A DAILY MESSAGE

Hokitika Guardian, 4 July 1929, Page 1

A DAILY MESSAGE

ANZAC Anzac! What awful and yet glorious memories you bring! Again we see those matchless men, dauntless before their stupendous task. Again we hear the roar of the guns and the cries of wounded men. Again we feel their mighty agony. We see once more the youth whose eyes hut yesterday looked out on life so brightly, and who gazed unflinchingly into the eyes of death to-day. We see again those silent lips—still showing the- gracious curves of youth—hardened a little in the battle crash, only to relax again in the peace of death. We see the wrenched muscles, the shattered limbs, the crimson mud. We see pale women who have lost their lord. We see the wistful children waiting, waiting. We see the crowds who mourn. Ah, yes! The memories of Anzac will ever •be exquisitely precious, though awful, and glorious as they are awful. Precious, because each memory is the echo of a chord wrung from the soul of Australia. Glorious, because the spirit of Anzac won for Australia a place in the deathless army of the world’s bravest brave, and made her ready for a nation’s sceptre. Australia’s history is. as yet only a brief .record; but, even when our history becomes a story df the centuries, no prouder day will grace its annals; no greater glory will touch its pages than that which comes from this day—destined for ever the greatest in Australia’s history—Anzac Day! —M. PRESTON STANLEY.