MEMORIAL SERVICE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 26 April 1923, Page 4

MEMORIAL SERVICE

LARGE ASSEMBLAGE AT CHURCH STEPS

In Nelson and district memorial services were held on Anzac Day in memory of our honoured dead. The day was'beautifully'fine, and at the service at the Church Steps arranged by the R.S.A. there was a large and reverent assemblage. In addition to a largo number of returned soldiers, including several representatives of the N.Z.A.N.S. and the V.A.D., there was a good muster of territorials, cadets, and boy and girl Scouts. On a flag on the first flight of steps were placed" a number of beautiful wreaths by the relatives and friends of the men and women who made the Supreme Sacrifice. During an interval in the service and amid a tense silence wreaths were placed alongside the other floral tributes by the R.S.A., the Nelson Boys' College, and the 2nd Battalion Canterbury Regiment. The service was conducted by Rev. F. Pring-Rowe (8.E.F.), assisted *by Rev. E. W. Hames (N.Z.E.F.), who offered prayer; and Mr VV. C. Harley read the lesson from Revelations 7, commencing at the 9th verse. The service opened with the 2nd C. 1.8. band playing "The Garland of Flowers," followed by the hymn "0 God Our Help." The address was delivered by Rev. F. Pring Rowe. Other hymns included "God of our Fathers" and "Jesu, Lover of my Soul." The Benediction and the National Anthem concluded the service.

A STIRRING ADDRESS Rev. F. Pring Rowe delivered the following stirring address: — Fellow citizens —This is our- Day- of Days, our real Dominion Day; it is a holy day, hallowed by the blood of our dead, and the suffering of our living; it is the birthday of a nation, when in "the travail of war New Zealand was born into the family of world peoples. As wo stand on the threshold of the day looking along the track of : the years' that lie behind us, , already shrouded with the mists of the things that have been, voices call to us; voices of those that have gone; voices of those that live on. Listen! Can you hear that word floating out. of the mist? "Remember!" What shall I remember? Dawn is breaking and the stately buildings of London, the Empire City,' are but dimly seen in a faint, grey mist.* Whitehall is almost deserted save for a solitary policeman, who stands opposite a tall granite obelisk, bare and grim, except where a mass of wreaths fringe its base. Across the silent road comes a woman, clad in black, with, bent form and feeble step. She lays one .pure, white lily on the flower strewn border and as she does so a ray of light pierces the mist and illumines "sonys letters graven deep on the obelisk—- " The Glorious Dead." On the lily ja fastened a. label and written on it in shaky letters are the words, "Toimy only son —from., fiis mother." It is a mother's remembrance of her glorious dead. Remember our glorious dead-. The men who eight years ago, citizen soldiers of a great people, faced great odds and Avon imperishable fame. "Amid the thunderings of tho war They won our peace Amid the babel of the hosts They bought our silences . . . . ; Be still and bow the head J-.\ We owe these moments to our mighty dead." ')j Remember! What? The men 'who came back. They have, come through the great tribulation, many broken ■ n body, some enfeebled in mind, otheis never'to see again the loveliness of this fair land, all, more* or less, scarvtd with the horrors of the hell through which they have passed. We are deitors to every one of them. Their sa«rifice demands ours. Every man of therP who is adrift, penniless and homeless; who seek in vam for work, is a Voics crying "shame" upon our country'* fame. ' "'. /'% Listen again! Another word fioafo through the mist of the past: •■' 'Rejoice!" Remember what they did, rejoice for what they were. Think of what' a comrade says of them: "Tieir spirits effervesced; their wit sparkhd, hunger and thirst could not depress them; rain could not damp them; cold could net chill them; every hardship became a joke; they did not endure hardship they derided it; and somehow it seemed at the moment as if derision was all that hardship existed for. Never was such a triumph pf spirit over matter; one by orte death' 'challenged them; one by one they smiled in his grim visage and-refused to be dismayed. They had' been lost-but they had found the path that .led them home; and when at last they, laid 1 their lives at the feet of the Good Shepherd what could they do but smile." . Rejoice! No 'funeral dirge is'in our hearts, ■ is in our service We place the garland of flowers upon, their heads. We crown them victor Over oppression and greed. ■■"Greater'-"love i hath no man than this that a man ky down his life for his friends," were the eternal words of Him who was the Leader, of the Great Army, whom no man can number, who out of weakness • were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. •. ' : •■ j But a'third voice is echoing through that mist, "Carry, On!" Remember what they did; rejoice for what they were; carry on the work they began. They died in the hope of a better world; they have -come back to us to find a world dominated by selfishness, greed, oppression. There is right that needs assistance, there is wrong that needs resistance, and their word to us is "Carrv On." In that fight we can have an unerring that fight we" can rely upon the power 10 win—the power of Christ. Listen to a voice from the past—the voice of Abram Lincoln—and let us adapt his words: In a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this clay. The brave men living and dead who strugglde have consecrated it far above our pool- power lo add or detract. The world will httlo note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did. It is for us the living, rather to be dedicated "here to the unfinished work which they who fought have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honoured dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion —that wc here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vam; that this nation under God. shall have

a new birth of freedom and that Government of the people, by the people, foi' the people shall not perish from the • earth. Remember! Rejoice! Carry On." These are the voices from the past. Listen to the refrain which sums up the whole. "Be strong! Wc are nob here to play, to dream, to drift We have hard work to do and loads to lift. Shun not the struggle, face it, 'tis ! God's gift. It matters not how deep entrenched the wrong. How hard the battle is, the fight how long. Look up! Fight on! To-morrow . comes the song." ' After the service the wreaths were taken out to the cemetery by the R.S.A., and were placed on the graves of the. following soldiers l :—Lieut.-Col. Baigent, I. 0. Baigent, A. Moore, L. ■ Brewerton, O. F. Hodkinson, 0. G. Rowe, P. G. Hume, Tracy, Tapp, R. C. • Irviney L. Redman, H. C. Matthews, H. ,W, Stafford and F. Roughton.