KNOX COLLEGE

Otago Witness, Issue 3396, 16 April 1919, Page 61

KNOX COLLEGE

PRESENTATION OF COLOURS. ' A solemn and impressive - service was held in Rons Chapel, Knox College, in connection with the unfurling of a flag presented to the college by Chaplain J. D. Wilson, an old student. The flaw was .the Rev. Mr Wilson by Sir Thomas Mackenzie, to whom Mr Wilson referred as " that true friend of every New Zealand soldier." The flag has been used by the chaplain at services in Britain, on the high seas, in Greece, in 'Egypt, and in Palestine, and the stains upon it are stains of blood. In introducing the chaplain and thanking him for his invaluable gift, which would stir the grateful hearts of generations of students, the Master said that, the war had revealed how strong was the bond of comradeship that existed among Knox men, and how strong the affection with which tbey regarded the college. A captain had twice sent a gift. The first gift was probably some of the first money he had earned after graduation as a doctor. Sergeant Avery, who fell in France, left to the college his books and his life insurance, £2OO, for the help of students for the ministry. The flag was unfurled by Miss Mollison, who was matron, of the college during Mr Wilson's student days. In his reply the Chaplain paid a very generous tribute to his professors, *to the gracious services of the matron, and to the influences of his fellow-students, whoso friendship had enriched his whole life, lio alluded by name to Rutherford Nichol, whose memorial tablet is on the chapel walls; to Charlie Herous, Nichol's study oompanion, now Major Hercus, who had rendered distinguished service as Assistant Director of the Medical Service in Palestine; to Adam Madill, a cheery earnest man, who left his church, entered the ranks as a private, and fell in France; and to a man of strong and gentle soul, once president of the Students' Club, and now resident in Scotland. In the course of an exceedingly interesting address, which had many vivid touches. Mr Wilson described the construction of the railway from Egypt to Palestine, a distance of 150 miles, tne piping of the. watei*3 of the Nile all the way to Palestine and some 30 miles over the borders, and the making of a road across the sand, over which the infantry and the wheeled traffic passed, by laying down rab-bit-proof fencing wire. The hardships of the men, the sufferings of the wounded in a roadles'3 land, and the courage with which tbey were endured, were pictured vividly and yet with restraint. In the Jordan Valley the temperature reached 120. degrees in the summer, and on the hills of Moab the cold at night was often intense; some men died of exposure. For months the men had nothing but the sky above them. They might have said with Jacob in the samo land, "Thus I was: in the day the drought consumed me and the. frost by night; and my sleep fled from mine eyes." When they were sick there was no England to go to. Their refuge was Cairo, with the same sun, the same smells, the same Eastern life, and without one touch of homo for which the heart hungered. Mr Wilson dealt with the effect upon the soldiers of the traditional sites and of the true h:s----t-crioal associations of the land. He closed with an earnest appeal to the students to rise to the position of leaders for which their education naturally fitted them, - and to finish the incomplete tasks of the war; to do all they could during peace to extend justice and 1 * mercy within our nation as they had fought 'during the war for the vindication and establishment of these same virtues between the nations of the world. During the evening Mr Blair Tennent sang with true feeling and good musicianly taste, Stevenson's "Requiem": Under UlO wide and starry 6ky Dig the grave and -let me lie, and also a song written by J. D. Burns, a Victorian Scotch College boy, who fell on Gallipot! when he was only 19: The banner? of England, unlurled across the sea, Floating out upon the wind, were beckoning to me Rtorni-rent and battlo-torn, smoke-stained and grey, The banners of England—and !io\v could I stay? The service was opened with the National Anthem, and closed by. giving thanks in Oliver Wendell Holmes's words: For all the blessings life has brought, For all its sorrowing houTS have foaught, For all we mourn, for all we keep, The hands we clasp, the loved tiiat sleep. The Moderator of the Assembly, the Rev. W. Gray Dixon, offered prayer and pronounced the benediction. There are 26 men resident in Knox College who have returned either from oamp, Britain, Fronoa, or Palestine.