HERITAGE

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27637, 19 April 1955, Page 14

HERITAGE

OUR DEBT TO THE FALLEN

DEAN SULLIVAN’S APPEAL

An appeal associating the work of Heritage with the message of Anzac Day has been made by the Dean of Christchurch (the Very Rev. Martin Sullivan). “Anzac Day calls to our remembrance two clear obligations: our debt to the dead and our pledge to the living,” says the Dean in his message. “We shall certainly honour all those who have fallen in the wars, and stand in silence as a tribute to their memory. “There are ways, of course, by which we can give more tangible expression to our feelings. Those families which have been bereft of fathers continue to be the objects of our concern; and there are many persons who genuinely want to do something for children who now lack a father’s care.

“Heritage is one of the ways by which useful and practical assistance can be given. The education of some 2000 fatherless children in this country is watched over by Heritage. Their training is sponsored from primary school days right through to the university. There is not a genuine claim which does not receive sympathetic consideration and attention. “It is the confident claim of this organisation that no child now living in New Zealand, either a son or a daughter of a New Zealander, lian or Briton, whose father died in the war or from injuries received on active service, is beyond its care. This is a very wide range of benevolence and represents continued generosity on the part of many persons. “The work has to go on, until it is completed. Naturally, it has a limited life. These children are advancing to manhood and womanhood, and, as the years speed by, they will be able to look after themselves. That happy moment has not yet arrived.

“While Heritage is grateful to all those who now support it, the fact remains that it sorely needs increased patronage. The aim of the movement is not to ask for large sums (although naturally these are welcome), but rather to interest an increasing number of people who may give modestly but regularly. Heritage is not an anonymous organisation concerning itself solely with statistics and finance. It is a human concern, occupied with persons and with a genuine interest in their individual welfare. It needs people to get behind it and further its work of benevolence.

“Some who read these lines may be moved to send a donation; it is hoped that they will; but with the gift should come the desire to see some boy or girl be given that opportunity which otherwise may be missed. No-one can take the place of a child’s father; but some of us may be willing to provide a few of those resources which every father strives to give his children.

“On Monday New Zealanders will remember with pride and gratitude all those who died in the wars. Quite simply, and without any heroics, they put their bodies between us and the advancing foe. Behind them is another army, the companies of their sons and daughters. We keep the memory of the fallen evergreen if we play our part by those who feel their loss most keenly.

“A thousand persons in Canterbury are needed to find £1 Is per annum for the work of Heritage. Will you be one of them?”