Service at Orakau

Te Ao Hou, September 1964, Page 36

Service at Orakau And so to Orakau. The first part of the service took place in the morning at historic St John's Church at Te Awamutu, conducted by the Bishop of Waikato, the Rt. Rev. J. T. Holland, and Canon Wi Te Tau Huata, M.C. With them was the Chief of the General Staff, Major General L. W. Thornton, C.B., C.B.E., who read the lesson. Said the Bishop: ‘A few yards from where I am standing, on the wall of the baptistry of St John's Church, there hangs a slab of wood on which are written these words: ‘This tablet was erected by the soldiers of H.M. 65th Regiment as a memorial of the New Zealanders who fell in the actions at Rangiaohia on the 21st and 22nd of February, 1864, and at Orakau on the 31st of March, 1st and 2nd of April, 1864. I say unto you, love your enemies.’ ‘That inscription needs to be blazoned far and wide today in a world loaded with strife and hate and petty mindedness. Everything about it, the rough hewn timber, the uneven lettering, the wording and the text itself is so utterly simple and sincere, a spontaneous tribute paid by gallant men to others no less gallant.’ This most famous battle of the wars ended for the Maoris in a defeat which had a ring of victory about it—which was how it should be, for except in a limited military sense, there could be no victory, certainly no moral victory, in such a war.