing the tunes; and keeping out of the collection the maudlin mush that passes for patriotic music, vocnl and instrumental. What we want is first of course, the National Anthem of each of the Allies (you can only get the Japanese in a book that costs 2s. !)d., and the Italian not at all), then patriotic song 6 that have received the sanction of age. Rule, Britannia! (with the invocation correctly printed), "The British Grenadiers," etc., for the United Kingdom. (Mr. Parker has a splendid collection of these.) "Hail, Coluriibia!" "Tho StarSpangled Banner," "Marching Through

Georgia," and half a dozen others with good words and good music tiro characteristic of America. They all ought to bo sung—put on the programme by these musicians to be sung in different places at exactly the same time. "The Marseillaise" and others (named by Captain Barclay, for instance) for France; ami so on. This, at any rate, will bo better than tho noises wo have made to express-our thankfulness up to tho present. Any simple person can. pull (ho lanyard of a steam whistle, though no doubt in every ease a Solon really did it. But never a cheer, never a singing of the National Anthem, never a doxology, never the ringing of a bell, not a word 'to mark the public thankfulness to the God of our fathers for tho crowning mercies that are ours and are yet to bo ours—except from the Defence Minister, so far as I know. All those acts imply co-operation.—l am, etc., X.T.Z. November 7.