A STRANGE CEREMONY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 807, 29 December 1881, Page 3

A STRANGE CEREMONY.

The Transvaal Argus contains a long account of a ceremony which took place on Oct. 3rd in Pretoria. A number of Englishmen there met and decided “to commit to earth the emblem of their country’s greatness. ’ This was regarded a “ solemn and emphatic protest against the treatment which British subjects and the British flag has received at the hands of the British Government.” The funeral was arranged to take place as nearly as possible at the time when it was expected that the convention would be signed. A vehicle draped with black was provided, drawn by two horses clothed m sables. Inside the carriage a raised platform was placed to receive the coffin, upon the lid of which the following inscription was placed “In loving Memory ef the British Flag in the Transvaal, who Departed this Life on the 2nd August, 1881, her fiftieth year. ‘ln other climes none knew thee but to love thee, Resurgam.” The coffin which contained the flag was placed upon the platform provided, amid the deepest silence and the uncovered heads of the peopled assembled. About 350 white people followed the hearse, and a large number of Kaffir chiefs and their retinue fell in, making the total number about six hundred in procession. On arrival at the grave the coffin was taken from the hearse, and lowered into a place prepared lor it, “ with the greatest reverence and decorum,” and an oration was delivered referring to the glories associated with the British flag for a thousand years —a flag now “ laid low in the dust, wounded to the heart by an unkind thrust, shorn of a portion of her honor.” At the head of the grave was placed a tombstone bearing the same inscription as that on the coffin.