FIRST CONTINGENT REUNION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 23, 22 October 1907, Page 5

FIRST CONTINGENT REUNION.

The Social. Hall of Melbourne House wai vested with all the, panoply of warlast evening, .when the -surviving -members of the First South .African Contingent met- round ' the. social board-to celebrate the eighth .atmiver sa'ry..(to' the..dax),of their departure from Wellington tu ,the. war-warmed- zone of- Soutl. Africa.-Old-khaki .uniforms, which had been '.packed r away as relics, had been dragged forth 'and brushed- up for: .the occasion, in somo instances.:. Officers' still',in .the ranks of local forces. vere present,; and • other* sat round in mufti." .exchanging reminiscences of the campaign on the veldt,, and medals, gleamed on ;every breast. Among rthe -fifty odd' present wore:—Colonels', Robin ami - Dnvics, LieutColonel. Chaytqr, Captain Canavan, CaptainRogers (who , was Regimental Sergeant-Major to the "first"), Captain .Woods, and .EngineerDan M'Phorson (of tho Waiwera). Colonoi Robin, the Commander of. the. First and tho President of the First New : Zealand Mounted Rifles, occupied the chair, and it was he who, after the King had been honoured,' proposed tho health of the'"Navy, Army, and Auxili"lirios." Captain Canavai). proposed "The Pre-, vjjoenti" to-which Colonoi Robin replied. ; In' proposing' "Comrades' who h'aVo. gone' before," Lieut.-Colonel Chaytor.called for the rollofhonoured- dead to bo .read.-,. Trooper Witheford •proposed' "Colonel" Davies','!' C.8.," which was S-esiionded to-by that officer-in. gallant terms. Captain Fred Woods .proposed. "Absont Comrades," and Captain Mitchell "The J'ress." Capital entertainment nw provided by Messrs. C. .'Jowell, :J. Curaings, Dyson, Johnson, Brown, C.-Bould; and ,G. Warren. During the evening the Secretary; Mr. Claude Jewell, was eulogised deservedly, ; and ho was presented with .something trihgibUT'for the spirit ho throws into the work of the Association.