The Dominion. SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 1915. HEROES ALL

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2540, 14 August 1915, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 1915. HEROES ALL

Almost every clay new names are added to New Zealand's Roll of Honour. The price has to bo paid for every step forward, and tho desperate fighting in which our men have played a prominent part during the 1 present week has caused a further extension of the list of heroes who have sacrificed their lives for home and country. No nobler epitaph could bo written for our fallen soldiers than the simple statement that thov died bravely doing their duty._ Their death means the Empire's life. The sympathy and gratitude of the people of Now Zealand go out to the relatives of the dead. The fathers and mothers of the men who' have made the supreme sacrifice have the satisfaction of knowing that their sons have died for a great cause—the cause of freedom, and honour, and right, These young lives have not been wasted. It would be far more appropriate to describe as "wasted" tne lives of thoso who might have helped, but made the "great refusal." It'is the intensity of life and not mere length of days that counts. The real valuo of life consists in doing things worth doing—ill great achievements; and not 111 killing time for .three score and ten years. Many of those who have gone to tho front tell lis that fclioy never really lived until they got on to the battlefield. "This is the real life for me," writes one of them, and he gives articulate expression to the feelings of hundreds of others. It is not siuiply existence, but "life and fullerjifc" that men want. More experiences are beinp crowded into a few diW ft' ..mouths bx kalMQji

than are supplied by many years.of ordinary routine. They are really doing- tilings that matter, and the'y arc doing them in a manner that will be recorded in history as an inspiration to all generations. Wo speak of those who do not return'as dead, but is not the poet right when he says that it is wo who stay bo-' hind who "seem the dead" 1 Let us then, "with uncovered head," Salnto the sncred (lead, Who went, and who return not—say not so! 'Tis not the grapes of Canaan that repay, But tho high, faith, that failed not by tho way. Virtue treads paths that end not in the grave; No bail of ead-less night exiles the brave; And to the saner raind We rather seem the dead, that stajed behind. Tho Young New Zealanders who have died for thoir country's sake liavo given the lie to the cynic who tells us that self-love is the supreme motive power of human conduct. Thoir self-saorifice has been wonderful. The letters from the front are full of touching incidents of heroic unselfishness—of lives nobly lost to save comrades, and other deeds of bravery that will never be forgotten as long as the British Empire lives. War has been described as the "great accursed," but it cannot be denied that the war in which our Empire is now engaged has brought to light unexpected capacity lor greatness in the average New Zealander. Of course, we knew that bur men were not cowards; we knew that they would give a good account of themselves when they got to grips with the enemy; but we were hardly prepared for such dauntless gallantry that shown by the New Zealanders and Australians in the terrible struggle by which they gained their first foothold on the Gallipoli . Peninsula, or for the unfailing resourcefulness, tho coolness in danger, the splendid endurance, and the brilliant dash of these men—our workmates and fellow citizens. It is really wonderful bow these citizen soldiers fresh from farms and shops and offices faced dangers and difficulties with an unflinohing courage which could not be surpassed. They seem to be all heroes. The heroism of this war is not confined to the men who 'win Victoria Crosses or Distinguished Servico Medals. Deeds worthy of the Victoria Cross are being done daily, unknown to all save perhaps tho doer himself and the little group of his own comrades. After all, what more can a man do than give his life for his friend or ,hia country—and this is wfcat the New Zealanders have done whose names appear on our Roll of Honour. The, nation owe a a debt of gratitude which can never bo fully repaid to the thousands of undccorated heroes who are faithfully doing the task allotted to them. In a'glowing tribute to these men in the trenohes Mr. Balfour describes how they .fight on, very often not knowing what is going on next door to them, intent upon the immediate stress and struggle in which they are engaged, with Tittle expectation perhaps of help from outside, in circumstances of difficulty ancl danger which wo with all our powers of imagination find it hard to realise. Thoir names "cannot appear in any written account—they are too many —their stories are too varied. It is difficult even to get the facta after the battle." All that wo aro told about tho death of tho majority of those whoso names are recorded on New Zealand's Roll of Honour is contained in the simple words, "killed in action," "died of wounds," and similar phrases; but we know that they have died for us, and our sense of ,thc greatness of their achievements may' bo expressed in tho words 'of a distinguished Scotsman, who after a visit to the wounded soldiers in a London hospital declared that he felt the long work of his life shrink to littlo in comparison with what any one of those men had dono and borne in a few days or hours of his young life. The Roll of Honour makes one feel that death cannot he the end of the story. Wc may well believe that the man who loses his life for a worthy cause shall find it again. Surely, for such men "high servico waits though earth's last fight is fought."