ARRIVAL IN AUCKLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26542, 18 August 1947, Page 6

ARRIVAL IN AUCKLAND

“THE FIERY CROSS" TRADITIONAL SCOTTISH EMBLEM P.A. AUCKLAND, Aug. 17. In spite of very wet weather, a large number of people were at Tasman Empire Airways base at Mechanics Bay 'on Saturday afternoon to witness the arrival of “ The Fiery Cross,” the traditional Scottish emblem, on the flying boat Aotearoa. The Cross, which was about two feet high, was brought ashore by the aircraft's commander, Captain C. Lc Couteur, but was not set alight because it was an unlit ” one, made of birch wood, and tied with leather thongs. The cross is being use,d to tell Scottish people, overseas about “The Enterprise of Scotland 1947 ” Industrial Exhibition, which will be opened at Edinburgh on August 25. After a ceremony at Edinburgh, it was taken with others by runners to London, where it was delivered to British Overseas Airways Corporation. The cross arrived in Sydney in one of the corporation’s Lancastrian aircraft on Friday night, and was handed to Captain Le Couteur by special messenger on Saturday morning. Carrying the cross, Captain Le Couteur was piped up the gangway by Piper J. Banks. He handed it to Miss J. W. Gow, secretary of the Auckland St. Andrew’s Society, who took it to the Royal Akarana Yacht Club’s hall, where, the president of the society, Mr J. Black, and the society’s pipe band were waiting. After Captain Le Couteur had formally delivered the cross. Mr Black said it was the first to come to New Zealand, and was probably the first to be used in Scotland since the clans were, summoned to the standard of Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745. When a chieftain wished to gather his clan together in an emergency he slew a goat and, making a cross of birch wood, tied with leather thongs, seared its extremities with fire and extinguished them in the animal’s blood. It was then delivered by swift messenger to the' nearest village, and the principal person there was bound to send it on to a neighbouring hamlet to the accompaniment of traditional pipe music. Mr Black completed the ceremony by handing the cross to a bearer, Jock Macbeachan, instructing him to take it to Wellington. The company then sang “Auld Lang Syne.” The cross will be taken from Wellington to the South Island.