IN MEMORIAM.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 98, 1 June 1914, Page 11

IN MEMORIAM.

THE VETERANS' PARADE.

Yesterday afternoon the veterans paraded at the King Edward Barracks, comparatively young men and old, but all men who had seen war in the cause of the Empire to which they belonged. There were soldiers in unfamiliar uniforms, red and- blue, and decorative ■with silver lace, brass, and pipeclay—uniforms which were familiar enough only a few years ago and properly soldierly, but which now, to the eye accustomed to sober khaki, seemed as remote in time as 'mediaeval costume, j There were also middle-aged men in the plain dun uniforms the modern Army service now prescribes, and old men, i some shabby and some in prosperouslooking cloth, who wore the ordinary garb of age. But all wore one or more medals, and all lined up with a revival of their soldierly pride, and they marched to Victoria Square to the sound of martial''music, nondescript as far as uniform and ages were concerned, but all bearing themselves alike as veteran soldiers conscious of having done their duty.

The veterans had assembled, for the annual service in memory of those Canterbury men who gave up their lives in the South African war, and when they arrived at Victoria Square there were many more to meet them, civilians mostly, but with a fair number of veterans amongst them —and the majority of them present to pay their respects in memory to friends and relatives who had died on the veldt.

Amongst" the group gathered round the Queen's Statue, upbn : the pedestal of which the names of Canterbury's dead soldier sons is inscribed, were the Mayor and several officers of the Imperial Army and of the Territorial Forces. The service was opened by a hymn accompanied by the Ist Regimental Band,' and after a prayer had been offered up by Chaplain-Major Nbrris the Mayor gave an address dealiiig with the power and pride of England, the ideals she stood for, and her Imperial dominion, of which all were proud to belong and ready to sacrifice themselves for.

At the conclusion of his address, several wreaths were placed on the railings surrounding the statue, while the band played the-melody of "Fallen Heroes." Colonel Slater was to have spoken, but was unable to do so owing to his having a sore throat, so, after the wreaths had been offered, Chaplain Norris addressed the gathering, speaking of the growing decay of knowledge and of reverence for the ideals and traditions for which the British Empire stood. He deplored |the lack of knowledge in. the young of the great deeds done in history by Englishmen, and insisted that it was very in these years that the children should know this history and have itibulcated in them a reverence for the country which had produced the iieroes who had made that history. The cereiiiony was concluded with the singing of the hymn "Abid« With Me" and the —'National Aiithem."