FINDING HIS HERITAGE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 278, 25 May 1917, Page 2 (Supplement)

FINDING HIS HERITAGE.

YOUNG ANZAC'S DISCOVERY. LINKS THAT BIND EMPIRE.

"When young Auzac knew that h within reach of Winchester he was < amongst tho antiquities of the East h toricai relies of the land of his fore f;

surprised at liis keen interest in the 1 vou liave seen lmrli older things in 1' hut .somehow the'ro not the same. T 'ho niggers. These belong to ils."

IVrEN in training camps do not have •*■'■*■ much time for sight-seeing, but all tho leisure that he had was spent by young AiiziiK- in tho lovely old cathedral city. Other men hired bicycles and went out into the country; 'but he preferred to go afoot. "You can't seo enough from a bicycle," .was hi.s comment. So ho wandered about the winding byways of the town, swinging along with that Australian stride, which is now so familiar in English streets. Ho did not poke and' peer, after the manner of the ordinary tourist, but tho deep-set, grey eyes, which looked out so steadily from beneath the shady hat, missed very little that was to be seen. Of architecture he knew prictk-ally nothing, and Perpendicular, Decorative, Early English, Norman, were terms which conveyed little meaning to him. But, born and bred in a land of natural beauty, his innate sense of aesthetic values helped him to understand the loveliness of the Cathedral's exquisite nave, and the rich warmth of the mellow red tiles and great oak beams of the old cottages. With a delightful lack of self-con-scious-ness ho would stand in tho Cathedra! Close gazing wth dee]) admiration at the beautiful Thirteenth Century doTiiery: or wander in and out of tho city's ancient gateway, "Just to have another look." ON SACRED GROUND. Every street of the old town was sacred ground to him. Product of an educational system which aims at fitting every child to get the best out of life, ho knew enough history to appreciate tho ancient capital of his race, and as ho swung along by the walls of Wolvesley, or heard his own spurs clang on tho paved floor of old Winchester Hall, he felt that he was heir to the ages. Alfred, Canute, Stephen, Edward, Henry, Richard of tho Lion Heartall the fighters who in tho brave days of old had clanged their way through tho historin city seemed to belong to him, this lad in khaki from the far Antipodes. In the cathedral ho stood bareheaded before the monuments of soldiers of a later day —members of the Rampshires and the King's Royal Rifles, whose deeds are commemorated in the home town. In place of honour on the Cathedral walls are the namies of Hampshire men who fell at Waterloo, in the Crimea, in India, on the Nile, in South Africa; and over some of tho lists hang, faded and tern, the colours which floated to the breeze and led their regiments into battle. Young Anzac paid a silent tribute to these brothers-in-arms, who, in the antiquity of the Cathedral, seemed to be his own contemporaries. But later on h's thoughts found expression: "The wonderful part about England is that its history seems to be going on all the time. In Egypt it all seemed to be past and over." THE UNDERLYING TRUTH. Thus, in his schoolboy fashion, ho voiced that underlying truth which is beneath all our belief in a living, growing Empire. And perhaps it was a sudden realisation that he himself was helping the history of our race "to bo going on" that made him straighten up and look at the great Cathedral and tho peaceful Close with a new air of pride. Tho old hospital of St. Cross was a joy and a revelation to him. Brougnt up in a land of social experiments, ho had believed, as a matter of course, that tho awakening of a social conscience was a modern development. Now he was confronted by a charity that dated back to the time of King Stephen, and showed him that even in the days of the bold, bad barons thero were men who worked and planned for the welfare of their less fortunate brethern. It was a bright Autumn day when lie walked across the .water meadows to St. Cross, and tho old grey buildings were bathed in sunshine. It flooded the green lawns, tho beds of brilliant asters, and tho soft grey walls; it shone on the' old brothers in their gowns of black and mulberry rod, strolling about tho

liy AMY ELEANOR .MACK In -Land and Water

liis new training school would he delighted; for not even a year had, lessened his interest in thehisfathers. And when an English lady, mediaeval buddings, said: "But Egypt!" ho replied simply: "Yes; I'ho Pyramids and Sphinx U'long to

square, and on the young soldier in the gateway, making a peaceful picture, into which the traveller from the now land seemed to fit as naturally as the old brothers themselves. He gazed at the scene silently, a-s was his way. Then, in liis slow voice: "I'd rather like to end my days in a place like this. It's very peaceful."

Poor lad, the battlefields of France hold no such peaceful halting place! But it was the college that held the greatest fascination for him. His own schooldays were so short a pace Ixminrl him that Jio had not begun to forget the feelings of a schoolboy. His own school in Australia was counted very old in the land of new things. It had been built nearly a century, and it had its traditions; and its bovs learned to

"play tho game,"' just as their forefathers had learned on the English playing fields. So there was a feeling of intimacy and fellowship, mingled with tho reverence and interest with which young Anzac approached the great old college. THE CONTRAST OF SPEECH. He loved to stroll across College Mead and watch the boys at football. The clatter of his heavy boots on tho cooblestones of the courts was music in his ears, for it seemed like tha echo of boys who had clattered that way during the long centuries. It must bo confessed that he took a mischievous pleasuro in asking the boys questions in order to hear them speak; for used as ho was to tho deeper, drawling tones of his own countrymen, the highpitched English voices amused him. They seemed girlish to hi» unaccustomed ear. But not for ay moment did he make the mistake of thinking that the men who went fortn from that old school were any less manly than the deeper-voiced men of his own land. He knew tQo much English history to fall into that error, and, !>esidos, he had personal experience of officers, from public schools. "Tommy officers," he and his fellows irreverently call all tno British officers, but none the less do they admire them for their courage, and respect them for .their power to command, and their custom of giving the men a fair "deal." No doubt, in its turn,- fliis) drawl amii'sed the schoolboys and, perhaps ho seemed crude and rough to them. But crude as lie might be, and newly arrived from the newest of all lands, there was something in him that responded to tho call of the old school, and he felt strangely at home within its precincts. Then one day as he was being snown the famous " toys" the reason came to him in a flash. Amongst tho numberless names on the walls his eyes suddenly rested on a most familiar name— one he himself had signed a thousand times. It was a name glorious in history, and made immortal by a man who had lived long taforo tho owner of the one on tho wall, and it wai voung Anzac's own second name. But so little does the average Australian brother bother about his ancestors that the boy had quite forgotten that his own great-grandfather, and his father and grandfather before him, had been Wykehamists. He did not speak of it to nis guide —that would have seemed too much like "swank"—but his interest in and affection for the college deepened, and tho joy of tho possessor entered into lis soul. Now. indeed, was he linked with the glorious past of the old Hampshire town. Later on, in London, he summed it up. It was the last nignt of his last leave. Next day ho was leaving for the front, and a serious mood had fallen on him. "I'm awfully glad I had those tew weeks in Winchester," ho said. "London's all right, but it's too cosmopolitan ; it seems to belong to anyone. Winchester seems to be us. I think it is the England we're all lighting for. And wnen you think of all those old Johnnies, way back to the Britons, and those others, too, in the Cathedralwell, it makes a chap feel proud that he can carrv on."

And so tlie ancient capital had forged one moro link between the old world and tho new.