A FAREWELL MESSAGE

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2331, 20 September 1921, Page 3

A FAREWELL MESSAGE

TO NEW ZEALANDERS,

“What can I say?” asked Mr Bennett, when asked at the ship’s side (prior to leaving for Sydney last night, en route for home) for a message to the people of New Zealand.

“This is not a moment when the mind could turn a phrase oi the voice utter a sentence that would lie adequate to the occasion. We came here, a little heavy in heart, knowing what a big undertaking was before us. New Zealanders have written the name of their country large on the annals of field sports, as they wrote it large on that other and wider field of the struggle for the world’s liberty.

“We came, and saw New Zealand. But we did not conquer her. A small boy told me New Zealand had beaten us in the test matches. He had added up the total number of points scored in the first and second tests, and his verdict was that New Zealand was as much better than South Africa as eighteenpence was more than one and twopence. The little fellow’s philosophy set me thinking. I suppose he was right. “You can put our impressions of New Zealanders in half a dozen words: ‘Loyal to their country, and its national game. Hospitable to the stranger within the gates. Good losers, clean sports —gentlemen.’ ”