OBSERVANCE OF ANZAC DAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17145, 26 April 1919, Page 11

OBSERVANCE OF ANZAC DAY.

Sir,—May I be permitted through the courtesy of your columns, to say a few! words on the non-observance of Anzao Day by a certain section of tho business people of Auckland. It should not be necessary on this, the fourth anniversary of such a day,'to havo to record all that i this day stands for. It is now no longer merely the anniversary of the great and glorious landing on the shores of Gallipoli —it is a day sacred to the memory of all , our honoured dead, irrespective of the theatre of war in which they fell. It is a day sacred to all soldiers, to the sorrowing next of kin of our comrades who are sleeping their last long sleep in some distant land, to New Zealand and to the Empire. It is the day on which th' people of England honour Che memory of oar gallant dead by laying a floral tribute on the grave of every New Zealand soldier who has died in far off Blighty. How is this sacred day observed in our own homeland? The Acting-Prime Minister decides that Anzao Day shall be a public holiday, but, unfortunately, it has not as yet been gazetted as a statutory holiday. The chief magistrate of our city invites the local business houses to obsorve a whole holiday as a silont tribute to the glorious memory of our fallen comrades.' We know the result. It is nowj time for our association to rise in a body, and not beg, but demand that this day, i which has become one of the most sacred days in the year, be observed as a closo holiday, a day of thanksgiving, and a day of tribute to our honoured dead, Soldier.