The Guardian AND EVENING STAR, With which is incorporated “ The West Coast Times.” MONDAY, APRIL 25th, 1921. ANZAC DAY.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 April 1921, Page 2

The Guardian AND EVENING STAR, With which is incorporated “ The West Coast Times.” MONDAY, APRIL 25th, 1921. ANZAC DAY.

Anzac Day is now rightly considered a truly national day. An act of Parliament last year has constituted it a national holiday, and invested it with a certain solemnity well befitting the occasion. To-day this event, which marked the practical entry of New Zealand into the Great War, is being-com-memorated. It. is a day added to our national traditions; a day we are all supremely, yet soberly, proud 01. Who does not recall the tension ol those hours following the news being Hashed to all parts of New Zealand of the splendid hearing of our hoys in their baptism of fire in the stern realities of war? Those anxious hours of the Saturday and Sunday, and the days following, as the casualty lists trickled through, the advance guard as it were of tile band of heroes who in far off lands were to lay down their lives for their country. It was a solemn time and many a silent prayer must have been thought in the full solemnity of the occasion. Greater sacrifices in number were to follow. About Gallipoli, in Palestine, France and Flanders, the toll of the New Zealanders were to he taken as the greatness of the war magnified itself and appropriated more and more victims before its terrible course was run. Anzac Day lias become the anniversary for all those sacrificing times. The traditions crowded into the period of the war, are expressed now in the one commemoration of the exacting sacrifice the sons of New Zealand made. In the past the country has acknowledged those brave and unselfish deeds; it will do so to-day, and continue to do so in the future, because the glory of it all can never fade. The country lias realised the debt it owes to those who served, and in many ways has striven to show its feelings for the services rendered. But in the houses of mourning there can be no adequate requittal. There are the dependents still to he cc.red for. There arc those physically wrecked in the war in our service to lie thought of. To these in particular at this time there must be surging

thoughts that our debt of gratitude can never be repaid. Those who served in the great war gave an example of complete citizenship, which should not lie forgotten. Our soldiers won a name and a fame that stands in the highest place for real service at the war. The New Zealand divisions won renown which is of the hi rbest personal credit to all who served. The name of New Zealand was enhanced to the highest degree by their service, so we must be proud of our soldiers and grateful beyond measure for their magnificent work. In writing of and naming soldiers, we embrace our sailors, as well as the nurses and the whole medical corps, who as unflinchingly did their humane work right nobly. From their ranks many were called on to make the supreme sacrifice, and to-day their work and great worth must not pass unmentioned. Tlie war with all its horror,

has left us prized memories of those I who so gallantly went forth to serve. ! The most cherished memories of the war are of those splendid men and women who rallied to the call of country. Of the feats they performed we are indeed proud, for by their brave and ini domitnble actions they have added a ! lustre to the fame of New Zealand i which time can never fade. For this ! personal service -so ungrudgingly given, we fnust acknowledge it no less readily, and so on Anzac Day we remember all who served and particularly those who in far off graves are now no more, hut died heroes of our time and race for the benefit of their country.