POPPY DAY.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 April 1922, Page 2

POPPY DAY.

HOKITIKA- APRIL 22-24.

“IN FLANDERS’ FIELDS.” In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place, and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly, ’ ..jfr Scarce heard amidst the guns below.

We fire the dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawii, saw sunset glow, Loved, and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our qtlari'el with the foe! To you from falling hands we throw The torch. Be yours to Hold it high!

If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders fields.

< ,Vritten during the second Battle of Ypres, April 1915, byJ- D, McCrae, Montreal).

Every soldier who served during the Hiinmer months will remember the red poppy of Flanders. Just as* the fern • typifies New Zealand, the wattle Australia, the maple Canada, so does the —< little red poppy Flanders, It was this sentiment that influenced the ex-sol-diers of Britain, Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand to adopt the red poppy as the memorial Power to he worn in honour of our dead, f Monday, 21th April, these flowers, u liich were made in devastated Northern France, will he on sale in every city, town and township in New Zealand. Committees representing ladies’ organisations, soldiers’ widows, soldiers’ wives, widowed mothers, and the R.S.A. have been formed in the large towns, and everything is being willingly prepared for a successful day. The money left after paying for the poppies and all expenses will he used in alleviating hardship among ex-soldiers o\\ ing to unemployment. Roughly speaking, the net proceeds of a district will be spent in the relief or soldier unemployment itt-'-that district. The Government will probably be asked to grant a £ for £ subsidy, or 10s for £1 subsidy, so that the funds may be augmented. The absorption of unemployed soldiers in this manner will act beneficially on general unemployment throughout the Dominion. The price of each poppy is Is and it is to be hoped that the whole of the West Coast will rise to the occasion once more and buy all the poppies allocated to it.