"HAIL COLUMBIA!"

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9163, 10 August 1908, Page 5

"HAIL COLUMBIA!"

ARRIVAL OF AMERICAN FLEET

AT AUCKLAND,

A MAGNIFICENT SPECTACLE

WILD ENTHUSIASM

By Telegraph—Press Association

AUCKLAND, August 0.

The American Fleet arrived in the Auckland harbour at 8 o'clock this morning. It was a red letter day, not only in the history of the city, hut also in the annals of New Zealand. The sight was one which will long linger in the memory of the thousands who witnessed it.

It was the sight of a life time 1 . The older generations had never witnessed such a spectacle before, and it is doubtful whether the younger will ever see one like it again. Unfortunately, many thousands were disappointed owing to some bungling as to the time when the fleet would actually enter the harbour. The original intention was that Admiral Sperry and his ships should enter at 9 o'clock, but on Saturday a witebss message was received from him ty the storeship Culgoa, which preceded the battleships, and had anchored in the harbour the previous day, stating that he expected to arrive at 8 o'clock. This time was generally regarded as too early, and as it was thought the Admiral would not mind delaying the actual entrance ir;to the harbour for a couple of hours, in order that the spectacle might not suffer through the early August fog or haze, and that those Irving at a distance might have ample time in which to take up coigns of vantage, the Mayor yielded to a general desire that the Admiral be requested to hold the ships off until ten o'clock. Accordingly, Mr Myers despatched a special wireless message to this effect, per medium of the Culgoa hst night. A notice was posted up in a prominent position in Queen Street announcing that the fleet would arrive at 10 o'clock, and this was seen by the many thousands who were parading the main thoroughfare of the city, and viewing the decorations find illuminations.

People went home fuily convinced that tiiis would be adhered to, hut they were considerably surprised when at 7.30 o'clock this morning the biK signal gun was heard indicating that the fleet would enter Waitetriata harbour half an hour later. The consequence as that when the fleet did enter, instead of already having takui up their positions from which to view the ships, thousands upon thousands of people were to be seen ru riling along all the streets making for the foreshores in order to catch a glimpse of the mighty battleships. Still many, they wer« to be numbered by thousands, had been up at daylight determined to take no changes, and till the principle vantage points, Campbell's Point, Takapuna, Cheltenham, etc., were thronged at an early hour. The picture the harbour presented at 8 o'clock when Admiral Sperry's monster flagship Connecticut rounded North Head was superb. It was a glorious morning. An Auckland August day has rarely broken so beautifully as this one broke. The rain' that had been feared held off, and instead there was a sky of glorious blue and a warm sun. It was a day of days in every sense The great white ships coming slowly round the Head in single file glistened and flashed in the sunlight like things of beauty. It was a majestic spectacle, and the firin.< of salutes—the port salute and its acknowledgment, the exchange of salutes between the American Fleet and the ships of the Australasian Squadron lying in the harbour—was stirring to a degree. The monster guns rang out on the clear crisp air with a mighty sound. A great cheer broke from scores of thousands of throats, and as the bands, which had gone down in some of the steamers that met the battleships, struck up, people grew wild with enthusiasm, and 'cheer upon cheer went up. It was wonderful to see these ships how they marched like soldiers of a weli-trained army. Everything was done with clock-like precision. Their fame had spread before them in this connection. It was known of them long before that they were a great piece of machinery. The battleships came in single li!e in a long extended line, the one behind the other The pace was dead slow. Each ship seemed to be separated from the other by exeactly the same strttch of water, and as th"y slowly crept to their anchurage, each taking up its allotted place in the harbour, one coi.ld not fail (o be struck with the marvellous handling of them. The " sixteen majestic ships of war, cc sting twenty millions, w>re manipulated as if the work wss a mere bagatelle. Admiral Sperry, immediately on the fleet being muoivd, proceeded to the British flagship tocallujnn ViceAdmiral Sir Richard Poore. He then landed arid called on His Excellency the Governor. Both these formal cj!ls were duly returned. The American Consul-General, (Mr Prickett) called on Admiral Sperry dining the morning. The Civic and Ministerial visits to the flagship took place in the afternoon. The Mayor was r.ecompanied by the Town Cbrk, City Engineer, and Secretary of the Harbour Board. The Ministerial party consisted of Sir J. G. Ward, Hons. J. McGowan, R. Millar, Dr Fitidlay. Marines were drawn up on the quar-ter-deck to salute them as they departed, and fifteen guns were fired. Parties of fifty to eighty men came ashore from each of the battleships during the afternoon, but the public will not be admitted on board the fleet until to-morrow afternoon.

In a brief interview, Sir Joseph Ward said he was much impressed with the decorations in Auckland. "Tha presence of so many 'Welcome Banners' from other parts of the Dominion," he said, "is a pleasing feature of the decorations. I do not think that any more marked way could have been adopted to show that the welcome being extended to our American visitors is a national one, and not in any sense confined to Auckland. The Mayors, Councillors, and citizens of the different municipalities, by sending these banners, have Riven, a fitting expression to the sentiments of the people of all parts of the Dominion."