IN PRAISE OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3399, 7 May 1919, Page 47

IN PRAISE OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

" Aunt Margaret" writes from Elgin, Scotland, as follows: " When tho clarion call of the slogan sounded its S.O.S. on that fateful day in August, 1914, the young manhood of tho colonies, of India, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada answered with a swiftness and surenesa which caused a great gob of gratitude to rise in the heart of th© Motherland Perhaps in no other colony was the i espouse given, with more alacrity than by tho island men of New Zealand, that gem, which, like our own, is compassed by the inviolate sea. From town to hamlet, from hamlet to homestead, the fiery cross dre-v its crusaders to fight for tho great moral forces of truth, righteousness, and freedom. Hearts had to bo steeled fojt tho great renunciation of lovo and home, Tho ploughshare had to Vm» substituted for tho sword, tho shepherd's crook for tho riflo, and tho pen for the pistol. Mothers' and fathers' hearts were wrung as thoj parted with their gallant sons, so ready to make tho supreme sacrifice. The soul that -rises with us, our life's eta* Hath had elsewhere its sotting And cometh from afar., Not in entire forgetfulnees, But trailing clouds of glory cTo we coxae From God, who is our home. As argosy after argosy left tho shining shores ot New Zealand with its living freight of heroes, hearts beat high, for would they not yet see the homo of their fathers, the land of the mountain and the; flood, and the songs their mothers crooned in their infant ears as she soothed them io sleep were soughing within them tho musio of inspiration. But not yet were they io see our shores. At Qallipoli, Egypt, the bloody Somme the wave of the wail of mothers for many a 'flower of the forest' found its echo in New Zealand. Heroes, broken in body, but undaunted and buoyant in spirit, found their way to Blighty, and, with faces lit with the tflow of and with the glamour of the music of our gloughman. bard and the magic wand of cott, they swung their way into our hearts and homes, for were they not our own 'kith and kin,' so frank, so fearless, so modest, so kind? No musio was sosjveot to them as the sound of Scotia's whimpline burns, and no sight so beautiful as her neather--olad hills. No city in the world can com* pare with ' mine own romantic town,' and no maidens more true than her daughters. Her 'dowie dens' were resonant of an ago gone by, once peopled by 'hefty' men of the! Covenant, whose hiding-places were often the caves of tho hillside, and whose bed tho mess hay, but whose indomitably- wills dared to resist the tyranny of the oppressor and purchased the rich legacy of freedom for their children. But iho war had to be won, and these lads from over the seas, with wills harnessed to duty and with vision, of their fathers, had to carry the flag of tho Empire to victory. Messines had to b© faced; Paschendaele had to be scaled, and the withering fire of tho enemy had to pour its infamous baptism on heroic souls. Picardy claimed a heavy toll of officers and men, but at Bapaume the brilliant strategy, the valour, tho determination, and the faith of th© men were irresistible. Tho grip of the Hun weakened, and a new chapter of a victorious advance and of daring episodes were tho record of each day, and the g-eat moral forces of truth and righteousness triumphed. "With hearts full of gratitude for our deliverance we passed into St. Giles a and sang, as only a Soots congregation can sing, the historic Psalm 124-:

Even, as a bird Out of the fowler's-snare Escapes away, So is our soul set free — Broke are their nets, And thus escaped we. Therefore our help Is in the Lord's great name. Who heaven, and earth By His great power did frame. "While thinking- of our own kilted lads of fho Fifty-first Division we did not for. get tho gallant part played by the men of the South Pacific And now wo say, Farewell, and with a ' God bless you' waft our prayers for their safety as they cross the sea 3 to their mothers and to love, carry* ing with them the white flower of blameless lives. Full of high ideals they will do! their part in cementing that indissoluble friondshio which has bound them to tho Motherland with 'hooks of steel/ and will hold aloft tho great Magna Charta, irfc whose bosom reposes the Divine Evangel of freedom for tho human race., and that righteousness which alone exalteth a nation/' We must be free to die who speak the tongu« That Shakespeare spake; the faith cud nioTaw

hold Which Milton held. "And we not forjefc the great cloud of witnesses who have joined the choir invisible, who, with angel faces and silent tread, accompany their brother* and swell tho chorus of joy" at the home-coming, who have washed their robes and madai them white in the. blood of the Lamb, and who ' servo Him day and night in Hia temple.' "