SPIRIT OF SACRIFICE

Hokitika Guardian, 28 April 1928, Page 2

SPIRIT OF SACRIFICE

GOVERNOR-GENERAL’S ADDRES»

AUCKLAND, April 26. Speaking at the unveiling of the Otahulni War Memorial, the Governor General, Sir Charles Fergusson, spoke of the signfieanco of war memorials to a.ll British people. 'I hey stood, ho said, as reminders of the magnitude of those sacrifices hv which victory had been bought and pf the responsibility which lay on each and every one to answer tiic call of duty, however hard it might he and whatever the cost. Ho was sure that not even these whose memories were most poignant would wish him to strike a note ol sorrow. He would rather speak of the imperishable glory that rested upon the men who fell, of their own people’s pride in them, of what men they were, of what deeds they did, and what a wonderful epic in spite of all its "bitterness was tli* history of the Great War. ■|t is a coin moil place to say that we owe much to these men. whatever we have of peace and happiness and Asperity.” continued Sir Charles. “There is one thing that we arc perhaps a little apt to forget. They showed us how it is possible for men

and women like ourselves, not heroes, hut commonplace people, to rise to heights ol .sacrifice which hail never been known to he possible. They caned to a higher plane the standard iI" life of every one of us. The inspiration they have given will last, ami will he handed down" In generations yet unborn.’’ Coni inning, he wiid he had often heard the question : Did these men die. m vain? A thousand times no. Such lives and .stick deaths were never wasted. Always the self-sacrifice of the individual had brought salvation to the many. Those who lifted themselves up liy sclf-siicrilice drew all men unto them. But the answer to the

question lay not in the past, hut in the future. Jt was for those who remained to show that they had learned the lesson by giving noble service to our common Immunity.