Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 1927. THE TWELFTH ANNIVERSARY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 124, 23 April 1927, Page 8

Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 1927. THE TWELFTH ANNIVERSARY.

The Anzac Day celebrations, which take place on Monday, the twelfth anniversary of the landing of Australian and New Zealand troops on the shores of Gallipoli, will be fraught with many sorrowful memories to the surviving relatives and friends of those who made the supreme sacrifice in the Great War. The healing hand of Time will have softened the keenest pangs of the regret which is still felt, and must be felt for years to come for those who, in “that epic of valour, fell fighting for their homes, kindred, King, Country and Empire. It is well that, for one day at least in the year, the nation as a whole should pause in its activities to consider and meditate upon the sacrifices the Great War entailed, and to take part in these memorial services which have % now become an established institution with us, and in which we fittingly honour our dead and do reverence to their self-abnegation and magnificent courage. It is especially fitting that in all our State schools such services as will be held on Monday should be continued, and that the boys and girls of the rising generation, two-thirds of whom were probably unborn or were such tender infants at the time of the Gallipoli landing as to have no memory of the stirring events accompanying it, should, be instructed in, and taught the meaning of Anzac Day. Not that we advocate, or desire, to see war glorified, or the spirit of hatred of those who were then our enemies perpetuated. Rather would we see and hear war condemned as a hateful, brutal thing, only to be resorted to as the direst extremity when all other means of settling disputes between one nation and another have failed. War is, or should be, the last resource and ought only to be waged as a matter of defence. Although much has been said and written concerning the origins of the Great War, and attempts have been made again and again to throw the responsibility for those tragic happenings of the 1914-18 period upon the Allied Powers, and to show that the Central Powers were guiltless of any provocative action, and American journals every now and again are raising the question of the culpability of the ex-Kaiser Wilhelm 11., the historians of the future, calmly reviewing the mass of evidence available, will, we have no doubt, apportion the blame correctly, and relieve Great Britain and her

Allie s of the responsibility for the confla 'ration. At a time such as this, l owever, we need not trouble to analyse the origins of the war. It is l ather the lessons it teaches that we should seek to perpetuate. Ugly, cruel and desparately wick3(l as were the events associated with it, the outstanding features, so far as New Zealand, Australia and the Dominions generally are concerned, were the fervid spirit of patriotism it evoked. It is no small thing to remember that, it the call of Empire, in this jo mg country of ours, with a popu] a ibn of only a little over one million , something like 100,000 men—the pick of the nation—volunteered their services in defence of right against might, the weak again s the strong, the unoffending against the merciless oppressor, who would, had the war ended “according to plan,” have enslaved the democratic peoples again si whom our brave citizensoldiery fought so gallantly and well, enduring hardships and suffering' almost without precedent, and certainly unprecedented in extent. F ever have a people shown greater enthusiasm or risen ’to noble]* )atriotic heights‘than was showr. luring those fateful years of sava 'e warfare by the Australians md New Zealanders. We do veil to cherish and honour the me] lory of our heroic soldier citizer s who passed through the hellish i gomes of the Great War.

th: ; anzac landing

The s ory of Gallipoli is but one of manj stirring accounts that have be in written of the Great War, b it it stands in the forefront of all. The attack on the penins a] i, in which the Anzacs played o prominent a part and displaj e l such conspicuous courage, a:n its subsequent abandonment n< arly nine months later, afforded much needed relief to the Russian army under the Grand Duke N cholas which was fighting on t Caucasian front, where the Rus dans were being heavily pressed- >y the Turks. The attack upon Ga iipoli has been spoken of as a fa lure, but it was by no means that, although it was undertal en at the wrong time as the psyc lological moment for the attempt to capture the peninsula had pas: ed. Had it been attempted when-the warships bombarded the Dardanelles, some three o:r our months earlier, there are gooc grounds for believing that the troops could have won through to Constantinople. The earlier b >mbardment, and subsequent in; ction, enabled the Turks who had not anticipated, or probably ec nsidered the landing as at all fea able, to mount big guns, and estal lish defences which were almost mpregnable and were success h lly held against the Allied a< vance. But what made the land ng so memorable, from the Ausi radian and New Zealand point of dew, was the fact that it was the irst time our troops had been urn er fire, and they attempted md succeeded in accomplishing i seemingly impossible task, am one which might well have trie 1 the nerves and tested the coura 'e and endurance of tried war vetej ans. ‘‘Many,” said one correspon lent describing the Battle of the Landing, “were shot to bits a id without hope of recovery. Vet their cheers resounded . .hrough the .night and you coult just see, amidst a mass of stiffen: g humanity, arms being waved in greeting to the crews of the wai ships. They were happy because t ley knew they had been tried for he first time in the war and they had not been found wanting. They had been told to occupy tl e heights and hold on, and this hey had done for 15 mortal lie irs, under an incessant shell-fire, without the moral hud material i upport of a single gun ashore, a id subjected the whole time to th violent counter-attacks of a brav : enemy, led by skilful leaders, v liilst his snipers, hidden in caves and thickets, and amongst ( ense scrub, made a deliberate p ractice of picking off every ofh< er who endeavoured, to o-ive a wc rd of command or to fead his i ten forward.” But all this, and nore, has been told before, altlu ugh there is an obvious danger of mr forgetting the story with the 1 ipse of time. Certainly it is true, as the historian has put it, that “l o finer feat of arms was performed during the war than this sudd< ti. landing in the dark, this storm ng of the heights, and above all, the holding on to the position th is won whilst reinforcements wer ) being poured, from the transports ” But Gallipoli was only one ] hase of the long drawn out agony of the war. The Anzacs fought with; British troops in France, ] elgium and Palestine, endured u itold hardships and privations ar I agonies of suffering, the toll of human life being without precejr ent. Scarcely a household in IN ew Zealand is without knowledge of . some relative, neighbour or friend who lias not suffered L ss by the war, or, as the result of injuries or disease contracted in the trenches. The many soli iers’ cemeteries and graves sea :tered up and down the land spea! eloquently, though silentlv. < E heroic devotion and self-Siicrifi e and recall the memory of ou heroic dead whose “Name (:in the words of the sacred writer) 1 veth for evermore,” and we Tip fitly honour at this season of tie year.

