POPPY DAY APPEAL AND ANZAC COMMEMORATION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22617, 21 April 1948, Page 4

POPPY DAY APPEAL AND ANZAC COMMEMORATION

SERVICEMEN’S WEEK IN GISBORNE

r jpi]lS week is servicemen’s week in Gisborne, with the annual Poppy Day appeal on Friday and the commemoration services fallingon Sunday, Anzac Day. The Anzac Day service will be advanced by half an hour in order to minimise interference with normal church attendance.

To make the annual Poppy Day appeal successful the Gisborne Returned Services’ Association require as many voluntary sellers as possible. Already a considerable number are enrolled for town and country duty, but more still can be placed if they are available. The secretary of the association, Mr. A. H. Miller, will welcome offs/s of assistance, even if they are limited to an hour or two on Friday. The headpuarters of the appeal on Friday will be at the Aid-to-Britain premises in the Masonic Hotel buildings. Early Distribution of Blooms Distribution of poppy blooms to East Coast and country centres is already complete, and orders for these blooms indicate that the association's representatives in all parts of the district hope for a larger sale than in any previous year. Road services operating from Gisborne. as in previous years, have extended the courtesy of free carriage and delivery of the consignments of poppy blooms, and almost every Coast and country store has been provided with a supply, as well as the area committees. The effective use of Poppy Day funds by the Gisborne R.S.A. in past years is the best recommendation of the appeal, which has lost none of its popularity with the general public with the passing of the year. The blooms can be sold wherever they are taken, and the problem of the association is to make the distribution as wide as possible. Soldiers’ Salute at Dawn Parade Anzac Day ceremonies on Sunday will commence with the dawn parade of exservicemen and women, at 5.45 a.m. opposite the War Memorial in Kaiti esplanade. This fixture is essentially one for men and women with overeas service, but in recent years there has been an increasing attendance of spec-

tators who, like the service people themselves, attach a special significance to this “soldiers’ ’salute.” The mid-morning district public service will be preceded by a parade of ex-service people and other organisations, as in earlier years. The Gisborne R.S.A. has appointed Captain L. R. Stichbury marshal of the parade, and markers will be called for at 8.50 a.m. The parade will fall in at 9 a.m., and will march off 10 minutes later for the War Memorial, by way of Peel street, Gladstone and Wainui • roads, Hirini street and Rawiri street. This route will bring the head of the parade to the esplanade facing the memorial, and the ranks will close up compactly for the service and address. At the conclusion of the service the parade will reform and march past the monument. Address by Sir Patrick Duff The address at this district service will be given this year by Sir Patrick Duff, High Commissioner in New Zealand for the United Kingdom Government, who will arrive at Gisborne on Saturday and will remain here until Tuesday morning. Sir Patrick Duff has intimated his intention to take part in the dawn parade, as well as in the subsequent public service. Branches of the Gisborne R.S.A. will conduct their own ceremonies of remembrance later in the day, at many points throughout the district. Organisation of these functions has been undertaken for a number of years, and public attendances have shown no diminution of interest. For all functions associated with the Anzac Day commemoration, the Returned Services’ Association requests that ex-service personnel will wear medals and decorations or the equivalent ribbons. Members of Guide companies will muster at Miss W. Lysnar’s residence at 8.45 a.m. o n Sunday to take part in the Anzac Day parade and service.