LAST LEAVE DAY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20130, 27 December 1939, Page 6

LAST LEAVE DAY

FIRST ECHELON TROOPS OVERNIGHT DEPARTURE PEEL STREET FAREWELL INDOORS ALTERNATIVE Trbops of the First Echelon of the Second New Zealand Division, now on final leave in this district, will depart for their respective camps early to-morrow morning, making the first stage of the journey in service cars to Wairoa, and there taking the railcar for Napier to join the southbound express. The departure from Gisborne is scheduled for 2 a.m., and as a compliment to men who will not have the opportunity to see their homes again before sailing abroad on active service a public farewell ceremony will take place at the point of departure in Peel street

The co-operation of the Gisborne Borough Council and the Poverty Bay Electric-Power Board lias been given freely to the Provincial Patriotic Council, which undertook the organisation of the farewell ceremony. This co-operation has made possible tile decoration of Peel street with bunting and coloured lights, and the provision of a platform from which addresses in honour of the district’s representatives in the First Echelon will be delivered. The Gisborne Returned Soldiers' Association and the Poverty Bay Women’s Central Representation Committee also has taken part in the preparations, and the W.E.C.M.R. Band, under Lieutenant A. Wood, will parade and furnish appropriate musical selections.

Compliments and Gifts

The Diggers’ Choir will lead the singing of selected songs, recalling the days of the Great War, when men of the First New Zealand Division marched to take their places among the foremost fighting units of the Allies. Before the departure of the service cars, each man of the contingent will receive a parcel of gifts prepared by the women’s committee, and as the cars move off, veterans of the Great War will form a guard of honour for their comrades of the new division.

In the event of the weather being unfavourable for an outdoor ceremony, the Patriotic Council will avail itself of the offer of the King’s Theatre management, and will hold the farewell function in that theatre, to which the public will be admitted free from 1 a.m. The Mayor, Mr. D. W. Coleman, M.P., stated to-day that the offer was most acceptable, and reflected credit upon the management of the theatre.

The keen desire of the Patriotic Council that the farewell function should be largely attended, and the tribute' to the departing troops should be made by a representative gathering, was emphasised by the Mayor, who pointed out that the impressions carried away by the men of the First Echelon would remain with them throughout their service abroad. He sincerely hoped that whenever a Gisborne soldier might have occasion to remember this send-off, he would do so with the warmest possible recollections of the farewell offered by the public of his home town.