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Today in History
12 January
1954 QEII opens NZ Parliament
A crowd of 50,000 greeted Queen Elizabeth II, resplendent in her coronation gown, for the opening of a special session of the New Zealand Parliament in its centennial year. It was the first time New Zealand's Parliament had been opened by a reigning monarch.
The Queen and her husband, Prince Phillip, had arrived in New Zealand shortly before Christmas 1953. Everywhere during their tour they were met by large and enthusiastic crowds. Perhaps three in every four New Zealanders saw the Queen, as she visited 46 towns or cities and attended 110 separate functions. At Tirau, a community of 600 people in south Waikato, a crowd of 10,000 turned up for a glimpse of the young monarch.
Another notable first from this tour was Queen Elizabeth's Christmas broadcast from Auckland. This was he first time that this broadcast had been made outside of Britain. She finished with a message of sympathy for the people of New Zealand in the wake of the Tangiwai rail disaster of the previous day.
Image: Queen Elizabeth opening Parliament in 1954
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