HALLOWED DAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 833, 29 November 1929, Page 6

HALLOWED DAY

Impressive Moments at Museum Opening FLOWERS ON CENOTAPH Night settles over great museum and a star-studded ~ky guards the memories which were left there yesterday. The air is filled with the perfume of roses, heaped high round the base of the Cenotaph. A great and hallowed day has ended for the City of Auckland. No printed word can hope to convey the impressive dignity of yesterday's ceremony at the opening of the War Memorial Museum and the consecration of the Cenotaph. Only the dull rumble coming from the busy city and the rush of gusty wind round the vast ramparts of the building disturbed the quiet of praj'ing thousands. The wind carried the sad echo of the Last Post far beyond the immense throng which formed round the marble floor on which the Cenotaph stands. Perhaps the most impressive ceremony of all was held in the evening. In the last gleams of the setting sun wreaths were carried to the foot of the Cenotaph and laid there with reverence. This ceremony was poignant in its simplicity. Two women or two men from every branch of the service joined in the procession and filed past the Cenotaph. Soon the base was piled high with a profusion of glorious blooms—lovely perfumed tributes to the unforgettable dead. There was no speech of any kind, no prayers except those silently expressed as the wreaths were placed in position. Four members of the Legion of Frontiersmen, with bowed heads, guarded the four corners of the Cenotaph. Nearby the Municipal Band played familiar hymns, softly, as befitted the occasion. It was almost dusk when the notes of the “Last Post” and then the "Reveille” echoed over the high hill and down the bush-clad slopes—and the last of the watchers'turned homeward. . * * Glorious sunshine followed the rain of the morning for yesterday’s official ceremony. From midday thousands of people streamed from Grafton Bridge and over the green sward of the Domain. It seemed like a march of pilgrims to some ancient shrine. Far below the steps of the Museum the harbour gleamed its truest blue and Rangitoto stood out vividly against the haze of the Gulf. As his Excellency and Lady Fergusson arrived, the Royal Salute and the National Anthem stilled the noise of shuffling thousands and simultaneously four flags at the four corners of the square surrounding the Cenotaph were broken in the wind. In the S.OOO or .more who attended the ceremony the uniforms and decorations of ex-soldiers showed up vividly. There were men of all ranks, from the highest to the lowest; men who had fought on Gallipoli or the sands of Palestine, men who had known the mud of Flanders and the misery of the trenches in France, sailors who had scouted the North Sea in all weathers, ever on the watch for enemy warships. An Australian soldier wearing his Anzac badge was a prominent figure. On the outskirts of the crowd fathers stood through the long ceremony with children on their shoulders. One tiny girl, who had clambered on to the steps behind the official party, demanded to be lifted so that she could see the Governor-General “open the door.” Her father willingly lifted her above the heads of those who lined the entrance and she laughed as his Excellency tapped on the huge doors with his mere. His Excellency smiled too and then turned toward the waiting throng. “I declare this Museum open,” he- said, and the huge doors swung hack. * * * “He is a great chap—a man’s man,” was a young soldier’s simple tribute to his Excellency. There was no doubt about the sincerity of the Governor-General’s address and its effect on those who heard him yesterday. As the fallen would have desired, the first wreath was deposited on behalf of the mothers. Mrs. A. W. Averill placed it on behalf of the Mothers’ Union of England. Then emblems were placed by the president of the Victoria League, Miss Mowbray; the president of the Returned Soldiers’ Association, Captain A. C. A. Sexton; the representative of the Government, the Hon. J. B. Donald; the Mayor, Mr. G. Baildon, representing the City Council, and General Sir George Richardson, the senior officer on parade, representing the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. The representatives of the services then paid tribute in order as follow: Nursing Sisters, Ex-service Women, Royal Navy, Royal Naval Reserve, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Mercantile Navy, British Regiments, Scottish Regiments, Irish Regiments, Indian Regiments, Canadian Regiments, Australian Regiments, South African Regiments, New Zealand Staff Corps, New Zealand Permanent Staff, Royal New Zealand Artillery, New Zealand Mounted Rifles Regiments, New Zealand Artillery (N.Z.E.F.), New Zealand Artillery (Territorials), New Zealand Engineers, New Zealand Divisional Signal Corps, New Zealand Cyclists Battalion, New Zealand Ma-chine-gun Corps, 3rd Auckland Regiment, 6th Hauraki Regiment, 15th North Auckland Regiment, 16th Waikato Regiment, Otago Regiments, Wellington Regiments, Canterbury Regiments, New Zealand Rifle Brigade, New Zealand Pioneer Battalion, New Zealand Army Service Corps, New Zealand Army Chaplains, Officers’ Club, Auckland Navy League, Takapuna Ex-servicemen, Auckland Grammar School Cadets, King’s College Cadets, Mount Albert Grammar School Cadets. The party was commanded by Major W. F. Stilwell, M.C., with Captain S. C. Reid, M.C., as his staff officer.