FEILDING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 136, 10 May 1945, Page 2

FEILDING

Decorated motor-vehicles and cycles added colour to the celebrations in Feilding on .Wednesday, while whistles and car liQ.rns were sounded and bells pealed. Some children trailed tins behind their bicycles. Believed to be the only one in Feilding, a iloyal fcUmdr.rd, was flying proudly from the flagstaff of the Drill Hall. This flag was a gift of the late Hon. J. G. Cobbe, to Mr J. E. Barltrop, who was responsible for its appearance yesterday. Many of (.be decorations and flags displayed on business promisee on Tuesday and. Wednesday were missing- ibis morning/ having been removed by some unauthorised persons overnight. The action in considered regrettable in that many owners of shops and offices were proud of their displays and had gone to much trouble to present a colourful show. In this issue there appears an advertisement regarding the victory dance to be held in the Drill Hall tonight. VICTORY PARADE. The VE-Day thanksgiving service, held in Manchester Square, was preceded by a parade of returned servicemen and women of the Great War and the present one, home servicemen, Home Guardsmen, E.P.S., W.W.S.A., St. John Ambulance and Red Gross services, A.T.G., Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, and other organisations engaged in war work. The parade was a lengthy one and, commencing from the Drill Hall, pioceeded via Stafford Street, Fergusson Street, Warwick Street, and Kimbolton Road to the Square, headed by the Salvation Army Band. Prior to the proceedings stirring music was played by the two local bands until the appointed hour 2.30 p.m. was reached. On the platform i with the Mayor (Mr Seddo'n) were associated members of the clergy, Mr ;M. H. Oram, M.P. and Crs. W. G. Glapham and A. B. Shannon (representing local bodies). A loud-speaker service facilitated the reception of the ceremony and the large gathering joined in the service wholeheartedly. Fine weather prevailed and the attendance was particularly good. Moving pictures of the gathering and proceedings were taken by Mr G. V. Newi ton Broad. The parade was marshalled by Messrs A. C. ISuist and Traffic Inspector C. H. Fippard, who did excellent work. "Today for all of us should be a day of rejoicing but not a flat of boasting exultation," said Von. Archdeacon V. H. Pctric, who delivered the thanksgiving address. "Wo are not simply exulting over a fallen foe. No, we rejoice today because clear proof has been given to us that might is not right and that in the end evil cannot triumph. Neither is this a day for wild jubilation: How could it be when we know that the war is not yet over? We know too that there arc si ill many people in this land whose hearts arc filled with the deepest anxiety as they think of their sons, brother?, fathers, husbands. It is. or ought to be, for us ail a clay of grateful thanksgiving. For a long time now we have been offering up our prayers continuously to (tod. in the churches and in our homes, beseeching Him to hies* our cause and to grant to us the victory of His righteousness and now He has answered our prayers in a wonderful way by bringing about the downfall and complete unconditional surrendef of one, and that the most powerful one, of the nations against whom we have been fighting. The cessation of hostilities in Europe means that God has brought to lan end these five and a half years of tragedy and horror. God has given us the victorv ami today wo take the words ot the Psalmist; and wo cry 'Not untp us, 0 God, not unto us, but unto Thy name be given the Glory.' . ''But besides being a day of thanksgning this is going to be for us all a day of determination. Wo arc not going to he content with half a victory. Wo arc going to continue to exert ourselves to the utmost until victory is complete. . .. And then too we arc going to determine to endeavour to do our duty to that God Who has been so good to us, better than we have been doing in the past. Wo are going to root out of our lives habits and practices which are displeasing to God and wc arc going to do what wo can to have eradicated out of our national life all those social evils which exist in our midst and which have, been sapping the moral life of Ihe country. . . We aro going to turn lo that God "from Whom we have been drifting: we are going to pay Him homage which is His due; we are going to respect His name; His Book; His Day and His House. If this is our determination and if we act up to that determination, then wo shall show that the thanks we arc offering today is no mere lip sor ; vice but that it is genuine and sincere. At the thanksgiving service in the Methodist Church last evening a special thanks-offering for distressed Europe was taken up and it is expected that it will make available £l5O. This amount will be forwarded to the New Zealand High Commissioner in London for despatch to the appropriate authorities. Rev. ('. Eaton wn' the preacher and the eluirch was filled. Services were held in other churches in the town and were well attended.