Tauranga is to erect a new, library building at a cost of £SOOO.

A Wanganui resident who was bitten on the forehead by a katipo spider, at Foxton during the Easter holidays, is still confined to bed.

There are 76 hospital boards in New Zealand, including the cities. Dannevirke ranks nineteenth for the average number of occupied beds.

A letter covering a donation of £2l from the Woodville Jockey Club was received at the monthly meeting of the Dannevirke Hospital Board on Thursday.

Three hundred screens and 146 ballot boxes will be used at the city elections at Auckland next Wednesday, and at some of the larger booths, the authorities intend to provide 20 screens. Satisfactory results attended the operations of the Wellington Public Library during the last? year. The issue of books showed an increase of 37,960 over that bf the year 1925-26. “The work of the X-ray department of the Christchurch Hospital will stand comparison with that of the best centres in Europe,” stated the annual report of the’ 1 medical superintendent. .

At the mbnthly meeting_of the Dannevirke Hospital Board this week, the medical superintendent reported that the past year had been a particularly busy one and the accommodation had on several occasions been taxed to its utmost.

“So far as the treatment of tuberculosis is concerned, - ” stated the chairman of the North Canterbury Hospital Board, Mr H. Otley, at, the annual meeting this week,’ “this board is spending, at the present time, over £40,000 per annum in combating the disease.” *

Arising out of a suggestion by Mr P. Stuart, the Chamber of Commerce decided yesterday afternoon to approach the Wellington Harbour Board with a request that it reduce its export wharfage rates. The president (Mr M. A. Eliott) was instructed to make further representations op the subject to the board’s chairman, Mr M. Cohen, of Palmerston North,

Probably the most expensive fowling piece imported to the Dominion was on view in Hamilton fot a couple of hours recently. It was indented for a Waikato resident at a cost of £220. The weapon, which was of English manufacture, had detachable locks, single trigger mechanism; and was beautifully engraved. It was specially bored for close shooting;' On the Akitio property of Mr Frank Armstrong, the well-known cricket supporter, is perhaps the. finest private cricket ground in the Dominion (says an exchange)The playing, field is an extensive area, constantly attended by two expert groundsmen, and the wicket is excellent. In a game played on the ground on Saturday last almost half a - thousand runs were scored and still the-pitch showed no signs of wear, this alone speaking worlds for the quality of the wicket. The Auckland city corporation is, next to the State, the biggest business concern in the Dominion, said Miss Ellen Melville in an address to the electors at Grey Lynn. It has an income of over £1,500,000 a year, there are 2450 people constantly employed, and the wages bill rangqs from £13,000 to £14,000 a week. In order to help the unemployment problem, the expenditure of the £700,000 raised for concrete ros.ding had been accelerated, and this had provided employment for a number of extra men.

“Horse racing might be the sport of kings, but the time is coining when bowls will take the leading place.” This statement was ifiade by the skip of the C triton four. and. president of the Carlton Bowling Club (Mr W. Perry), when presentation of the executive fours’ trophies was made to the Carlton team at the Remuera Green at Auckland. Mr Perry said that bowls wai an interesting and artistic affair, and the player who wanted to do well iad to concentrate on the game.

