WELLINGTON
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Rugged she stands, no garlands of bright flowers
Bind her swart brows, no pleasant forest shades
Mantle with twining branches her high hils,
No leaping brooks fall singing to her sea.
Hers are no meadows green, no ordered parks;
Not hers the gladness not the light of song,
Nor cares she for my singing.
Rudely scarred
Her guardian hills encircle her pent streets,
Loud with the voices and the steps of trade;
And in her bay the ships of east and west
Meet and cast anchor.
Hers is the pride of place
In shop and mart, no languid beauty she
Spreading her soft limbs amid dreaming flowers,
But rough and strenuous, red with rudest health,
Tossing her blown hair from her eager eyes
That look afar, filled with gleam of power
She stands the strong queen city of the south.
DAVID McKEE WRIGHT
Visit of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh, City of Wellington, New Zealand, January 9 1954 to January 16 1954.
Royal visits gave printers the opportunity to show off their craft to great effect. Although the visit of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip was not accompanied by the printers trotting out their iron presses for a parade, as was common in the late 19th and early 20th century, this booklet gives a good indication of the skill of the colour offset printer using fine art gloss papers. The use of gold, often overprinted over a yellow ground to make the colour more opaque and richer, is highlighted along with royal blues and reds.