THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto : Public Service. MONDAY. WEDNESDAY. & FRIDAY. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 1924. ANZAC DAY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4689, 23 April 1924, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto : Public Service. MONDAY. WEDNESDAY. & FRIDAY. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 1924. ANZAC DAY.

On Friday next, throughout the length and breadth of the land, people will assemble to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the landing of the New Zealand troops at Anzac and that gallant 29th Division at Cape HgJles, and thoughts will go back to the memory of the thousands who "went YVest” in that memorable campaign. Thoughts will doubtlessly dwell, too, on those who have suffered some disability, and especially the blind and infirm. YVe cannot regret the sacrifice of such fair youth, who gave their lives, their sight, theii health, for an ideal—the integrity of the Empire. The men whose memory we shall cherish on Friday next sleep beneath the folds of the Flag they lived and died for. By their deeds of valour they have raised eternal monuments to their heroism : they have done their splendid work and gone to their rest, having taught those of us who live after them how best we may live and die. Graven on our hearts are memories terrible and glorious, clustering about the names of those historic places where our fought and fell. To the people of Paeroa and the distiict Anzac Day should bo a day of special worship and tribute to the memory of the men of Anzac, for did not the members of the Hauraki Regiment have the honoured distinction of actually being the first New Zealander; to land at Anzac Cove? Never was there a time when the need for patriotism and love of home was more insistent than to-day, Disintegrating forces arc at work, influences subtle and insidious arc making themselves felt, and it behoves every man to fos‘er a spirit of patriotism and loyal ty and love of home, and that no parley should lie held with the enemy at the gate, for that would be the basest treachery to those whose memory was commemorated; to those who gave all that men could give—themselves—for God, and King, and Country. To those in our midst whose loved ones did not return we offer our sincerest' syihpathy, and trust that they will receive true comfort in 'the knowledge that though we honoured the dead we thought of them not as dead, but as gone to a service larger and grander than any service in this life can be.