The Glorious Dead

Irony. They died for Justice and Liberty.

The 'Great War' was about pacts, feuds and kingdoms. Not about freedom or justice. But perhaps this is a double irony since these are the same words being thrown around in the current media, for our great war on terror, which is after all about liberty and justice, freedom and peace.

Christmas Eve, December 1914, men of both sides left the trenches and played soccer, swapped gifts, sang songs and gave each other hair cuts, they said farewell and a few days later resumed killing each other.

The monument is the Great War Cenotaph, on Stockade Hill, Howick, Auckland.

Decided to revisit my own backyard to see if there was anything of interest in sleepy old Howick.

_{Stockade Hill was built in defence of the settlement of Howick during the New Zealand Wars (the plaque denotes the 'Maori Wars', but this has been revised), women and children slept inside the stockade for several months during the 1870s. Nothing remains of the stockade except for a line of trenches and the old well. The top has a trig station (for geographic measurements) and the Cenotaph. Howick's ANZAC Day commemorations are held here each year.}