SOLDIERS’ MEMORIAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 June 1921, Page 4

SOLDIERS’ MEMORIAL.

REMEMBERING THE FALLEN. SERVICE AT UPPER MANGOREI. A tablet erected in the Upper Mangorei school to the memory of fallen soldiers from that district was unveiled yesterday afternoon. The ceremony was held in the schoolroom, in conjunction with the church service conducted by the Rev. J. F. Martin, and appropriate hymns were sung, Mr. D. Wells presiding at the organ. The lesson was selected from the thirteenth chapter of the Ist Epistle to the Corinthians, and Mr. Martin based his remarks on Romans 13-7, “Honor to whom honor is due.” He spoke of the honor, service and sacrifice which rested upon those who had borne the names now on the memorial tablet. It was only by the same sacrifice in civic life, he said, that we could bring honor to the family, the institution, or the nation. Deserting in a soldier was the same as dishonesty and evil in a citizen. The preacher showed how honor and sacrifice shed a reflected glory upon the manhood of the present generation, and he said we must not accept this under pretences, but live for the liberty, honor, and righteousness for which those men died. In his concluding remarks Mr. Martin spoke of the chastened joy that would come to the bereaved by faith and trust in Him, who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the Cross. After the memorial service the solo, “Crossing the Bar,” was sung by Mrs. Martin.

Lieut.-Colonel G. H. Weston, who unveiled the tablet, referred to the spirit that prompted the men to render service. He had been particularly interested in some of them, both in civic and military life. There was a pathos about the memorial in the fact that it contained the names of three men from one home and two from another, but that pathos would give way to a sense of gladness in years to come. The tablet was in a fitting place in the schoolroom and would no doubt give inspiration to the scholars from time to time. After the benediction Mr. Abrahafia sounded the “Last Post.” The names on the tablet are: Messrs. Brown (3), Salisbury (2), Norman, and Ellis