A PIEBALD CONTINGENT. New Zealand's Fancy Dress Parade.

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 43, 27 April 1901, Page 8

A PIEBALD CONTINGENT. New Zealand's Fancy Dress Parade.

DURING the early part of this week a number of amateur Highlanders were strolling round Wellington decked out in the garb of Old Gaul. They looked highly uncomfortable in their garish scarlet coats and short skirts, and inquiries disclosed the fact that they were part of the Highland division of the hund-red-strong Federal Contingent which New Zealand is contributing to the Commonwealth celebrations at Melbourne. Various other samples of thib Contingent have been in the city on their way South during the past week or ten days, and, from a circus point of view, the show seems to have been arranged with a view to giving the Australians a real spectacular treat. * * * From that point of view our Federal Contingent will just about fill the bill. Although they are to number only a hundred, a good many varieties of uniform will be squeezed into their ranks. There will be braw Hieland laddies in petticoats, and Maoris in khaki, artillerymen in blue cloth and brass buttons, and navals in tunics and bell-bottomed pants, as well as a diversity of other costumes more or less fanciful. Variety, of course, is charming, and, as the object seems to be to make this Contingent as picturesque as possible, it is a real pity that the stage manager, whoever he is, has not taken time to work up the affair on a still more gaudy scale. * * * A few golfers would not have looked amiss and the national sport of football ought not to have been ignored. It would have been so easy to have raised a Bugby fifteen to put in the team in all the glory of their guernseys, knickers and tasselled caps. The Druids, we are sure, if properly approached would not have scorned the opportunity to send over say half a dozen of their hierarchy in patriarchal beards and antique garments. Then there are • the Foresters with their coats of Lincoln green and Robin Hood attire. Really, the longer we think of it the more are we convinced that Mr. Seddon made a mistake in closing up his living mosaic after he had introduced the Highlanders * * * In future, when Contingents are required to be raised and sent away for purely festal or spectacular purposes it would be just as well to decide beforehand whether it is to be a military or a theatrical exhibit. In the former case, let there be some consistency about it and let it be of a representative character. Scotland is justly proud of her historic kilted regiments, but to send our young Colonials in Highland garb across to Melbourne to represent New Zealand at the Commonwealth is strangely incongruous and partakes largely of the element of farce. There is altogether too much tendency to play at soldiers. Lieut.-Col. Collins set an excellent example the other day when, at the Easter manoeuvres of the Wellington volunteers, he dispensed with the usual sham fight, and took his men on a marching expedition up the Wairarapa. This sort of everci'se is far more likely to produce a really effective defence force ready for any emergency than the holding of stationary encampments and the carrying-out of holiday shamfights. The same serious spirit ought to have been reflected in the composition of the Federal Contingent by which the colony is to be represented in Melbourne. It ought to be really representative of the colony, and not a motley assortment of all kinds and varieties.