UNVEILING OF HATCHMENTS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13922, 29 March 1909, Page 7

UNVEILING OF HATCHMENTS.

ADDRESS BY ARCHDEACON WALSH. There was a crowded congregation at St. Mary's Church yesterday afternoon when the hatchments depicting the colours of the Royal Engineers, Royal Artijlory and the J2th Regiment, which took part in the Maori wars of Taranaki .were unveiled. It was particularly appropriate that yesterday, the anniversary of»the battle of Waireka, should have been chosen as the date for the ceremony. A procession was formed at the Drill Shed shortly after £.30, and, headed by the Taranaki Garrison Bam under Bandmaster Sounders, marched to the church. Included in the procession were nearly fifty veterans, under Captain Standish; the Taranaki Rifles, under tho command of Captain Bellringer and Lieut. Lever; Taranaki Guards, under the command of Captain Mills and Lieuts. Beadle and Boon j% local companies of School Cadets, der Major Sandford, V.D., CaptainAdjutant Johnson and Quartermaster; Barry. The following volunteer officers were .also present: —Lieut:-Cbl. E. N. L. Okey, \.D., Major Malone, CaptainAdjutant Weston, Quartermaster-Cap-tain F. Okey, Captain F. G. Kimbell, and Captain Cock unattached.;. ljfae volunteer companies each» mustered about forty strong, and the' cadets' companies were represented as follows: —Central School No. 1 Company (Captain M'llroy), 40; No. 2 Company (Lieut. Day), 31; West End (Lieut. White), 38; Fitzroy (Lieut. Bayly), 22. Tho service was intoned by the Rev. F. t». Evans ;.nd the lessons were read by thi\ Revs. Sppncer and Butler. His Lordship the Bishop of Auckland, the Yen. Archdeacon Walsh, Rev. Hawkins, Rev. Allanson, and R,ev. Hanby were present. The Yen. Archdeacon Walsh delivered an excellent address taking as his text Isaiah 11., verse 4: "-They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning t hooks; na-. tions shall not lift vp v sword \against nation; neither shall they learn war any more." " It is in the time of storm and streess, of pain and misery,"' said the preacher, "that the yoice/of'-Gfod w heard more clearly; and perhaps there never was a time in the world's his^qry in which there was so much storm und stress as that in which the prophet wrote the words of the text.- It was one of those, periods which occurred from time to time, in which^the ;warclouds burst over ihe earth, a period in .which every tie of humanity was broken, every evil passion let loose, and in which men's only idea was to kill and to rob and tb destroy. ■>/$%& great eastern empire was pouring out its armed bands and carrying destruction to the ends of the earth; and tfre sinall<er nations were broken up ana obliterated, their strongholds cast down, and their people given to the sword and carried away into captivity. On none. did the ruin fall more heavily thaiLoii fihe little nation of* the Jews. Inf iniiesWal in number, compared with the overwhelming hosts of the invaders, their indomitable courage and their dauntless resolution only served to intensify the agony of. the straggle. Again and again is seemed as if all hope were past, and as if no miracle could heal the wounds that w^re bleeding the nation to death. And yet throughout the long and bitter agony. .tha,jW>ici§. of God was heard, land the-'hope r of the nation was kept alive through the mouth of His prophets. Beyond all the ruin and confusion they could see a vision, of restoration and triumph. The daughter of Zion would rise again frOm the dust and clothe herself, with beauty. The mountain of the Lord's House should be established in the top of the mountain and should be exalted above the hills, when out, of Zion should go forth the law and the word of God from Jerusalem. Yes, and there was one who, soaring higher than the rest, and with clearer eye scanning a wider horizon, could see a time coming when all these troubles should be at an end; a time when the war-worn nations should be at rest; when instead of seeking each other Js destruction every man would be satisfied with the fruits of his own industry; when instead of spending their energy and their talent in the invention of weapons of death t^ey should *beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks; when nation should no longer lift up sword against nation, neither should they learn war any more.' Was this vision of the prophet altogether Utopian, an unsubstantiated phantom that vanished as we approached it? Or, if real, were we any nearer to it thaat> was the prophet when he saw it afar off? Time after time, during the long centuries that had elapsed" since his day, had the war-cloud overshadowed the earth, wave after wave of discord and .bloodshed swept away the slowly rising edifice of civiJisation, and well-nigh quenched the light of Christianity. The imagination and ingenuity that should have been exercised in the arts of peace had been diverted to the invention of weapons oi war, and of engines of destruction. And," he continued, "it all happens so easily, and no amount of experience.. prevents the same folly from being committed> again and again. A rumour of some disturbance on a frontier, probably jjreatly exaggerated,-' results in a punitive expedition that frequently punishes the wrong party. Retaliation ensues, further outrages are committed on both sides, and the, trouble, which might easily; have been settled by an intelligent? inquiry into the facts of the cause, develops into a war of extermination. Or some temporary misunderstanding—caused, perhaps, by the thoughtless utterance,of some nignplaced personages—is magnified by the so-called* politicians who put the interests of their party above the country's honour. The, war spirit is nursed up by the capitalists who fish in troubled wa±eia.^»d.by.tho purveyors of war material who fatten on their country's blood. The whole thijnjr is kepi at fever, heat by /a. section of thA press that panders' to -fee; worst .passions of the people," until the nation is ready to rush into any wild and criminal adventure. * ' ' . "It is jight that I should state in this connection that oti the people of Taranaki as a whole there lies no share in the blood guiltiness of th« war. The settlers of Tanmaki were the principal sufferers by the war, but they did nothing to occasion it; or, s»t the most, they were helpless actors in a drama for which they were not responsible. In the early days of the colony almost nothing was known to the people in tho Old Country of the condition of things out here: and the W«st of England farmers who formed the bulk of the Taranaki settlers had no idea that fliivthina: in th* »shape of a v native difficulty ' would meet them on arrival in their new homes. But when, through

