WELCOME TO NEW YEAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 January 1922, Page 7

WELCOME TO NEW YEAR.

GAY REVELS IN LONDON. NOVEL CELEBRATIONS. London, Jan. 2. New Year in London is impossible without the customary celebration of public hogmanay in St. Paul’s Churchyard, in which skirling pipes resonantly shrill above the universal chorus of “Ajald Lang Syne” from several thousand throats of all accents, but one spirit—chiefly distilled—and whatsoever 1922 brings there is certainly no trace of prohibition. The Daily Mail dominated the programme with a gigantic stentorphone. It prints to-day a flashlight, snapshot of the vast, surging, jubilant throng, all hats, faces and smiles.

Every variety of jovial eccentricity, but without horseplay, characterised the occasion. Hotels and restaurants displayed the most creditable endeavors to divert their patrons by every form of originality. They admirably succeeded, rendering the inauguration of 1922 a ringing success and a happy augury. At least 20,000 carnival-makers went to West End soirees, commencing with dinner and concluding with a dance. The Piccadilly Hotel guests signed a handsome volume of pictures, which was sent to Princess Mary with their good wishes. The Savoy Hotel searchlight lit up the grand staircase, from which there came a procession of Beefeaters and fanfaring heralds, against a huge backcloth representing Big Ben.

The Victoria Hotel decorated its chief room in the form of a landscape, from which a Handley-Page aeroplane burst out and sailed over the company, under moving clouds, a dainty pilot impersonating the year 1922.

The Cecil had tables for 1400 diners, each table with a Christmas tree, twinkling with electric lights. Scots pipers paraded in the Hyde Park Hotel until darkness. At midnight bells chimed and there was a concert. The Igihts went up, revealing a popular dancer rejuvenated from the old year into vivid activity. Her head was circleted with the flashing figures of 1922. Claridge’s was wholly transformed with tall silver Christmas trees, and the walls, pillars, and floors were covered with silver leaves.

The Albert Hall held 2000 guests at a carnival in aid of children’s charities. Elsewhere fancy dress and other entertainments were all blent in a hearty welcome to usher in a year of promise.