IMPRESSIVE CEREMONIES

Evening Post, Issue 98, 27 April 1936, Page 14

IMPRESSIVE CEREMONIES

Twenty-one years have gone by since the memorable landing of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps on Gallipoli Peninsula. It is a long time in the lives of men and .women; another generation has arisen, but with the passing of the years neither the historic Gallipoli campaign, those who fell in it, nor the many thousands of others from New Zealand who made the supreme sacrifice in other theatres of the Great War, 1914-18, have been forgotten by those for whose freedom so many of the flower of ■the nation's manhood gave their lives. That* much appeared abundantly plain from the large attendances everywhere on Saturday at the Anzac Day memorial services and also from the reverence and sincerity of the many thousands who assembled not only in the Capital City of the Dominion, but also iii the various centres all over the country to pay tribute to those who served and fought for them and to remember, above all, the great sacrifice made by so many of New Zealand's .young sons in the dark days of the war. The deeds, the gallantry, the loyalty, and unselfishness of those men—it is no mere platitude to say—willlive on; they are imperishable. The name "Anzac" and the setting aside of the day in New Zealand as a close holiday have done much to preserve in the minds of the people the wonderful record of service by this Dominion in the Great War, and this year at the citizens' service at the War Memorial, opposite the Government Buildings, in Wellington, on Saturday afternoon, the reverence and obvious sincerity of the thousands who gathered there provided as striking, a tribute as ever to those. who died in the great conflict. It was a solemn service, not a social occasion, and not a pageant for fhe display of brass buttons, gold braid, and uniforms. The service, u'hich occupied less than an hour, was fitting throughout.