HIS DUTY DONE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 10159, 23 December 1918, Page 4

HIS DUTY DONE

MEMORIAL TO CAPTAIN SEDDON IMPRESSIVE DEDICATION SER. VICE AT MURITAI. A notable event in the history of the Muritai Anglican Church took place yesterday afternoon, when the Bishop of Wellington officiated at the dedication of a memorial bell to the late Captain Richard , John Seddon. The picturesque little church was filled to overflowing, those present at the ceremony including Mrs Seddon, Miss Alary Sedaon, Captain and Mrs Knox Gilmer, Colonel and Airs Morico and Alisa Morice, Mr and- Airs Dyer and Miss Dyer, Airs Bean (members of the deceased soldier’s family). Sir'John Findlay, Sir William Hall-Jones, the Hons. G. IV. Russell, J. A. Hanan and D. Buddo, Surgeon-General Henderson and Ala.ior A. A. Corrigan. Friends of the deceased soldier assembled in large numbers, several motoring round Irort> tlie city. The service was conducted by the Rev. Air Stent, vicar of Eastbourne. The bell, which was donated to the church by Captain ana Airs Knox Gilmer, bore the following inscription:— “In memory of Captain R. J: S. Seddon, killed in action. 1918.” Tho dedication ceremony having, been performed, Captain Knox Gilmer -tolled the bell thirty-six times, this representing the number of years of Captain Seddon’s life. Ir. the course of a simple hut striking address. Dr Sprott said that those of the present generation did not realise the price that had been paid lor the heritage left them. It was more the custom to take things for granted but it was well for those who stood in that church in all peacefulness and happiness to remember those who had made sacrifices for them. One way of remembering the men who had given their lives in so sacred a cause was the erection of memorials such as that placed in the church that day, and His •Lordship trusted that the example would_be followed. He also hoped and trusted that there would be founded some great Imperil:! memorial that would perpetuate’the memory of those brave men. But there was another way of commemorating tho dead, and that was by seeing that they did not die in vain. It was honed that out of tho awful war there would come to the world a good that would compensate the cost ,and that the new age would be happier, brighter and nobler than the past age. There could be no thought of retrogression or error, and if it was to bo said that the heroes had not died in vain all must bestir themselves. There could be no better memorial than a brighter and purer world.’

Dr Sprott, continuing, said that when they lost their loved ones they found solace in tho Bible. When old people passed awav the relatives did not sorrow undulv because they realised that, the life’s work was done.' It was most consoling to conjure up in one’s mind that the dead were going to a place of rest, but those who had been reflecting on such things’must think that the term “rest” was hardly applicable to young men in the prime of lire, "Strong and resolute men wno seemed to have it in them to do much good work in future years. They felt that these young men did not want to rest but that thev were anxious to accomplish some useful and noble work. But there was a life for them not merely of rest, but of higher and nobler activity and service. Somewhere in God’s great universe thev had been taken as God’s Servants. Dr Snrott concluded: “t think we do those brave souls a wrong if we allow them to pass away from our memories.”' ’•