Australia -- Description and travel; New Zealand -- Description and travel; Windsor, Edward, Duke of, 1894-1972
Civic receptions, at which numbers of returned men and other war workers
were drawn up, and all the inhabitants turned out, were given at various
places _en route_, including Quorn, Peterborough, Terowie, and Gawler.
The first part of the way was over the picturesque Pichirichi pass,
thirteen hundred feet above sea level. After descending on the other
side the narrow gauge gave place to the broad five-feet-three-inch
track, which connects Adelaide with Melbourne. Sir Archibald Weigall,
Governor of South Australia, soon afterwards joined the train. The
latter part of the route was through flat and extraordinarily fertile
farming country.
Adelaide was reached about noon. Here a large proportion of the
inhabitants of the province had assembled to welcome the Prince. A
procession was formed at the railway station, where guards-of-honour
were drawn up. The Prince shared a motor with Sir Archibald Weigall. Mr.
Barwell and other members of the South Australian Government occupied
cars behind. A well-mounted escort of light horse, in khaki, jingled on
either side. The entire route, some three miles in length through the
principal streets, had been elaborately decorated, and was lined ten
deep the whole way with cheerful crowds. Entering the spacious and
solidly built King George's Street, where magnificent bodies of Flying
Corps, Engineers, Naval Reserve, and other returned men kept the
barricades, the Prince was greeted by numbers of lady war-workers, in
fresh white uniforms, who had public-spiritedly reopened, for the
benefit of the blue-jackets and marines on the various visiting
war-vessels, the "Cheer-up club" which did such good service during the
war. Cadets, red cross workers, and masses of medalled returned men
lined the space opposite the town hall, where Mayor Moulder read a civic
address, to which the Prince replied, describing his now nearly
half-completed travels in the Commonwealth as a most memorable
experience, a statement heartily endorsed by all who shared them. From
the town hall the procession went on to the working-men's quarter,
where the reception was as enthusiastic as anywhere. It was also
noticeable that although only school-children, of whom there were
incredible numbers, lined the route for at least half a mile in this
part of the city, order was as well kept as in thoroughfares elsewhere,
where regulars or volunteers were lined up.
Outside the big market in Rendal Street, beneath a wide arch built on
one side with vegetables, and on the other with apples and oranges, a
pretty function occurred, a little girl, daughter of the oldest gardener
doing business with the market, presenting the Prince with a bouquet,
and a small boy, the son of the oldest packer, with a basket of fruit,
offerings that symbolized pleasantly enough the very considerable
business done in South Australia in garden produce.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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