Back home where it belongs

UNDERNEATH THE ARCH: Northland RSA District President Archie Dixon with Far North Mayor Yvonne Sharp during the dedication ceremony.

One of the many ceremonies of remembrance, which took place throughout New Zealand on Monday, 11 November 2002, Armistice Day, was the rededication of the war memorial at the small Northland town of Kohukohu.

The Hokianga Arch of Remembrance, first situated at the entrance to the wharf at Kohukohu, was moved in the 1950s to the local rugby club because it was inhibiting access to the jetty. It has now been relocated once more to its original foreshore site.

The memorial, commemorating local men who lost their lives during World War I, has now been enhanced with the addition of the names of those from the Hokianga who died in World War II and subsequent conflicts.

Speaking at the ceremony, RNZRSA National President David Cox, said, it was also a memorial to the determination of those who returned from the battlefields, the veterans, whose vision and efforts would now ensure that the memory of their fallen comrades would live on together with those of their forebears of the Great War of 1914-18. "By their actions," he said, "the living have shown that they are true brothers-in-arms with their deceased comrades."

Discussing the rationale for having war memorials, Mr Cox said, they told a story of tragedy, of international ineptitude, of intolerable aggression and territorial greed. "They provide a focal point for both public and personal commemoration of the lives lost, and of the grief suffered by families, the local community and the country as a whole," he said.

"They have been constructed in an endeavour to express the Nation's tribute for the sacrifice and achievements of New Zealand men and women who died serving their country and to those who served alongside them overseas and at home."

David Cox said it was a proud day for the people of Kohukohu, of the Hokianga, of Northland and of New Zealand. "A day on which," he said, "the spirits of all the veterans, the living and the dead, will mingle in thanksgiving for the bringing together in remembrance of all who paid the supreme sacrifice in the service of their country."