Motorists who have to pass .along the stretch of road where bitumen is being laid at the Waitangi, complain of the unhappy effects that result from driving through the rising vapour while the tar is being sprayed on to the surface (reports the Napier Telegraph). Car drivers state that the spray from the tar carries small particles of tar into the air, and leaves many tiny, but objectionable Black spots. A driver passing the spraying operations* had a pair of spectacles badly besplattered by the flying liquid. Voters in the municipal elections, who have been seeking information on the point, will be interested to hear that they will be allowed to plump for the candidates they favour. Nine are required for the Borough Council, four for the Hospital Board and three for the Power Board. An elector, if it suits his purpose, need only vote for one candidate for each of the above offices, though we do not say it is the proper procedure to adopt. “Suppose you had knocked down some one and killed him, you might be here on a more serious charge. I have a duty to keep you from being" a danger to the public,” stated Mr Mosley, S.M., in the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court yesterday to George Cann, aged 37, who was charged with being intoxicated while in charge of a motor-car. Cann was fined £lO and had his license cancelled, and he • was prohibited from taking out a license next year. Although in one or two instances, good catches of trout were recorded by anglers at Taupo during the holidays, the majority of anglers were disappointed. Ideal weather for holidaying, it was not conducive to suece*ful angling. At Whakaipo Bay, Mr B. W. Hahn and his wife, American anglers, caught 14 fine-conditioned fish, averaging 7Jib each. Two Australians, who were fly fishing at Rangatua Point, caught <23 fish, one weighing 13ilb, and two 121 b each. A Hawke’s Bay angler, fishing from the Taupo wharf, in three hours landed 11 fine fish. 1

When the record dividend on the Oxford Handicap was displayed at the Metroplitan trotting meeting at Christchurch this week the excitement was intense (states the Sun). There was a rush to the totalisator of something over 40 punters, and of many hundreds of people who desired to view the lucky ones. The successful speculators, as they drew their money, were cheered* In a refreshment booth a number of women gathered in great excitement. They were there to divide their winnings on Darknite, for they had subscribed 2s 6d each to a ticket. It took them some time and much argument before they had settled on the correct amount.

Another set of all wool velours for .coats, is to hand and comprise shades in Burgundy, Mulberry, Bois de Rose, Caramel, Almond, Fawn, Cream, Copper-bcach, Saxe, Navy. The value is unbeatable too. 54 inch 12s 9d-yard. Collinson and Cunninghame Ltd. —Advt.

~ A* aanplaiM' concerning. *he “crelwe charge for letter boxes at the Post Office from £1 to 30s was ventilated at the monthly m « et “B of ft r . Chamber of Commerce yesterday afternoon by Mr A. T. Bendall, on whose motion it was decided to m^ e , sentations that the charge be lowered to the former figure. '■ . ■ At the annual meetings of. the R.S.A. last evening reference was made by the president (Mr »• *' Jacobs) to the success of the Junction that had been held every Chnstaas for the Children of members. „ , much enjoyed by the children, add Mr Jacobs. W. Elvy, the All Black and Canterbury three-quarter, is td be lost to tne Christchurch public. He bas resigne from the railway service and intends to live at Pahiatua. •Canterbury thusiasts will learn this n ® w ®, ' gret. and Elvy is one of *be mos brilliant men in the province, and was expected to play a prominent part in tfiisT year’s Ranfurly Shield match (states a message from Christchurch). A new development took place yesterday. in respect 1 6 the question or transport service to and from 1 aKapuna (states an Auckland mesMge;. The directors of the Devonport Ferry Company concluded the. purchase .‘tom the receivers for the debenture holders of the Takapuna Tram and berry .Company of the whole of the assets, with the exception of locomotives, and tram tracks. The price has not been made public. _ , ■ - _ . At lafet night’s meeting of the K.&.a. the chairman (Mr JB. J. Jacobs) made special, reference to Anzac Day. no would like, he said, to see proper use made of the war memorial in the Squard. “It was very pleasing, continued Mr Jacobs, “to be told about three months ago by a world-wide vititor to .the town that the local war memorial was one which showed mos»fc artistic taste, and one that any town co.uld be proud of.” Mr Jacobs also stated that on Anzac Day he • would Hke to see some floral tribute placed on the memorial. It would stop .people from forgetting what the memorial stood for.

John Frederick Hammerley mad,e application in the Magistrate’s Court at Dunedin yesterday afternoon for a rehearing of a case in which he was convicted a fortnight ago of disorderly, behaviour. In this affidavit he set out, among other things, that he objected to Mr Bundle, S.M., taking the case, but had no. objection to Mr Dixon, S.M., taking it, as he was of the opinion that Mr Bundle showed antagonism and hostility towards him. In ordering the affidavit to be struck off the file, Mr Bundle said: “You may consider yourself fortunate that you are not charged with contempt of court on this affidavit.” Hammerley : ‘‘l have already been charged with that at your dictation and served 48 hours at your command.” Tlio application was adjourned until May 6.