The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 1915. DUTY AND PRIVILEGE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 226, 18 June 1915, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 1915. DUTY AND PRIVILEGE.

(With which is incorporated Tho T»iLaps Tost 'iaa Waimarinu News.)

One of the most impressive ana magnificent tilings about this great v;9v is the spirit in which parents and other relatives learn of the incalculable and irredeemable sacrifices they have boon calld upon to make in defence of out national life. We are amazed .it the stoicism displayed, a stoicism that strikes as a supreme triumph of the higher reason over passion and considerations for self. It is not uncommon now, in New Zealand, to learn of the worst in a way that it was not possible for the most ardent discipline of Zcno to surpass. We have no»stoic cult, and yet, even the great philosopher himself would have paled in a comparison of his spurious and acquired phenomenon wth the present day natural triumph of with the present day natural triumph of Grief is natural to all humanity and it is not less distressing because the evolution of reason causes it to appear less demonstrative to ' the outside -world. With the publication of appallng casualty lists from day to day, even the man about the street has vivid mental pictures of mothers' bleeding hearts, and the almost unbearable grief of n fa'flveT for the loss of one of whom he had occasion to feel the utmost pride, and these instances are being multiplied upon us so rapidly that the aspect of national life must soon present evidences of a grief that it is humanly impossible to repress. No more than in our Motherland will our 'great sorrow for the bereaved and our mourning for a loss we can never replace be allowed to dvffi our viskm of the great duty that we owe to -those w'ho may come back to us in a *3tate to -which death would -perhaps have been preferable. Our sorrow will be a spur to prod us on to a serjKibility of the debt we owe to our maimed and injured lads who will return to the land ihey left -with such life and feigh hopes, mcro wrecks of their former selves — a debt, n» matter however we may do, we can never wipe 'jut. It was abundantly pointr 3d out at th« public meeting on "Wednesday. nigHvt that money was wanted, nud this onO«) more brings before us the plan, bore, untarnished, impressive truth, that modern war demands two .of it' requires those who are elijgifclc to rsunt<eer their lives, aiid'.-ihoee fuai < Jo yoWn'teef their The life o'f ; New Zealand j ana the life M ik® E m pJr<j depends" as much uribii one. as t,he other. The I liy<>s have Indisputably.been froeJy of-

fered, but we lave now before us the task of organisation to obtain the money that is required to alleviate the suffering of he injured ,and to secure from want the dependents of those who have given up' even life itself for our safety. With grief-stricken parents sisters and brothers in our community, moving among us, we are not likely to forget to volunteer that factor in the Avinning of a war, which it is enly posr ' sible for us to : give, and which it is our privilege, and should bo our pleasure to give. If we rendered ourselves penniless it would be but a poor thing beside the beautiful young lives that have been sacrificed. Tho sympathy of the whole community, we believe, has been aroused, and we shall be disappointd, if it is not gloriously reflected in the sum total of the efforts the pub- ! lie meeting on Wednesday night instituted.