KRUGER CENTENARY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 8 December 1925, Page 5

KRUGER CENTENARY.

FETES IN SOUTH AFRICA. SCENES AT PRETORIA. Racial and political differences were forgotten on October 24, when all sections of tiie population united to pay their respects to tlie memory of President Kruger. These tributes include a glowing eulogy of the late President, which appeared in the Nationalist organ De ' Burger, by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, who wag himself imprisoned by President Kruger. A crowded congregation of 1000 people were present at a service in the historic Dutch Reformed Church at Pretoria to do honour to the memory of tlie President as a churchman. The congregation included bearded farmers of great age and great renown, who, in the days of Kruger, when Johannesburg and Pretoria were in their infancy, had been in the inner counsels of the President and had helped him build the South African Republic. Amongst the preachers in the churches were many old friends of the President. It is estimated that 15,000 to 20,000 persons assembled to attend the unveiling of the statue of President Kruger by General Hertzog, the Prime Minister. The company included the Governor-General, the Earl of Athlone, and Princess Alice, and members of the present and former Cabinets. General Hertzog said that President Kruger had ceased to be merely a Transvaal hero; he was now South Africa’s popular hero. He was the personification of everything that was noble and heroic in the aspirations of the voor-trekkers. South Africa had no consciousness of national inferiority owing to the fact that their forefathers had counted no sacrifice too great for their Tights and self-respect and had never known when tliev were beaten. Senator Wolmarane, the only surviving member of the Executive Council of the Kruger regime, also spoke, and the Earl of Athlone placed a wreath at the foot of the statue on behalf of King George. The hundredth anniversary of the; birth of the late President Kruger was celebrated throughout Holland with considerable fervour, the Netherlands Society and the Netherlands South African Society having made elaborate arrangements for the due observance of Oom Paul’s memory. One of the most important celebrations was a solemn commemoration service held in the Groote Kevk at The Hague. The principal speakers were Dr. S. O. Los, an intimate friend of Kruger and his spiritual adviser during his banishment, and Mr P. R. Botha, a relative of the late General Botha. The bell ringers of 18 Dutch cities were invited to plav South African oivtov; on their church bells, and South i African songs were sung at concerts in Rotterdam and other places.