L’envoi
In the course of this unpretentious story, many of the wonderful achievements of Old Westland’s Pioneers have been noted—noted with pardonable pride and a deep sense of thankfulness and responsibility. For did they not bequeath a goodly heritage, a sacred trust to be held for all time, and applied for those who will later people the Province?
Yet, magnificent as is this material inheritance, it pales into utter insignificance when we realise that in passing on the Pioneers left even a more priceless legacy—their unconquerable spirit. This was made manifest during the years of the South African campaign and the Great War, when their sons, and their sons’ sons, and daughters too, flocked to the colours, and went forth to fight for King and Country, to the everlasting glory of their forbears and the Province from which they sprung.
Many laid down their lives. Their names follow. This story would be incomplete did it not chronicle them, for in making the supreme sacrifice, they died, true to tradition, imbued with the deathless spirit of those courageous men and women who pioneered Old Westland.
1939. Again the war drums throb their call. The Empire fights for life and liberty—men of Westland nobly respond—the pioneer spirit marches onward—upward to the stars.