Ino fault of their own, they found themJjse* 1 es ranged under their country's flag, ■when they found themselves driven from their homes and separated from their families, they fought with a stern resolution and a patient heroism that had not many parallels in the history of our race." It was to the memory of the men of Taranaki that fell in that lementable war, as well as to those who came to their assistance, that these hatchments had been erected. Hanging on these hallowed walls, they would not only serve to remind us of the valour of those who now lay waiting the great roll-call of the Resurrection Day, but they wou<d be a guarantee to future generations that should ever necessity arise — which God in His mercy prevent — men would be found ready to shed their blood in defence of their country's honour, and that amongst these the men of Taranaki would be ready to claim a foremost place. It was perhaps fitting that he should say a word as to how the movement for the erection of the" hatchments was initiated and carried out. It was some 30 years ago that Captain F. C. Rowan, then in command of the Armed Constabulary station at White Cliffs, was desirous of erecting a memorial to the .men . of the regiment to which .he had formerly belonged, who had fallen -' in the war. There was no money available for a stone monument, and his idea was to place a painted tablet^over the graves at the entrance of the Henui cemetery. On his consulting the speaker as to how this might be done, the latter strongly urged him. to place the monument in tne church, where; it would be secure from desecration, promising him that, should it take the form of a painting, he himself would execute the work on his providing the panel. To this proposal ie gladly agreed, and the result was the hatchment of the 43rd Regiment (the Monmouthshire Light Infantry) was erected in 1878. An interval of twenty years elapsed, when the members of the 65th -Regiment expressed a desire that their corps should be similarly commemorated, which was done. He then made an offer to the Testry of St., Mary !s,, that if they would provide the materials he would, if lealth and leisure permitted, go on with the rest of the series. The work was now done. From time to time he contributed an instalment, until all the various cofjps engaged in the war — seventeen in all, including both Imperial and colonial f orces — together with the friendly Maoris, had each a hatchjment, erected to. the, .memory of their fallen comrades. The whole set was now completed by the addition of those which were to be unveiled that afternoon in memory of the Royal Engineers, Royal Artillery, and 12th East Suffolk Regiment. „ GnS of the priests oi. the diocese, h^ieruftrkod, .^had-served' with the last^anied-f»gunent' .in, .the recent South African , wjuvand, it, wja»^ pleasure tp -.have him. with them that, day. Before concluding^ it mfgnt he well to take a look towardsthe future, and see if we could fiot take a lesson from the past. There was perhaps never a time in tha history of mankind when there was such a universal yearning for peace; while at the same time there was perhaps never a time when there was such a widespread preparation for war as there was at the present time. At first "figsit/ it looked bke~a curious anomaly, yet the real fact was 1 that the frantic effort to secure the supremacy of the sea, the colossal armaments on land, the ruinous taxation to 'provide, these,, was. depopulating, the. older "States ; all this was but a gigantic hlundeiiw»«aept- vto>>««rOT«n«t •OTy*jeaafc.~th» thing that was desired — a blundering and futile effort, as an over-armed peace was at alt: times the most, certain precursor of war. They had got to realise that war was,, essentially an cvil — a foreign and theCeforo preventable element in the Divine order. The matter w.f« .left in our, own hands,, and it was Oar "owji f aujtt if -the., evil continued ifc-eaastjvfor "in this as in other things, by an immutable law which we could neither evade nor overcome, in eVery branch of the Divine law the evil recoiled on the evildoer^ and the pronouncement that- "they that take the sword[ shall perish with the sword" was therefore not so much : a sentence of punishment as a simple statement of the rule of cause and effect. "There was no race or people that nad a right to, enslave or exploit aiibther raoe of people, whatever might be their relative difference in civilisation or culture; the Hindoo or the Egyptian, the Negro or the Chinaman, had just as good a right to national life and expansion as the Englishman or the American, the Frenchman or the German. Such an idea might to many seem quixotic and Utopian, but until we got hold of it* and imported it into our international relations we should be in continuous trouble,' and might at any time precipitate such a convulsion as had never occurred within historic times. <r We may, of course, have a war forced upon us, when it will be our. duty, to fight as our fathers fought before us./ But as a general rule the wars we engage in are more or less of our own making. Whatever may be the mistakes of our rulers, or however .jwilful' the' machinations of our politicians or of interested 'parties, no war can now occur without the will and co-operation* of ,the people. The day has gone by when men weredragged from their homes and their peaceful avocations to fight under the banner of their feudal lord. If w« will only try to checK bur national combination; if ,we,will "be content with our own share' of God's .bounty, an.i strive to extend; to others tHe blessings we have received, we shall soon see a new era dawn upon v this War-worn world— -an era of peace and goodwill, of happiness and prosperity such as God- has designed for His people, and we shall be approaching measurably nearer to the time when men shall beat their swords into plough-shares and their' spears into, prainingrhooks, when nation shall' no'; longer ?aise sword against nation,. neither shall they learn war any more." . -

