GERALDINE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19474, 26 April 1933, Page 3

GERALDINE

THE WEATHER. Steady rain, with occasional hail showers, continued throughout Monday. Yesterday conditions were dull and overcast, with a fresh southerly wind. IN REMEMBRANCE. ANZAC DAY SERVICE. The epic of Anzac was fittingly commemorated in the Geraldine Town Hall yesterday afternoon, when a simple yet impressive service was held in the presence of a large congregation. The back of the stage was draped with the Union Jack, the Lion of Scotland, and the Irish Harp, while below the dais a number of magnificent wreaths to the memory of the fallen were arranged tier upon tier. The Mayor (Mr B. R. Macdonald) presided, and. associated with him were:—Rev. A. C. La wry (Methodist), who gave the address, Rev. W. J. Couling (Presbyterian), the Rev. Canon J. P. Coursey (Vicar of St. Mary’s), and Captain Smith (Salvation Army), and Mrs W. I. Tait, of Timaru, who gave an impressive rendering of “I Know that my Redeemer Liveth” (Handel).

The service opened with the National Anthem, followed by the hymn “O God, Our Help in Ages Past.” Canon Coursey then gave a Scripture reading from the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 15, commencing at verse 35. The hymn, “God of Our Fathers” followed, and the Rev. W. J. Couling off erect up prayer. After the hymn “O Vhliant Hearts,” Captain Smith offered up prayer, and Mrs W. I. Tait then sang “I Know that My Redeemer Liveth,” to the organ accompaniment of Miss E. Sherratt, who acted as organist for the service. The address was then given by the Rev. Mr Lawry, and following the hymn “Lead Kindly Light,” Mr Lawry pronounced the Benediction. The “Dead March in Saul,” played by Miss Sherratt, concluded the service.

After the service, representatives of the Returned Soldiers’ Associationdeposited the wreaths at the foot of the Great War Memorial Cross, “The Last Post” and “The Reveille” were sounded, and the Geraldine District Band sounded “The Garland of Flowers.”

Prior to the service, a procession, headed by the Geraldine District Band, marched from the Bank of New Zealand corner to the Town Hall, the parade state comprising:—Geraldine District Band, under Lieutenant F. W. Morgan and the conductor (Mr E. Undrill), Geraldine Troop, Canterbury Yeomanry Cavalry (dismounted), Geraldine Returned Soldiers’ Association, under the President, Lieutenant W. McClure, 50 all ranks; Geraldine Boy Scout Troop, under Assistant Scouters N. Wallach and F. Shearer, Geraldine Wolf Cubs, under Wolf Cub Mistress, Miss L. Hawke, and Assistant Wolf Cub Mistress, Miss K. Kerr; Geraldine Girl Guide Company, under ActingCaptain M. Ray and Acting-Lieutenant N. Kelman, Woodbury Girl Guide Company under Captain C. Flatman and Acting-Lieutenant Waller, and Geraldine Brownies under Brown Owl M. Or ford.

In opening his address, the Rev. Mr Lawry said he felt that on Anzac Day, the speaker should be one who had himself been to the Front, as his honoured friends, Padres Coursey and Couling, had suffered and dared. However, it had not been the speaker’s fault that he had not been on active service. His three sons and himself had volunteered, but only two had got away, and he had had to be content with a chaplaincy in the Dominion. Sir lan Hamilton had been in his congregation when he had preached on board ship just before the war, and the speaker had delivered the sermon at the church parade of the first body of men who left Auckland for Egypt.

Continuing, Mr Lawry said that he would take as his theme two short words. As they all knew, the greatest words in our language were the short words—hate, love; grief, joy; fear, faith; death, life; sin, God. Such small monosyllables, but how great their content. The two that formed his theme were “war” and “pluck.” The Anzacs suffered the full horror of war, and they had given the world magnificent examples of pluck. When the bugles blew more than 110,000 of our boys went off to take their part in the greatest war the world had ever known. Those of our boys who were in the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps came on April 25th. eighteen years ago to a harsh forbidding coast, skirting a peninsula that was roadless, bare, waterless (except when raging torrents swirled down narrow gullies), broken ravines, scorched by summer suns and swept by fierce gales in winter. The only available landings were ranged by howitzers on the heights, and commanded by machine guns on lower slopes. All possible approaches were mined, and the meagre beaches were tangled with barbed wire, reaching out into the sea. And yet our Anzacs 10,000 miles from homes that many of them had left for the first time, dared at dawn to effect a landing. Nothing could stop them. Despite appalling losses, they landed, they dug in. and for more than eight long dreadful months they endured incredible hardships. Fiercest fighting, ceaseless vigilance, wounds, disease, and thirst were their daily portion. Scorched, frozen, drenched, often sleepless with comfort a distant memory, ’ leave” an impossible luxury, those 20th century Spartans equalled in pluck even the valour of the heroes of Thermopylae who became famous 220 miles across the Aegean Sea and 24 centuries back across the tide of time. They carved on the cliffs of high renown, “Anzac.”

This famous Army Corps created a new record by their achievements and builded with their initials a new and unforgettable word. Mr Lawry said that our least duty was to show gratitude and sympathy by supporting generously the various organisations that enable the men who suffer from war disability, to supplement their meagre pensions by handicraft and in other ways. It was not the fault of the Anzacs that they did not achieve complete success. But they held away from other theatres of war half a million of Turkey’s best troops; they delayed Bulgaria’s entrance into the war; they brought Italy into the Entente; and they to dislocated the plans of the Central Powers in regard of the Far East, that they paved the way for Allenby's triumphs in Palestine. Then they left the Peninsula to win laurels on other fronts. The evacuation was carried out .so skilfully that again “all the world wondered.”

The Geraldine branch office of the “Herald” is situated in Wilson Street, the telephone number being 207. TLe representative at the branch is Mr M. Baker, to whom payment of accounts may be made, and all inquiries relating to advertising, printing or papers referred.