Huge turnouts as Palmerston North remembers our Anzac heritage: Mayor Grant Smith

Anzac dawn sentinel at the cenotaph in Te Marae o Hine/The Square. Photo / Palmerston North City Council

OPINION

Impressive gatherings at Anzac Day services last Thursday were the feature of Palmerston North’s annual tribute to both the fallen and those who served.

On August 5, 1914, 110 years ago, New Zealand declared war on Germany and its allies. This year also marks several other wartime anniversaries including the 1944 Battle of Monte Cassino in which the 28th Māori Battalion played a significant role.

This legendary fighting force came together on the city’s showgrounds in 1940 for training before being deployed to the battlefields of Europe. Now adorned with the Poppy Places symbol, streets in the suburb of West End are named after men who served with this famous battalion.

As the son of an ex-serviceman, and mayor of a city with significant Defence Force affiliations, these occasions for remembrance provide important opportunities to engage with our national heritage. Those names inscribed on the cenotaphs and memorials belonged to real people with family and whānau, who had hopes and dreams.

What they didn’t have was a future for themselves. Instead, we are the ones who have inherited that future and the freedoms their sacrifice ensured. We also should acknowledge the profound grief at their loss felt by families and friends, in workplaces and communities, from what was back then a relatively sparsely populated country. This is the debt we acknowledge each Anzac Day.

Last year in a private capacity, I attended the opening of Te Arawhata - New Zealand Liberation Museum at Le Quesnoy in France. In what was one of the very last actions of the Great War – just days before the Armistice on November 11, 1918 – New Zealand troops liberated the fortified German-occupied French town without the loss of a civilian life.

Nearby is one of four World War I cemeteries where New Zealand soldiers are buried. It’s a place that hits you with an overwhelming realisation of our loss. If ever you make a trip to Europe, I recommend Le Quesnoy as a place of pilgrimage, the Western Front’s equivalent to Gallipoli.

So, it was with an attitude of solemn respect that I was able to address four of the city’s six public Anzac Day services last week. While the ranks of our serving veterans have thinned – and I acknowledge Korean War Kayforce Anzac Day wreath-bearers centenarian Alan Cull and my own father Tony Smith - it was particularly heartening to see the involvement of so many young people.

Despite it being school holidays, secondary and primary schools made the effort to add their voices to what rightly is a national conversation. They are the future of this remembrance day.

On a completely different tack, I commend the turnout for the Planning Palmerston North Expo and the various drop-in sessions the council has been hosting as part of the city’s long-term plan submissions process.

Not only have these been well-attended, with more than 1000 people coming along to find out more, but written submissions on the plan are now in excess of 400.

Thursday, May 9, is the cut-off date for these, so if you have suggestions – and please, if you want change, you will need to be specific – there’s a week to go. Also, feel free to let us know about things we are getting right as well as where you think we could do better.

Details on how to make a submission are at pncc.govt.nz, libraries and the Customer Service Centre. We are looking forward to considering your feedback and ideas during the rest of May.

Grant Smith is the Mayor of Palmerston North.