"We Ifcave"had otfr* share of these things in New Zealand. It is hard for our younger generation and for newcomers to the colony -to* realise that this fair country, so full of smiling homesteads and with such an abundant prosperity, should have been within the memory of living men a field of strife and carnage. It is just 50 years since a dispute over an infinitesimal piece of land brought into collision two races, whose interests were to. live together in harmony and gradually to evolve 'themselves. into, one sjbrong and compact nation, fit. to overcome the difficulties of colonisation and developthe resources of a beautiful and fertile country. The dispute might easily have been settled by vthe exercise of a little patience and common sense, but temper was lost, and the war-spirit spread over the land. Treaty rights were ignored, and a contest commenced which lasted for ten years and spread from shore to shore; which cost £12000,000 of Imperial money and called into the field some 10,000 Imperial troops; which, put a check upon th* development of the country from which it took a generation to recover ; which

almost extingugished the liglu of Christianity amongst a large section of Maoris, and did moro than anything else in modern times to hasten the decay of tho native race.

The Bishop offered prayers for the army and navy and for our country, after which the hatchments were unveiled as follows: —Hatchment in memory of the men of the Royal Engineers, by Lieutenant T. M'Guinness; hatchment in- memory of the men of the Royal Artillery, by Sergeant-Major A. Hood; hatchment in memory of the men of the*l2th Regiment, by Captain Mace, N.Z.C. The hatchment of the 12th Regiment (East Suffolk) is urti form in size and shape with those already in the church and like them bears a representation of the Regimental and King's Colours with the name and' badge of the corps. Those of the Royal Engineers and Artillery are somewhat larger and are of a true diamond shape.. They each bear the Royal Arms and supporters and black ground, together with their common motto, "Übique quo fas et gloria ducunt," that for the Artillery being distinguished by the addition of a field piece. These two hatchments are further differentiated by the borders. In that of the Engineers a broad' red and a narrow blue band, is painted, whilst in that of the Artillery the colours are reversed, the brpad band being blue and the narrow J one red. In either case the broad- band represents the colour of the uniform and the narrow the colour of the facings. This arrangement makos an agreeable contrast between th^ two designs, which would otherwise be almost identical. They are the work of the Venerable Archdeacon Walsh and like thjbse already in the church are beautiful works of art. After prayer of dedication and the pronouncement of the blessing the National Anthem was sung, and the service concluded with the bugle call, "The Last Post," sounded by Bugler W. Okey of the Taranaki Rifles. On retiring ironi the church the volunteers? cadets and the veterans in that order marched past the graves of the old soldiers in the churchyards at tho salute. We are indebted to Mr. W. H. Skinner for the following interesting particulars : — 1 ;