TWO ROSENEATHS EXCHANGE OF FLAGS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 46, 24 February 1913, Page 3

TWO ROSENEATHS EXCHANGE OF FLAGS

PRINCESS LOUISE'S WISHES , SATURDAY'S CEREMONY. The breezy point on which Roseneath (Wellington) -is situated was bright with bunting and black with people on Saturday, when the flag sent out by Roseneath .(Scotland)' ,waa unfurled by the Countess of Liverpool. The . Scottish Roseneath is. situated on a point, as the Wellington Roseneath is, andit'overloo'ks Garo Loch, 'which' runs off the Clyde. The ceremony on Saturday was the outcome of correspondence between Mr. Darroch, head master of Roseneath School ,' Wellington, and .Mr. Young, the liead master of the Scottish School, begun some two yeats, ago. The result was an exchange of flags, Mr. .Darroch sending to Scotland the New Zealand flag, and the Royal Standard of Scotland—the red. lion rampant on a yellow shield— was sent out to Wellington. > The Vice-Regal party consisted of Their Excellencies the Earl' and Countess of Liverpool, and they were received by Mr. Darroch and Miss Davidson, on behalf of the staff, and Mr. and Mrs. S. H. Jenkinson' on behalf of the committee. There were a.hg present on the platform the Hon. H. D. Bell (ActingMinister for, Education), Hon. R. H. Rhodes (Postmaster-General), Dr. Newman (M.P. for the district), General Godley, the Mayor (Mr. D. M'Laren), Messrs. R. Lee, J. G. W. Aitken, W\ Allen, D. Robertson (representing the Education and Technical Education Boards), C. W. Palmer (Navy League), and Captain Barclay (Overseas' Club). The children of the school were assembled round the platform, .and the City Band, under Lieutenant Herd, played ' the National Anthem' when the flag was unfurled by His Excellency. THE GOVERNOR ON FLAGS. Coining to them that day at the special request of Her Royal Highfless the-' Princess Louise, . Duchess of. Argyll, i ho wished first to communicate to them the words of her letter. They were as follow :— x "The Koseneath School in Scotland, near Glasgow, sends this flag to Roseneath School, near Wellington, in New Zealand, with feelings of deep interest and friendship, rejoicing ih .their affection and loyalty for their j ■ King and the Old Country. We join with the Roseneath School in praying that you may prosper, and for God's blessing on' you all. "LOUISE ARGYLL." , Both the Oountc&s of Liverpool and himself, His Excellency- went on, were glad to perform the ceremony of uufurling the 'flag, first because they were anxious to carry out Her Royal Highness's wishes on the first available opportunity, and, secondly, because the ceremony wae' symbolical of the feeling that should, and did, exist between the Mother Country and her children. In old days the colours were alwayg earned into battle; they were the rallying points and the emblems of their conntry's honour They might recollect with what veneration the Romans treated their eagles — and the same spirit was displayed in , our own country's history from the earliest times. First,) they found in feudal times the barons bringing their retainers for the King's service, and mustering together and carrying their pennons as rallying spots. Some may have read a book called "The Lances of Lynwood," which so admirably illustrated these facts. ■ Then, as a new evolved horn fe.udal times,they found the numbers of standards ahd colours reduced aB the army they knew it to-day became the regular army, composed of permanent regiments of horso and foot — the colours of the cavalry being Called guidons, as distinctive to those of the infantry— artillery, engineers, and nfle regiments ' not carrying any\ flags,, but carrying their battle honours on their accoutrements. -.Colours continued to be carried 'by British troops in a European war right down to the Crimea, but with the advent and conditions of modern weapons it became apparent that the colours could' no longer be carried into the fight. But they remained to-day -as symbols of their country's honour, and, though no longer permitted to play their part in actual strife, they were still held in tho deepest veneration, as typical of all that was highest and best in the annals of the race. The flag that Her Royal Highness Princess Louise had asked to be presented to Roseneath School that day was the flag of a country which had 6ent many of her t eons to fight the battles of the . Empire—whethei 1 . exemplified in the charge of the "Greys" at Waterloo or during the difficult days of the :war in South Africa— the same undaunted valour had been the characteristic of her soldiers. On" their paTt, he urged the children that- the flag to be unfurled' should l.c kept and valued as', a'Boljd of union between the two Roseneaths, typical as it was of a great united race. Who could tfcll, that- thoee' who sent' the flag from Scotland that day might not be their fellow <6ubjecte'. in come 'remote part ' of the Empire; both of them proud to be doing something that would maintain unity and uprightness, and be able to say 1 when' their own time came to' go to the Great Unseen : "J have loved righteousness, and' hated iniquity — righteousness, that 'they had 'worked welt : iniquity, that they had abhorred, everything which was not right and fitting for the Empire, to which, they both of them — the two Roseneaths— belonged-'' - CITIZENS OF THE EMPIRE. The Hon. H. D. BelJ said he .hoped the children, who in- time to come would be the rulers of New. Zealand, whether in Parliament. as members or as electors, would remember the occasion of the hoisting of the flag. Ho hoped they would bear what their fathers had borne in New Zealand— that distant Dominion of the Empire — a spirit af devotion and loyalty to the Crown. ■ He referred to His Excellency's remarks on the Imperial Eagles. of Rome, and showed how England, like Rome, was a colonising nation recognising the rights of the colonies to self-government. He hoped the children, too, would remember the proud boast that the British had in rommon with the Romans—-" I am a citizen of the Empire." It was no light thing to have such a boast, and it was no mean Empire of which they were the citizens. They would never surrender the i great heritage and the traditions which they possessed. Did they remember how the Scotch had always born» a love for their native land, wherever they had gone? The message from Roseneath was but one of the many records o^the union between that branch of the British race abroad, wherever they had gone. He trusted that when the scholars came to play_ their parts a? men and women they might ever feel happy in a united Empire and have .the one flag flying above every part over which it flew that day. My. R. •' Leu, as chairman of ' the Education Board, expressed gratification at the way in which the cerpmony had been conducted. Their Excellencies' visit was a great honour to "the Roseneath School, and besides they had in the ceremony an object lesson of Imperial value,. The Mayor said he rejoiced at being present at the ceremony, trusting that '

