The Star. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1902. WARE UP, CHRISTCHURCH !

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7319, 4 February 1902, Page 2

The Star. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1902. WARE UP, CHRISTCHURCH !

Little has been clone so far towards making preparations for bidding farewell to the South Island Battalion of the Eighth Contingent. The departure of the battalion will take place on Saturday it is true, and therefore it is inconvenient for the retail establishments to close; but even talcing this fact into consideration, the present lack of preparations contrasts strangely with the singular enthusiasm displayed afc the departure of the Third' Contingent just two years ago. Can it be that the patriotism of the people of Christ-church is slumbering, and needs- another Colenso, or a disaster of similar magnitude, to stir it into activity again? To suoh a question there is but- one answer, and that, we hope, will be given on Saturday. Otir preparations may be tardy, and we may nob approach the task of malting a popular demonstration with as much enthusiasm as we showed when we were getting ready to speed Vir Rough-riders on their journey to the Cape, bufc when t'he time comes to .ay good-bye to "the men who are going to leave us on Saturday, our farewell will be just as hearty, and' our gocd wishes as sincere. And, perhaps, after aill, it is hardly to bo expected that the general public .should! rise to the pitch of enthusiasm which they attained when the Third) Contingent sailed. Two years ago the war, to paraphrase an unfortucate remark made recently by an Imperial Cabinet Minister, was a, "real" war. It was accompanied by seme thing of the pomp and circumstance of great campaigns. It was conducted! on a large scale, it furnished picturesque incidents, and ifc ])rovided newspaper correspondents with ample opportunities to stimulate the pulse of the nation with highly-coloured battle scenes, conceived nofc nnfrequently in their own imaginations, and broughlt forth, we fear, out of a desir© to tickle the fancies of their hosts of eager readers. All- that has passed now. The war is no longer a series of absorbing major operations, and in thait sense of the word the authority whom we have just quoted! was perhaps not so very wide of the mark when he awoke the mirth of his friends. and* the sneers of his? opponents by questioning its reality. But that war of a kind, and a very real kind, too, still exists 'in South Africa not even the most cheerful optimist will deny. As Lord Rosebery said in hi. famous Chesterfield speech, this " sort bf ar war,", to again quote the Ministerial utterance, contains most of the attributes peculiar to the majority of wars. It takes up a quarter of a million men jusfc as much as if they are really afc war. It makes women widows, parents childless,/ and c'hildren fatherless,' and it devastates great tracts of country in identically the same manner as a ".real " war would. Nobody can question the ttu'th of this ipungent sarcasm, although the other side of the . picture is plain enough. The. fact is that, although the war, as a trial of strength between two nations, cannot now bo properly said to exist, as a harassing guerilla struggle — one of the most exhausting and trying types of warfare — it is lingering on in a manner which is only too jiainfully apparent. It is to assist in the work of ending this debilitating conflict that the Eighth Contingent is being despatched. The members may have fewer opportunities to aohieve glory than fell to the lot of their predecessors, bufc the net results of their work promise to be equally valuable to the Empire. It *is ty be hoped, therefore, that ■when they take ship on Saturday they will have no reaison to complain 'of the nature of their " send-off."