H.S. Anzac Service

Northern Advocate, 26 April 1944, Page 6

H.S. Anzac Service

In commemoration of Anzac Day. which fell yesterday, a short service was held for Whangarei High School pupils at the school on Monday. Opening with tire National Anthem, the programme was carried through with decorum by the principal (Mr. A. R. Ryder), who, in his introduction, welcomed the speaker, Rev. A. E. Prebble, Lieutenant-Colonel H. P. Conyers-Brown, the president of the Old Pupils’ Association (Miss D. Lupton), and the president of the Whangarei Returned Services’ Association (Mr. R. A. Rogers). Names of those old pupils who had won decorations overseas on active service were read out by the principal, who stated that the service was in remembrance principally of old pupils who had fellen in the last war and the present war. The head prefect (R. R. Robison) read “In Praise of Great Men” (Ece. 1-14), followed by the reading of the roll of pupils who had fallen in both wars, by Miss Lupton. In an address to the pupils. Mr. Prebble, vicar of Whangarei Parish, and a member of the High School Board, stated that they had met to commemorate the actions of those who had given their lives in the Great War, the day being taken as the anniversary of the landing on Gallipoli of the Australian and New Zealand forces at Anzac Cove on April 25, 1915, when the heroic attempt to force a passage through the Dardanelles was made. That the whole affair was a ghastly ' mistake did not detract from the lustre of the* deeds of the men who had taken part. The men there realised brotherhood in a common cause, fought for an ideal and laid down their lives because they thought of those at home whose safety and sanctity might be endangered if the cause for which they were lighting were lost.. They displayed qualities of self-sacrifice and humility to an extent almost previously j unknown. It was on Anzac Day that New Zealand won world recognition of her attainment to nationhood by the noble part played by her troops, Maori and pakeha alike, during the four long years of the Great War. and that recognition was being sealed to-day on new battlefields. It was also reflected in 1923 when the Imperial Parliament passed the Statute of Westminister, one of the most remarkable documents in the history of legislation, giving to the Dominions the full national status of free and autonomous states, bound with the mother country into the British Commonwealth of Nations by the thin but strong bond of common allegiance to His Majesty. Ideal Not Fulfilled Gnce again the curse of war stretched across the world, destroying lives and property, and bringing tragedy to human souls, and once again the same “piffle” was being preached about post-war reconstruction, Christian order and the like. All the pacts, treaties, and Leagues of Nations, in the world would not prevent war because they were founded upon mutual agreement about the rights and strength of individual nations instead of being based on mutual co-operation in a brotherhood. Men of the Anzacs had died for the ideal of brotherhood, which had never been fulfilled. Men, women and children were dying to-day for the same ideal, and it was for the pupils to see that in the post-war world, at least some attempt would be made to put those ideal. 4 into practice, to return to allegiance to the God who had given us birth, and the laws of living which He had decreed and had revealed to us. Following a march past by the pupils, the salute being taken by Lieut-Colonel Ccnyers-Brown, wreaths were placed on the Great War Memorial in the school grounds.