HONORING OUR RETURNED SOLDIERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 September 1915, Page 4

HONORING OUR RETURNED SOLDIERS.

The presont stage of patriotism to which New Zealanders have arrived is the process of a development that is akin to the unfolding of a rare exotic and the display of its beauty to the eyes of all beholders. We are only just realising what we owe to those gallant and courageous sons of the dominion who have by their brave deeds added a lustre to New Zealand that can never be dimmed. "We are proud of our boys who are here to-day," said Mr. Massey on the occasion of Wellington's great welcome to the returned heroes on Saturday, and the Prime Minister paid an equally generous tribute to those who are still fighting, as well as to those who have laid down their lives on foreign soil. The thunderous applause with which these sentiments were received by the vast concourse in the Wellington Town Hall proved to what a height patriotism and all that it stands for has attained in the dominion. This desire to show our returned soldiers how greatly their services are appreciated is common to every part of this country, and though it may not be as prominently in evidence as at Wellington, yet there is but one feeling stirring the hearts of all New Zealanders—that of intense gratitude and admiration for those who have upheld, and are .upholding the fair name and i'auie of our land and of the Empire. These intrepid boys of ours have faced death unflinchingly and with no other thought than fhat of duty to bo done. It may be that many of the returned men will bear honorable sears to the end of their lives, and of these they may well be proud, for they were earned in the best and noblest of all causes. When they set out on their road to fame on the battlefield we cheered them and wished them success, promising them a warm welcome home. We are acquainted with their deeds of valor, and they have evoked a fueling of pride that will never die so long as a shred of gratitude is found in the heart of man. Sir Joseph Ward very aptly said:--"Nor shall their glory be forgot While fame her record keeps; Nor memory points to the hallowed spot Where valor proudly sleeps."