A RELIQUARY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8779, 16 November 1906, Page 1

A RELIQUARY.

MEMORIALS OF THE BRAVE

DEAD

It is only a plain glass caee, protecting a cloth-covered board bespangled with quaint devices in stamped metal, but it is nevertheless, one of the most precious* things in the Exhibition. Those fantastically shaped bits of bronze, • brass or silver are regiment.il badges, gathered on South African battlefields, and each one represents a slain British soldier, a life given for the Empire. To him who realises the full significance of that array of bits of metal, the little case is a sacred reliquary, to be gazed upon with reverence and awe. Two hundred and fifty badges are shown, and each is a relic of a brave soul yielded up at the call of duty, of a gallant man who fell in upholding the Empire's cause. _The badges fare, with a few exceptions, those of regiments of the Imperial Army, and their great variety indicates how the resources of that organisation were strained to provide the fores which battled for the Empiro during the weary struggle in South Africa. Many a regiment of cavalry and of infantry has its representative in the collection. Here, too, are the insignia of artilleryman and engineer, and of the corps d' elite of the British Army,, the Guards. The badge© of dragoon, lancer, hussar and Highlander are intermingled with those of famous line regiments from each of the four countries forming the United Kingdom. Here is the grim device of the 17th Lancers- - a skull and crossbones, emblem of death, with the words "Or Glory." Well the gallant regiment justified its motto in Africa. Memories of long past but never-to-be-forgotten glorie6 of tho British Army are recalled by these regimental emblems. The ephinx o-f the South "Wales Borderers,, the Liucolns, the East Lancashires and other regiments tell, of course, of laurels gained in Egypt, where British soldiers fought a hundred years ago under the heroic Abercromby, and in our own days under Wolseley. Eliott's magnificent defence of " The Reck " and the glories of the- Peninsula are recalled "by the words "Gibraltar" and " Talavera " on the escutcheon of the Northamptons, while early achievements of the British arms in India are brought to mind by the tiger and the word "Hindostan" borne by the Leicestershire Regiment.

Scotland gave many a brave son for the Empire in South Africa, and the badge of many a Scottish Tegiment is to be 6een in this reliquary. The figure of St Andrew with his cross appears half a dozen times. The stag's head of the Seaforths is there, and eo are the insignia of the Canierons and . other famous Highland regiments. The splendid valour of Irish soldieais never shone more brightly than in South Africa, and many a gallant Hibernian gave up hia life on the veldt. Memorials of some of these brave men are in the collection, the badges of the famous Dublin Fusiliers and the Leinsters, tor instance. Volumes might be written on the memories aroused by the contents of this plain little case, but one more reference must suffice. Here, stamped in metal, is a single word — " Jelalabad." How many of us now know the story of that obscure town of Afghanistan, where the gallant Sale and the "illustrious" garrison held at bay Bwarming hosts of fanatical fighters in the dark days, over sixty years ago, when a British army was annihilated in the Khoord-Cabul Pass.

There is much more to interest the reverent inquirer who examines this case of regimental badges, which adorns the wall of. the Armament Court— that of the ' Neiv Zealand Defence Department. The relics which it contains were collected by Mr Tom Pollard, who, as the son of a soldier, and as one who was in South Africa during the struggle in which the erstwhile wearers gave lip their gallant spirits, regards them with a reverence which, it is to be feared, is not shared by all of the thousands of people who have viewed the collection. The carelessness with which these relics of the departed brave are evidently regarded by sonie persons is, however, due probably to the fact that the observers do not know, or do not realise, all that they imply. "With fuller knowledge may come more reverence. ' . • '