NEW ZEALAND'S ROLL OF HONOUR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2846, 10 August 1916, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND'S ROLL OF HONOUR

The simple record of the fact that 344] New Zealanders have laid down their lives for their country in the great fight for right conveys 1.0 our minds the real meaning of war with a solemn directness which could not be equalled by the readiest pen or.

the most cloqueut tongue. This i heavy death roll forms part of tho total casualties, numbering 10,60;), suffered by our ..Expeditionary force, as announced in the lists issued up to August 7 of the present year. These brave men havo died for us and for the Empire. Never havo British soldiers fought for a greater or more righteous . cause. Those who have made the supremo sacrifice died doing their duty—and how can men die better 1 This thought gives consolation to their sorrowing relatives, to whom all our hearts go out in sympathy. Our Now Zealand dead have not died in vain. Their high oouvagc and faithfulness have helped to ensure that full and final victory which we and our Allies are resolved to achieve, no matter, what the cost may bo. The splendid fighting qualities of our soldiers and the deeds they havo done havo added a glorious page to the history of New Zealand. The fight which they fought in Gallipoli sent a thrill of pride through the Empire. They proved themselves equal in all respects to tho French, English, Scottish arid Irish troops who shared with.them the hopes and disappointments and the glories of that unfortunate campaign. It was a marvel, writes Me. Buchan, how these men maintained so high a spirit and so steady a cheerfulness. He pays a high tribute to the Australians and New Zcalanders, and describes them <is "superb fighting men." There was, he says,, perpetual competition amongst thera for the posts of danger, They did all that men could do, but they could not achieve tho ' impossible. The scene has now changed. Our men are now fighting in Prance and ■k&Ypt, and the news of their doings shows that they have lost none of their daring or resourcefulness, and that \they are still the same determined fighters whose deeds afc Gallipoli stirred us so deeply. The people of Now Zealand cannot contemplate without deep emotion the loss "of so many promising young lives. And yet wo acoept it . steadfast minds, if with quivering hearts.'" Theso are tho words of Sir George Adam Smith, Principal of Aberdeen University, who has lost one of his own sons on the battlefield. This high-spirited Scotsman has no patiencc with thoss American "utilitarians at a distance" who think more of the cost than tho cause. He is oonfident that victory—he will\ riot hear of an inconclusive peace—is Avorth the price, however gi'cafc it may be.

Count up the cost (lie says)—count it up in mero figures of the slain and disabled. Count it up in the snm of tho bodily strength and power of brain, gone lroiu the nation, in the loss of hands to make the honpst'wealth, and of hearts to share the burdens, of the future. Imagine it in the talo of children that will now bo unborn .and of tho homes that shall never ho built. Nay, go on and add to it the sense of emptiness that haunts, our world, the dearness of the vanished faces, the crushed love and tho dreams unfulfilled—we shall admit it all. And yet—and yet—we -will say, as were our fallen here they would say with us, that it has not been it vain. If such loss lead to tho victory of right over'wrong, if it avenge the banished and the tortured; if once for all it warn tho world from the fatality of broken, faith; if it preserve the traditions and liberties of this free Empire; if, still more, it quioken tho remnant that is left of us to unselfishness ajd purity, and pour down all the common' ways of peace the heroism which war lias evoked—we who suffer it will not count it los 3 nor bewail. . ' T!»is is tho spirit which cannot be conquered, and theso'noble words give expression to the thoughts and feelings of many a bereaved New Zealand parent to-day.