BAGPIPES OR BAND?

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 350, 10 May 1928, Page 16

BAGPIPES OR BAND?

WHICH SHOULD LEAD PROCESSION? PIPERS CLAIM PRECEDENCE (From Our Own Correspondent) HAMILTON, Wednesday. Strong exception to the position it occupied in the Anzac Day procession has been taken by the Caledonian Pipe Band, which has protested to the local Defence authorities, and on failing to receive a reply is now approaching the department. At the Anzac Day procession the band made a fine showing, all members being in picturesque Highland uniform. The recently-formed band organised from the ranks of the Hamilton Municipal Band and the Waikato Regimental Band was at the head of the procession. PLAYED ONLY ONE TUNE Many of its members were in mufti, and observant people noticed that the band played one tune throughout the day. This was probably excusable, as the new band had not been working together very long. According to the pipe-major, an old Guardsman, and a stickler for etiquette, the main ground for complaint is that as the parade was only semimilitary it was not essential for a military band to proceed first. The pipe-band, members being all returned soldiers, it was considered that they should have been given premier place, instead of being sandwiched between senior cadets and girl guides at the end of the procession. AGAINST KING’S REGULATIONS

Furthermore, according to the King’s Regulations, a pipe-band, if available, should always head a procession in peace or war.

“At the time I informed the staff officer in charge of the mistake, and asked for his ruling,” says the pipemajor. “He told me to go where I was put, so I obeyed orders. I want to know now why such orders were given.” Since the procession several citizens have expressed the opinion that the smartly-attired pipers would, from a purely aesthetic point of view, have looked better at the head of the march. Others have argued that the matter is immaterial, as everybody was anxious to pay a tribute to the dead, not to criticise the hands taking narL