SERVICE AND SACRIFICE.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 January 1916, Page 3

SERVICE AND SACRIFICE.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? NEW YEAR MESSAGE FROM SIR JOSEPH WARD. Wellington, January 1. The Right Hon. Sir Joseph Ward, Minister for Finance, on request for a message from him to the people of New Zealand on the eve of the New Year, said:— .

"At the close of the year the Empire is still engaged in the most terrible war of history, pouring out blood and treasure in a cause wliicli we all know to be the cause of right and justice, and which posterity will remember throughout the ages as the sacred trust of the British people and their Allies. Never before in this much-blessed country, girt around by the seas on which the British flag flies unchallenged, have we tasted, as we are tasting now, of the bitterness and sorrow and suffering that follow in the train of the most awful of the scourges that continue to'afflict the nations. In many a home up and down the land there is mourning for husbands and fathers, sons and 'brothers, daughters and sisters, our bravest and best, who have given their lives freely, cheerfully, proudly, that the laws of humanity and civilisation might, be upheld and the pledges and integrity of the Empire maintained. Our first thought to-day on the threshold of the New Year will 'be for the mourners who have made the ultimate sacrifice as truly and as fully as those who have stood in the battlefront and sealed with their own blood the ideals and aspirations of their race. To these we at least can offer the comfort that their sacrifice has not been made in vain. The ready response of the British people overseas to the call of the Motherland probably has done more than anything else could to Confound our enemies and to sustain and encourage our kith and kin through the weary months of waiting and striving. How much it will have contributed towards the complete victory of the Allied arms that is coming, anil to the enduring pence that will follow, none of us can yet tell; but it will remain for all. time as one of the 'brightest records in the annals of the British race, and one of the surest hopes for the future of the nation. The New Year will find the Empire chastened, mav be, with anxiety and sorrow, but still undaunted, more determined than ever to carry the war to a successful conclusion, more confident in its strength and resources, more self-reliant; more certain of the righteousness of its cause and more grateful for the blessings it lias enjoyed, even in the darkest hours of its supremo trial. Let us all renew our resolutions of service and sacrifice to-ilav. prepare ourselves for whatever the future may hold, whether of progress or of delay, and set our faces firmly and unflinchingly, without boasting and without Year, :to the completion of the great task destiny has set in our way. • J VfSgnd.) J. G. WARD, ; "Minister 0 f ffinaflca,".