LARGE ATTENDANCES AT ALL SERVICES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 178, 26 April 1938, Page 15

LARGE ATTENDANCES AT ALL SERVICES

Hutt Valley Remembers Anzac Day

VICAR’S APPEAL FOR PEACE AMONG INDIVIDUALS

The feature of the Anzac Day commemoration services held in the four boroughs of the Hutt Valley—Lower Hutt, Petone, Upper Hutt and Eastbourne — was the large attendances. The people were not honouring the war (lead but dishonouring them if they were not striving to promote peace, said the vicar of St. James's, Rev. H. E. K. Fry, at the Lower Hutt ceremony at the Hutt recreation ground. It was easy to hide behind the idea that peace or war were mere matters for international politics or statesmen but it was the people themselves who composed the nations that had the statesmen. It was the duty of parents to foster peace by creating it in their individual homes. If there were not peace in the homes how could it be hoped for in the country? The home that was not making for peace was making for war. The faults of greed, grasping and fear that created war, all had their birth in the home and made their impact on the nation. If they had the spirit of jealousy, hatred, selfishness and unforgiveness in their hearts then they should dispense with the futility and humbug of talking of the horror of war. In the words of the prayer of the Bishop of London, uttered annually on Armistice Day at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, “In the light of the sacrifice that was made, O God, make us better men and women and give us peace in our time.” The attendance showed that whatever else was forgotten the memory of the Anzacs would never die, said the mayor of Lower Hutt, Mr. J. W. Andrews. The president of the Hutt Ministers Fraternal, Rev. H. T. Peat, led the prayer, the theme of which was “We thank Thee that because of their sacrifices we have peace in our day.” The Scripture lesson was read by the Rev. J. Thompson Macky. The Lower Hutt Civic Band accompanied the hymns. The procession, consisting of 120 returned soldiers, members of C Company, Wellington Regiment, Hutt Valley High School pupils and girl guides, the Civic Band and riie Hutt Valley Pipe Band, marched to ’the war memorial in the park, where wreaths were laid.