AN IMPERIAL PAGEANT

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4291, 26 February 1901, Page 4

AN IMPERIAL PAGEANT

The march of the representative troops ) of India through our streets yesterday ‘ afternoon was a. groat spectacle, and i this not only by reason cf the brilliancy ( of the uniforms, the. gallant bearing of 1 tho men, and the models on their breasts, telling of many a licit! hard fought in company with the regiments of tho royal service represented boro the other tiny. The Ejmctaclc teas great, chiefly because of the grand suggestion, it' made! Some one spoke of “making' history.’’ It was a happy remark, for! tho presence of those turbans and sabres, borne by men of martial bearing, was, as it wore, tho signature of the last made chapter. Ghoorkas, Rajpoots, Mahrattas, Eohillas, Afridis, Sikhs, Pathans, Jats, and many more were there, wearing the Imperial uniform, displaying the crosses and medals won in defence of the Empire, marching in the military order which prevails from Greenwich to Mandalay, from the East Capo of New Zealand to Labrador. Uniform and equipment were in their foundation British: body colour and facings, arms and ocooutrements nil of the British army; "• stamp. Tho sight was, at the same time, distinctly and picturesquely Oriental, from characteristic head-gear to curved tulwar. In front of them marched tho troops of the local garrison, and then, with our minds on the pa-! gaant of the other day, we realised the 1 cosmopolitanism of the British Empire. ] That is the real significance of the: “ Finis ” to the chapter of Imperial • history which opened in India- throe centuries ago. All tho famous regiments in the British army have helped to ■ mako that chapter, and so have all the races represented yesterday afternoon by the distinguished soldiers of the In-; A dian army. The two l helped for long the making of different sides of the , chapter. But when we consider the! composition of this Indian contingent, ! ’ and realise tho sacrifices made by officers t of rank and princes of lineage to take • part aa simple, soldiers in this great demonstration, wo understand perfectly! the cosmopolitan solidarity of our Em-J ! pire. I

There is another striking feature.] Men of nearly all the religions of j Europe and Asia were in the procession,' marching side by side in peace and, amity. “'Render unto Caesar the things! that are Caesar’s,” was the command i of the Great Master . hinfeelf. Yesterday's pageant was a picturesque re-' minder that never in the history of the world has that command been so fully obeyed as it is now being obeyed in the British Empire. The history of. the world, has two chapter s —distinct in every w r ay, and sharply separate—the chapters headed respectively Christianity and Mahhmcdamsm. The greatest of all, the Mahomedan Power, is supposed to he the Sublime Porte. Now, the whole population of that Mahomedan Power in Europe and Asia combined is some thirty-eight millions, of which only a proportion—a large one, it is true, hub only a proportion—is Mahomedan. But the Moslems iu yesterday’s pageant represent a total strength in Hindostan cf fifty-seven millions ol Mahomedans. Britain is not professedly a Mahomedan power. She has not the Emir-al-Mpumeniu (“the Commander of the Faithful”) nor the '“Shcik-ul-Islam” (the religious head of the Mahomedan world). But she has more Mahomedans under her sway than those historic dignitaries command, and these numerous Mahomedan subjects deflect our policy in no way towards the creed of the Prophet. Of Hindoos there are many .castes, in many things irreconcilable ; ' vet this contingent which reflects that divided condition of the Hindpoism of Hindostan, enjoys, as it travels a- state of peace unbroken, and unbreakable, because every man’s religious freedom is protected. The British Empire, having defined the things that arc Cwsar’s, has kept to them scrupulously.

In one respect these Indian troops hare been to ns in New Zealand an object lesson. It is net a little singular that as they travelled through the island the Maori was everywhere the first to greet tho Indian soldiery in friendly guise. "Where the colonist of European blood was shy, the Maori was gladly and naturally forward. It reminds us of one allegation of the many which, dealing with the origin of the Maori, place its “locale" in Hindostan. Hawaiki, the mythical starting place of Maori migration, was, according to this theory, not in any specific island of tho Pacific, not generally and impossibly behind ‘‘the shores of old romance” ; it was among the great plains, the colossal mountains and the vast rivers of Hindostau. What winder that the Maori, seeing his kindred from the ancestral home) of his race, felt warmly towards him? There may, of course, be a thousand better reasons, racial and otherwise, to account fox the fact of tho -prompter Maori courtesy. It is pleasant to think of this one, but it is obviously necessary to leav e the Question in the region, of doubu and in-: quirv. A far more practical idea is that what has been done for the people of India may he done for the Maori. The Maori,, lie bis fellow subject of Kin-j

costan, repeatedly ottered Ids services in the present war; and for reasons which the majority of the Empire consider good, was, like the Indian, blankly refused. No dcid-l -Acre will come a dev when sue 1 .; reavans v ;.i be sv. cut aw'ay by the fuller realisation of the true cosmopolitanism of the Empire I‘ n! ' the present, however. it no«ible to ox tend, far as the local conditions permit. «ho same privilege to the Maori as In:- been granted tc his Indian fellow-subject. The Maori, deprived of ins old cn.-aom-.. practices, pastimes and laws, u tainting on life’s highway for want of :>;i object in life. The most dignified., honoured and venerated business iov him of old was war and he plied it m such purpose that he became one cf tho most accomplished warriors world. Mere he enrolled for the Sing's service, enrolled systematically, trained sufficiently, and encouraged to look forward to the time when, without losing identity, the “tangata Maori” may strike ’ a blow for the Empire in tliu front of battle, he would bo bettor rawed to a sense of the worth of life than by am- other thing that he could bo re', to.' The warlike qualities of the Indian races have been honoured by Imperial encouragement. Vvhv not those of the Maori, which are not loss?