NEWS OF OUR BOYS.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 28 September 1916, Page 2

NEWS OF OUR BOYS.

So widely flung are the battle fronts and so vast 'the number of- troops engaged, that it is not altogether surprising that the references in the cable messages to the New Zeaianders are not more frequent. It is but' natural that parents and friends from one end to another, should I anxiously scan the cables for news of the boys who are so worthily upholding the honour pf their country away there on the shot and shell-torn plains of France. This week they were gladdened .by the news that New Zealand troops took part in the taking of Tiers, Martinpuich, and Courcellette. That those operations, in their execution, demanded the best work of seasoned troops, goes without saying. The Hun, whatever his moral delinquincijes may be (and they are by no means light or negligible) has shown himself a stubborn fighter, and ground gained from him is not easily taken. In these circumstances it says a great deal for the men from the Britain of the South that Sir Douglas Haig, who cannot rightly be accused of indulging in excessive verbosity or in lightly giving praise, should have paid a tribute to the New Zealanders for their share in the success of the operations referred to. Having obtained their objective the New Zealanders, pushed home the advantage secured, by repelling counter-attacks and by progressing further. We may be sure that the other British troops engaged also acquitted themselves nobly on the occasion—the special mention' of our, own men should not lead us to imagine otherwise. The tribute paid by Sir Douglas IJaig must have been thoroughly deserved, and the work done and being done l)y the New Zbalinders in France shows that the same indomitable spirit animates them that they manifested during the severe test of the (iallipoU campaign. There will probably be cause for sorrow when the. casualties arising out of the reoent operations come to , Hand, but that sorrow will, be, to some extent at least, mitigated by the remembrance that New Zealand's sons proved worthy of the loin from whence they sprung and of the country of th^iv birth.