TORCHLIGHT PROCESSION.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1504, 11 December 1878, Page 3

TORCHLIGHT PROCESSION.

The fire brigade are making preparations, on a very extensive scale, to render the torchlight procession on Anniversary night a very grand affair. The ]members of the brigade are working night and day at the Lichfield and Chester street stations in the preparation of gorgeous devices, appropriate emblems, iloral wreaths, &c, to decorate the engines, and an inspection of their labors shows that a most satisfactory result may be anticipated. The skill of amateur carpenters, artists and gilders is being brought to bear on the decorations, which are really of a very artistic kind, and do credit to the taste and industry of the workers. The fire extinguisher, Deluge, at the Lichfield street station, is to be provided with a furnace on the top of the funnel, and will be worked by a fan blast, driven by a small engine perched "on the larger one. The little engine will be tended by the Fire King, garbed in a picturesque and diabolical costume ala Mephistopheles. The wheels of the large engine will also be decorated with silver spangled stars. The Dreadnought hand engine will be surmounted with the model of her renowned namesake, one of the grand old three-deckers of the British Navy, and surrounded with floral decorations iu the form of wreaths and garlands. In the procession the Dreadnought will send forth sparkling showers of variegated fires. At the Chester street station the Extinguisher is undergoing a perfect metamorphosis. In the first place the body will be covered in with a framework, the ground being blue cross barred with silver, the border being richly ornamented also with silver and crimson. The hose-reel will be hidden by two semicircular casings, each of the four sides being a painted transparency. The subjects are a house in flames, with the Brigade seen actively at work, a ship on fire, a prairie in flames, and on the fourth is painted the number of the company and the motto of the Brigade, " Alwayß Heady." The transparent ends of the casing will bear the coat of arms of the Otago and Canterbury Fire Brigades alternately inscribed. The top of the engine will be crowned with a monster vase of flowers. Perhaps the most unique design of all is that which has been chosen for the Pioneer Hook and Ladder apparatus. This consists of a grand Chinese Pagoda, fifteen feet high from the ground, and resplendent in gildings, dragonß, hippogriffs, colored flags of all nations, with golden pendants from all the points, stage above stage. The familiar legend of the Willow Pattern Plate has not been forgotten by the artist while embellishing the pagoda. The base of the structure is square, and similarly adorned with emblems, bannerets, and flags. The fireworks, by the pyrotechnist, Mr Rose, are on an equally liberal scale, and promise a most brilliant display. Over 401 bof gunpowder have been used in their manufacture, besides about 1201 bof other chemicals. Two gross and a half of gold and silver showers have been made for the procession, as well as 1001 b of colored fires and the same number of new swinging bucket torches, the same as used in America. For the pyrotechnic display in the Park at night there has been provided specially half a gross of gold and silver showers and cascades; a flight of rockets, two dozen pot rockets, five pointed stars, and a large quantity of revolving suns and wheels, Roman candles, besides five star explosions, numerous set pieces, and a grand fountain of fire to wind up with. The procession committee will meet to-morrow night for the purpose of arranging all the necessary details connected with the demonstration, which promises to bo one of the most imposing that has ever taken place in New Zealand.