“OUR TIME IS SHORT.”

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 110, 5 April 1930, Page 4

“OUR TIME IS SHORT.”

MAORI WAR VETERANS. FAST-DWINDLING BAND, NEW PLYMOUTH, April 2. A spirit stronger than ever, seemed to rise from the members o‘f a body of men growing g'raduany. less in -Inumber and more feeble in physique When eight veterans of the Rattle of pWaireka gathered'with their wives and [descendants in New Plymouth yesterfcday as the gueSts of the ' Rotarians. 'fiuch a gathering is- held every year. | ’.Sadly, yet bravely and with full, I Reasoned philosophy, those eight veterans laughed and-talked. They reLinarked that since'the last gathering mine of the small band, that survived ®he battle had‘- passed "away. They Remarked as well" - that their own regaining days on earth were waning. Whey they said to one anjjhther and to tneir descendants, how gnany. of themvwduld 'be-able to attend flthe iunctioii'next l yea'r/j : ' i Those who attended were ■. Messrs G. UA. Adi am, aged?Bß; John Andrews, fJB7; John Foreman,' 83; H. Arden, 83: !. Binnie, 87; Alex Black, 79; and r . G. Odcl. Colonel Weston, who presided, said la Maori War soldiers were settlers I well, living amongst their enemies id living in a state of tension that as-shared by their women and ehildm. He was glad to see so many of » veterans’ wives. To have lived 190 or 23 years with one’s wife meant ■* growth of mutual fondness, and that /fondness must double and treble in ; itrongth after fifty years, I Colonel Weston assured the veterans i that their : civil and military record 'Was honoured and that when the time 4MM for them to face the wall, as all Siast do, they could do so having the MMpoot and admiration of tbo comknunity. J "In a few years more there will be faono of us left,” said Mr 0. A, AdLan, "Several of the sixteen or sevSnteen veteran? flow on the roll were hot able to fttejid. Nine comrades W| loft us since the last gathering, Nature has called many away. Time fa short for some of us, and wf do not pmwr who IS tO * . Xi