THE PASSING OF THE CONTINGENTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2456, 10 April 1901, Page 63

THE PASSING OF THE CONTINGENTS.

(Xoeman Patterson, in tne Canadian Magazine.)

Men come upon the stage of life, play their little parts, and pass out. A short obituary notice is the reward alike of the nobleman and the [labourer. Such, it appears, is the fate of the Canadian contingents which, during the past 15 months, have claimed so much of the attention of the people of Canada, and to some extent of the people of the woild. In the Militia Orders issued at Ottawa on Thursday, December 27, appears the following brief notice :

It is notified for information of all concerned that the 2nd (Special Service) Battalion, Royal Canadian Kegiment, will be disbanded from the 31st inst.

This is the last of a regiment Avhich has brought more glory and renown to Canada than any of its predecessors, or than almost any other organisation of mer ever created in'this country. The glory and the renown have not made much impression. apparently, in the Militia department. Officialism speaks as coldly of its glorious child as the most cold-hearted heir that ever breathed could speak of a lately-de-parted but unlamented relative. The fate of the human organisation is no brighter, no warmer than the fate of the human unit that has played out its little part and gone out by the wings into oblivion. The Royal Canadian Dragoons, the Canadian Mounted Rifles, and the Royal Canadian Field Artillery have returned with equal distinction ; and three lines of a military order will be their ending. Strathcona's Horse will shortly return, and- two lines more will end this little sail upon the sea of glory. But while officialism is as cold as the red tape with which it is bandaged, the deeds and daring of Canada's sons who have fought in South Africa will live in song and story — and history. They have shown that the men of the Canadian northern zone are mer. of pluck and brawn — worthy to walk proudly beside the best of the British Empire. They have shown themselves aggressive, reliable,, energetic, resourceful, gallant, and brave. They have made the hearts of their countrymen throb more quickly, and stirred the imagination of this young nation. They may be dead and buried according to officialdom, but their deeds will live after them, their good ■was not interred with their official bones.

Yes, Johnny Canuck came back — but not all of him. He marched away with a proud lip, but there was little vanity about his countenance when he returned. Men do not go through what he did bearing the mark. His lips are thinner, and they press the one upon the other more than they did when he marched up to the steamer gangway, for it was a long year — dh, so long ! The drilling and the marching on that hot African veldt ; the sleeping and the groaning when the nights were cold. and blankets and tents far away : the cold, and blankets and tents far away ; the low moaning in the field hospital, on the ambulance train, or in the crowded ward at the base.; the hunger that no willpower could suppress ; the ceaseless anxiety lest a careless movement might mean making himself a target for the enemy's bullet ; the lonesomeness for the brothers who were laid away upon the veldt — these were some of the things that left their impief.s upon him. He went away a boy ; he came back a man. He carried away with him a nation's untried shield* he brought it back dinted arid seamed, but without a stain. He unfurled the northern nation's ensignbanner upon the Empire's battlefield, and the enemy never came within the sacred circle which he guarded. He paraded before the greatest generals of the* Empire, and they clapped their hands and .shouted "Bravo." He walked upon the green -ward of her Majesty's Castle garden, and her Majesty acknowledged hie manliness with a woman's tears. He crossed the ocean •with his beloved country's honour in his hand, and he laid it again at her feet uneullied and un soiled.

Over the veldt there are little mounds and crosses to show where he fought and bled. These monuments will remain. Over the Dominion of Canada, from ocean to ocean, will be raised tablets and statues to commemorate his deeds. These monuments •will remain. In the hearts of the people have been created^proud and glad memories. and these monuments will remain. Generations will come and generations will go, but the deeds of this "young man shall not be forgotten. The tables of the historian have been deeply graven, and the letters shall endure. And yet he says as you raise the shout, " I have done only my duty." He does not, perhaps, realise how great a feat that is, how hard it is to do one's duty. He does not recognise, perhaps, that so few people in the world can truthfully say, '"I have done only my duty." We admire his modesty, but must take him at his worth whether he will or not. "High praise! " did you say? Yes, high praise for the individual, tout not too' high praise for the eyes of the mothers of noble sons ; not too high praise for the eyes of a nation which has produced such mothers and such eons.