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Grey River Argus, 10 April 1911, Page 2

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In preparation for Che Festival ot" Empire, the Imperial All-British Exhibition, and the Pageant of London, the interior and exterior of the Crystal palace and the 250 acres .of ground are being revolutionised trans formed from thtfir early Victorian, appearance into the most wonderful series of v varied attractions ever offered to 'the public. . Over £300,000 and 6000 workmen «are effecting* changes for the better.

Wihat was a neglected terrace becomes the foundation for a pair of vast stairways leading- to the palace floor; a grass grown walk becomes the prepared site for a quarter of a | mile of transporter — a gliding" pathway which will carry*us without effort from the lower grounds to the palace ; an aged djfight of massive steps is ripped up for the line of the. "All Red Route" — 'the mile and a half of electric railway, which will enable us to review the Empire in ■being; a long" disused fountain is transformed into a sunken bandstand ; weather-beaten statues weighing- tons are almost whisked away for modern-. attractions ; bridges are raised and tunnels sunk; palaces and pavilions, already constructed in sections, seem to rise in the night; superb scenic tableaux spring together t)o tell, as never before has been told, the history of this mighty far-flung Empire.

It was thought that the 800 • yds of the g-xounds' front and the southlook dowdy in comparison with the Empire City now rising" below the crn wing of the palace itself wouk' terraces, so 300 men 'have just been set to work to paint as hard as they can for a solid teiv weeks..

In iand around the palaces of the over-seas dominions many thousands of electric lights vtill be used at might while on the long, ibroad (terraces miles of gilded g*as-piping" are to be employed, and the lights, masked in giobes of many hues, give the prettiest of effects as was proved a few evenings ago.

Over £1000 are being expended upon a picture palace in which only cinematograph Vtiews of the Empire will be shown; gardens of surpassing- beauty are .now ibeing- laid out; an ancient .Roman temple ait Bath is to be reconstructed in stone at va cost of £700 .^a working" model will show how ELF..S Thunderer was constructed; the building- of that floating- palace the Olympic, will be illustrated ; nearly two million pounds worth of diamonds will be shown in the All-British Exhibition; £60,000 is devoted to the spectacular tour of our five Continent Empires ; and Canada is putting- tip a ,£70,000 reproduction of the Parliament Houses of Ottawa.