SPIRIT OF ANZAC

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 179, 27 April 1931, Page 8

SPIRIT OF ANZAC

Call for Sacrifice ‘DAY OF STOCK-TAKING’ Governor-General’s View “That Anzsc be an inspiration to us all to bury the dead -past with nil its failures and ignoble deeds and thoughts and do all that lies in onr power to make the world a better and a happier place to live in and Now Zealand the brightest jewel in the British Crown,” said His Excellency the Governor-General, speaking at the Returned Soldiers* Memorial Service at the Town Hail on Saturday afternoon. “This is a holiday—which means a holy day—sacred to those qualities and traditions of which we are all proud, and which we like to feel are characteristic of our British race and also of the Maori people, with whom we live in such happy accord.” said hfe Excellency. “It should not be a day merely, or, indeed, chiefly, of mourning for the brave men who fell in the world struggle for freedom now many years ago. It should rather be a day of proud joyfulness that this young, virile nation was put to the supreme test and emerged from it with Imperishable glory such as enables all New Zealanders to hold their heads high among the nations of the world. The Datum Level.

“It should also be a day of national stocktaking and of dogged determination regarding the future—determination that the standard of conduct and achievement displayed at Gallipoli shall be always hereafter the datum level below which no New Zealanders worthy of the name, whether men or women, will ever allow themselves to fall.

“Such a standard has in the past been established for the British race on such occasions as the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War, at Waterloo, at Trafalgar, at Splonkop, at Gallipoli, aye and recently In Hawke’s Bay, occasions when a sense of duty called forth acts of selfless heroism, self possession, and devoted comradeship which thrill our hearts, stimulate our Imaginations, and should brace our energies for the lesser struggles of our everyday life. A Test for the People. “These struggles, although less dramatic and physically less perilous, are specially acute throughout the world to-day. Let it be our fervent prayer that, whatever may happen elsewhere amongst people of weaker moral fibre, New Zealand, inspired by faith in God and the spirit of Anzac, will maintain her steadfastness and win through the present critical period to one of peace, contentment, and such measure of prosperity as will make for her material and spiritual well-being.”