Trooping the Colours

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 611, 13 March 1929, Page 8

Trooping the Colours

Picturesque Ceremony Next Month

NEW regimental colours will be presented by the GovernorGeneral to the Auckland Regiment at a special parade to be held in the Auckland Domain on Sunday, April 21. The trooping of the colours, which accompanies this presentation, is a traditional military ceremony of picturesque solemnity.

A LMOST before the time of civilised armies—certainly before the battles of Napoleon—a standard was carried by massed troops, mainly as a symbol of common allegiance to their leaders and as inspiration to physical courage wnen men fought back to back with the colours flying in their midst. To-day the colours of the armies of the world are no less important than when the last man of a defeated army fell clutching their silken folds, and in Auckland the same homage is paid to the regimental flag as is shown to the colours of the Horse

Guards in England when inspected by the King himself on every birthday function.

On Sunday, April 21 his Excellency the Governor-General, Sir Charles Fergusson, will attend the parade in the Auckland Domain, and after the old colours have been discarded, will present the new. The function was originally scheduled for Anzac Day, but on account of the Governor-Gen-eral having undertaken _to lay the foundation-stone of the Wellington memorial at that time, the date was changed. New colours are presented to a regiment for the very common-sense reason that the old ones are worn out. For about 20 years the Auckland regimental standard has accompanied the King’s colours at the head of the local troops, and the time has now arrived when their place is in the archives of antiquity. They perhaps will take a place alongside the glass-encased flag in the Auckland Library, which represents the service in New Zealand of the Imperial

troops, or possibly a frame for them wilt be found on the walls of the Town Hall.

Over 600 men will march past when the colours are trooped. The drums j will be stacked into an improvised j pyramid on the field and the exchange j of flags will be made after the dedica- j tion of the new colours by the Primate j of New Zealand, Archbishop Averill. j Bands will play marches, and finally j the colours will be escorted to their i new repository at Defence headquarters. Regimental colours, the cost of which is usually provided from the regimental fund, are essentially accompanied by the King’s Colours the present of his Majesty through his agent for the Dominion. When they are renewed, the King s Colours undergo a similar change. In Wellington, the regimental colours were presented by the ladies of the city; in Auckland they are being provided by the regimental fund, and possibly assisted by outside subscriptions. The flag costs approximately £7O, and the King’s Colours £SO. The standard of a regiment bears emblazoned across it the battle honours of its men —not every battle in the war, but certain fights in which it was represented and which are selected by the Imperial authorities for special honours. Auckland’s silken emblem contains the names of: South Africa, 1900-1902; Flers Coureelette, Broodseinde, Bapaume, 191 S; Krithia, Defence of Anzac, Messines, 1917; Arras, 1918; Canal du Nord, Landing at Anzac and Sari Bair. The artillery carries a standard, but instead of the details of its battle honours, it has worked upon it the expressive word: “Übique”—everywhere. A SOLDIER’S ALLEGIANCE The presence in Auckland of the Earl of Liverpool will remind the exGovernor of New Zealand that he was the last to perform a presentation of the colours ceremony in this province. At Cambridge on May 3, 1914, a few months before the outbreak of the Great War, Lord Liverpool handed new standards to the 6th Hauraki regiment and the 16 th Waikato regiment. On every anniversary of the King's birth, his Majesty attends the trooping of the colours of the Horse Guards in London. Great pomp attends the function, and after the picturesque march to the skirl of the pipes, the King presents the colours and inspects the Guards. Although the presence of regimental colours is but a symbol, it is in the minds of the true soldier the emblem of discipline and faithfulness. From childhood, members of the present generation have had in their memories the outlines of the famous picture, “Saving the Colours,” but few remember that it was the father of General Melville, late G.O.C. of New Zealand Forces, who was depicted as the last man to fall with the colours at Rorke’s Drift. Such is the allegiance of New Zealand soldiers to the flags of their regiments.