ON ROSENEATH'S HEIGHTS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 186, 26 April 1918, Page 6

ON ROSENEATH'S HEIGHTS

AN "ANZAC" ON THE GREAT ADVENTURE NEW GRACE BEFORE MEAT They died the noblest death a man may die, fighting for God and Kiiig and liberty, and such a death is immortality. These fitting lines stared at the writer from a marble elnb set in a concrete plinth standing on the slopes of the hill j'-bove the blue waters uf the harbour, vrhoso surface was only rippled now and cgain by little chilly gusts of wind thai whispered coolly of the approach of wintor. Around the monument, closo clustered, stood ii group of perhaps three hundred children, listening with marked attention to what fell from the lips of the Hppiikor, who was standing in front of the fjtono that marked tho sacrifice made by iia erstwhile comrades 'on the scarred battlefields of Europe, wearing on his left brnast a four-barred medal, and on his rWht the badge of the Returned Soldiers' Club. It was Corporal 11. S. F. Ildrich, late of Gallipoli and France. And in simple language ho tpoke what

was in his heart, and with a complete umtei standing of his audience. ' It always strikes me," said tho corporal, "that when a man becomes a soldier he at the same time becomes n 'sport.' By a. 'sporf I mean one who doesn|t mind taking the odds, or tho chances you might coil it. In my experience the averago soldier is a great sport, always ready to take Hie odds, as our men are doing to-day in. France. ... 1 hove in my mind a very -great man—Lord Kitchener, who was drowned at sea. Now, he didn't have what we call a sporting chance. His vessel was lost at sea, and he was drowned in the raging ocean. We soldiers would have much preferred to have s>een him killed in action, for then we would know that he had been given a sporting chance. . . . Soldiers arc not politicians and are not supposed to be. orators. And politicians are not eoldiers! But we in New Zealand do not realise what war is until it is brought to our doors by the ioss of a father, a brother, a sweetheart, or a very dear friend, "killed in action. . This monument brings it home to every loyal heart. I did not know the men whoso mimes are there, but I know txnetly how they died—their faces fo' the foe— battling without fear to tho end. . . Boys and- girls, I want you to honour any men wearing tliis (the Returned Soldiers' Association's) badge. It shows that they have bei-n to the front and"done their bit,' niul have been honourably discharged—they have donn their duty. Had they been discharged for some offence they would not be wearing the badge, as such men are not allowed to join the association.

"That Beautiful Navy of Ours." "And don't you ever forgot that beautiful Navy of ours, t remember when I was convalescing at Margate, looking out on the grey North Sen, watchiug_Jhii little mine-sweepers and destroyers away out getting a terrible battering. It was freezing cold—much colder than you ever get.it here—with howling gales, enow, and hail, and yet through it all these men nombed tho seas for weeks at a stretch. Boys, we could never have seen Anzac. without the Navy, and never could have left Gallipoli without its aid. Just think! We depended oh the Navy for all our food, and for every drop of water we drank, which had tn be brought five hundred miles. There, up on Walker's Eidge, seventy or eighty big brown men, almost naked, wearing only 'shorts' and pith helmets, . watched H.M.S. Triumph go down. She seemed to be right below us in the blue Aegean, though two miles off-shore. There was the puff irf a small explosion, and gradually she heeled over and sank. ... Do you know, not ono of those big fellows said-a word. . . . They all felt as though they had lost a big brother. v About the "Pincher." "And we loved the dirty little destroyers. There was ono that used to come in regularly, fire 'pluuk-plunk-plunk/ sis shells right into the Turkish positions, and then go quietly away. We called her tho Tiucuer,' because sho used to sutfak in and out so quietly. There was a dangerous snipers' post held by the Turks, which had to be taken before we could do anything further. It commanded a great deal of country, and tho beach. It was decided that nothing could be done until the top of the post was

blown off, so. H.M.S. Liou was ordered to put a few broadsides into it. The first three missed. Just at that time in puffed the little Tincher,' drew up alongside the big Lion. 'Plnnk-plunk-plnnfc!' went her guns-three shells right into the post. Then she puifedi and fussed away as though she was saying—'Now, get on with the job—l'm going somewhere else!' ■, A New Grace. "An admiral who was on leave at Home sat down to dinner at a piace he was visiting. There was a boy at the table who said as his grace—'Thank God and the British Navy for my dinner! . That's what the children of New Zealand should be taught to say just as much as the children of England, as it is only through tlie Navy that'wo are able to send our products Home and get money for them, and it was oiiiy through the Navy that we weren't bombed lik<, they are in the war zone. Do Not Feel Deep Enough. "Some people have said that it is a pity that we have.not been bombed—an awful thing to say—to wake us up. But when you eee the misery and hunger of the people in England you feel that the people here want stirring up. They do a bit of work for the soldiers right enough, but they don't feel deep enough." Corporal Aldrich was introduced by Mr. H. N. Morrison (chairman of the School Committee), and was afterwards thanked for his engrossing address l>y Mr. Kobert Darroch (headmaster of the Roseneath School). The children opened the proceedings with the National Anthem, and also sang Dr. W. K. Fyft'e's "Hymn in War Time" and Kipiing's ever-splendid "Recessional."