it would be but^ the forerunner of many others of the like character, thus emphasising close connection with the Mother Land. He exhorted the children to cultivate a strong love for New Zealand ahd to honour the flag which had been presented to them that day. Mr. T. W. Ward, chairman of the • Roseneath and Oriental Bay Ratepayers' Association, also addressed the children, reminding them that the flag from Roseneath, Scotland, was unsullied. Mr. David Robertson, who has been chairman of the Clyde-quay School Committee for very many years, also spoke to the children. Miss Doreen Gifford, head girl of the school, presented Lady Liverpool with a bouquet of roses tied with the school colours. The Roseneath and other Boy .Scouts, Under Scoutmaster 1 Lawson, formed a guard of honour. Pipers T. A. Macdonald, .T. 1 M'Wliaftjiel, and A. Reid played' selections, arid little Misses Shaw and Reid (5) gracefully danced the shauntreuse and sword dances. The school children (trained by Miss David* son) sang "Scots Wha' 'Hae" and "A Hundred Pipers." The following telegram was received by ( Mr. Darroch from Mr. Wrench ahd Miss Wrench, of the Overseas Club! — "May your flag ever remind you of the* glorious deeds of the Empire's past and' inspire you to follow in the footsteps .of, those. who, in living for others, are serving their country." Miss Lee • emblazoned the Royal Standard of England on the autograph letter of the Princess Louis© and the Duke of Argyll from Roseneath, Dumbartonshire, Her Royal Highness having nnfurledthe Wellington flag at RoseDeath, N.B. On behalf of the local School Committee, West's Pictures took cinematograph records of the proceedings, which will be seht to the Princess Louise, and will be exhibited at Glasgow.