ENTERING THE FIFTH YEAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 November 1918, Page 8

ENTERING THE FIFTH YEAR.

A SERVICE AT THE FRONT. SERMOX BY A MAORI. Xew Zealand Headquarters, '!lli August, KUS-. H this morning' you had strolled through rim woods past the more thaih century-old .sione ciialeau, you wouhV have eome suddenly upon :\, group of' khaki-elad men, who, from their headgear and their appearance, vou would know to be New Zen landers. Tlipv were the personnel of New Zealand Headquarters, and they were gathered together mi the green sward of a little clearing in (he woods to marl; with fitting solemnity the entry of our Empire into life bloodiest of all wars, and our firm determination to .see it through lo a, satisfactory conclusion. If, was a dull, grey day, after rain, with a few fitful gleams of pale, sunshine piercing (he clouds and glistening on the silver instruments of 11 battalion band. In a field in front, cattle wore grazing eonlentedlv. On the road behind there was the" rumble of war transport. That was the only sound of Mar there was. The guns wciv silent. Even the 'planes were absent from the air, for it was not a good morning /or them. You were reminded of tiiem only by the joyous flHit of the frililluries that had 'come out with the sun io chase each other along the edge of the wood. Under a beech tree, be.-ide a small talile draped with the Now Zealand flag, stood a tall, wellbuilt, soldierly-looking man. Even j n such company you would take a second look a I him, for on his features waa something of the bronze of the foliage of the tree under which lie stood. The black braided shoulder-straps, the metal crosses on the collar of his brown lunic, would tell you that he was a. Padre. The bronze on his face would give you a hint of his ancestry, He was the grandson of a Maori, and his grandfather and Lis uncle offer him bad been members of t'iie Xew Zealand Parliament. Our General, who limped along with the aid of two sticks, was met bv the Padre, and took up his place in the centre of the hollow square, the sides of which seemed to hold representatives o f almost every unit in the Xew Zealand Force, as well as representatives of the armies of Great Britain and America. The service began appropriately .enough, with the hymn beginning: Through the night of doubt, and sorrow Onward goes the pilgrim band, Singing pongs of expectation, Marching to (he Promised Land. Only a few minutes before, we' had heard that the French were on' the line of the Vesle.

When the Padre, with his soft pleasant voice, that seems to be th«'inheritance of all members of the Maori people, commenced his sermon, another gleam of sunshine broke through the clouds. What, he asked, wa« the dominating thought that came to everyone at the moment? It was the sacred unity of our Empire during fli e present struggle. This had come as a revelation to our enemy and to ourselves, and now our only aim was to renew our unquestionable determination to continue to a. victorious end. Underlying this was tho principle of loyalty, not onlv to our king and country, but also to'our supreme Captain and Lord Jesus of Nazareth. To maintain this principlewo neede4 self-discipline, which went to the making and the' maintenance of character, and without which no army and no nation could hope to. succeed. On that day four years ago, when the heart of the Empire and of the Dominions was athrob with the love of the Empire's young sons, it had been his privilege to stand outside Buckingham Palace, and the scene was such as none who had witnessed it would ever be likely to forget. The call to arms rang out through the whole Empire as she. found herself aflame with the zeal that leaped from all sides. Hard upon that had followed deeds of heroism on which wc had looked in breathless admiration New Zcalanders in England had felt proud that to our own small Dominion had come the privilege of the first capture of German territorv. Later had come our effort that had'resulted in the recapture of the first Belgian town— Messines. These were deeds that would go down in history and would be remembered for all time. Small things they might be compared with some of the deeds in this great war—deeds that had bound the Empire in unbreakable bonds and had led to a determination to continue the terrible straggle to a victorious issue. What, under these circumstances, they might ask, was the message he had to give them? It was the message contained in the words of one of .the shrewd thinkers of Old Israel, of the man who had set down the proverbs of Solomon: "He that ruleth his spirit is greater than he that taketh a city." These were the words of a man who had watched the unrolling of the world's story, and who knew that the efforts of great and populous nations that had trusted only in their size and strength had come to naught, whilo a little nation that bad obtained its strength from another source still

lived. These were Wis spoken before tlie oradle of Bethlehem, long before tse Crog S o Cttlvary. The life of Jesns of jWeth lm.l brought a new meaning to all these words, and time came when the „reat human Empire tottered and fell before the quiet resistance and-influence 01 the Man whose teaching and spread till men realised that He.was the 'Gaptain of their salvati.on. - TJliev realised more than ever thai?'"lie that ruletb.hig spirit is greater than ho that taketh a city.' Such words' should be a continual reminder to n* that there' was somctning more than brute force needed in this world, and that it was needed more than ever to-day. The "danoer of failure rested largely in ourselves and we must know that there were' other things that MS&unted even^ihore 1 than shot and shell and man-power These, .things were moral force. ■ clinr■aeter„..^elf,control, and discipline, and the testing time for these had now come while wo were carving history with that monstrous, bloody weapon,- \r»> Let them pray that not one of us should be found wanting in such and that each should rise to the splendor of his great trust. Ifa hoped and '-knew that;they ■would-each go away renewing their determination to continue to a victorious-end the struggle for; the maintenance of those ideals of liberty and justice that were the sacred. <jaus'e of the Allies. • . ' .',

After that,. "Lead, Kindly Light, amid the Encircling Gloom," and ffGod, Save the King," following which • the hand struck up the stirring march, "Sons of the Brave," and our anniversary service was at an end. It was Sunday 'morning, and each went back to his'work—we had entered upon the fifth year of the war. The sun had come out again, and the fritillaries, in greater numbers than before, were joyously chasing each other and looping the loop against the dark background of the elms. As wc took our leave of the Padre, another thought came to us. Almost within our own times, in Northern .New Zealand, one of the tribes of his race had cooked and eaten a German missionary! The other day the German soldiers had been told by their officers that we were still cannibals. To-day the Maori Padre had given them the lie, and it was surely a strange commentary upon their methods, and a tribute to the principles of our own Empire, to find this product of our colonisation holding up to the enemy those principles of honor and righteousness which be so recently had t'lu-nvi *j> the winds-