STAND IN THE RANKS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1399, 18 May 1915, Page 3

STAND IN THE RANKS.

Speaking at Wellington on Saturday night, the Hon. A. L. Herdmau, Minister for Justice, said : “Whether we be farmers, or be engaged in mercantile pursuits ; whether we are soldiers or citizens ; whether we be sailors or landsmen ; whether we are living in the backblocks or in the city, it is our duty to stand in the ranks.” He considered it probably the finest thing in New Zealand history that 15,000 or 16,000 men had left this country's shores to bear their share of the battles. It was a thing tbit would be remembered as long as New Zealand lived. What New Zealand, and Canada, and India, and Australia, aud South Africa had done in this war would not be forgotten while an Englishman was left in the world, or the English language was spoken. As to what the war means, the Hon. Mr Herdman slated ; “It means that our very existence as a nation is at stake, It means that our liberties are iu grave danger. It means that the privileges, the happiness, aud the other advantages we now enjoy as free citizens of a free country under a Iree Government are in danger of being taken away from us. It means also that the work of the great statesmen of the past, of the great soldiers, of the great sailors, and of our ancestors who fought and struggled for us, are likely to vanish into thin air before the guns of a relentless enemy unless we set our teeth for the task and steel our souls iu a deadly determination to remove from the face of the earth the curse which at present exists upon it." “Mot every man could go and fight,” concluded the Minister, “but everyone could do something in the service of the Stale. We were one great and vast Empire, with one great imperial army, and one big navy. Our duty was to cling together, and fight till this war was ended. -As an old Athenian said ; ‘Go yourselves every man of you and stand in the ranks, and either victory beyond all victories awaits you, or, falling, you shall fail greatly and worthy of your past.’ ”