Farewelling Troops

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20208, 29 March 1940, Page 7

Farewelling Troops

Sii J ,—I live at one of the Coast townships not more than 35 miles from Gisborne. My husband is a cripple, has been so for many years, and is at present bed-ridden, but on Wednesday he became crippled at heart also, on account of the departure of one of our sons who is a member of the Maori Battalion. Notwithstanding these disabilities, my husband insisted on me to follow our son, and cousins galore, to bid them our final farewell at Te Poho-o-Rawiri, and in accordance with his wishes I came to ’Rawiri. The time flew, but before the appointed hour for parade I took my son in my arms, also his cousins, bade them our final farewell, and then left ’Rawiri to take up a position as close as I could to the platform in Peel street. The boys arrived, the speeches commenced, and I listened to them with rapt attention though sad at heart. This sadness was considerably accentuated by the fact that a spiritual message from at least one of our churches was not made available to our boys from that public platform. I say without fear of contradiction that a message from the church is the most important one of all and without it all the other messages are without their iron armour. Mr. Ruru, one'of our most eloquent Maori speakers, told the boys that they may learn to perform and adapt themselves to various war movements and other essentials, but there was one quality they possessed which could not be taught and that was courage, because courage was already there, born in them, and could not be taught or improved upon by anyone. Mr. Ruru omitted to tell the boys that their only hope of improvement was by an individual appeal to the Tribunal that placed the quality of courage in them, because plainly this is a job for the churches. I have two more sons who have enlisted, passed for active service, and are waiting to be called up, and I make this humble appeal to the powers that be to make available to all our soldiers who face that platform in Peel street a spiritual message from at least one of the churches in our own district. Canon Halt was pointed out to me, listening to the speeches, and I consider he should have been given a place on the platform addressing the i boys, and so afford to them that spiritual atmosphere so very necessary to keep them warm when the real test of courage is demanded of them. A MAORI MOTHER.