For assuredly there is some gain? Our eight months struggle--even if it grievously tried us--undoubtedly weakened the military power of the Turks. But it did more. It taught the New Zealander many things. It taught him lessons that stood him in excellent stead on the battlefields of the world. It taught him to respect his own strength and capabilities. For before the war we were an untried and insular people; after Anzac, we were tried and trusted. Before Anzac we had few standards; after Anzac, we knew that, come what may, if it were humanly possible--and often when it seemed almost impossible--New Zealanders would not be found wanting, but would prove irresistible in attack, steadfast and stubborn in defence--and what more can anyone ask of soldiers? Even as in the war we lost our insularity and found our national spirit, so at Anzac we found our brothers-in-arms, the gallant sons of Australia; and we did our work together--for if the initial "A" stands for Australia, New Zealand furnished the very necessary pivotal consonants. So in the future we must stand together and carry the white man's burden in these Southern Seas. [Illustration: A TURKISH VICTORY MONUMENT BEHIND NO. 1 POST. The design is carried out with shell-cases. The monument itself was knocked down by our troops.] And if Anzac means suffering, a hopeless longing, aching hearts and a keen sense of loss to many in this land of ours, the gain cannot be measured--for the miner at Quinn's Post did not sweat at the tunnel face in the interests of self; the middies of the picket boats and the men of the trawlers were not working for dividends; the nurses on those hospital ships did not toil the long nights through for praise or notoriety; the women who waited so bravely and patiently at home in hourly dread of the telegraph boy, thought nothing of themselves. One and all made their willing sacrifices for the common good. And that is the message of Anzac to the people of New Zealand: Place the interests of the community before the interests of self, follow in the footsteps of the early pioneers, and make New Zealand a sweeter place for the little children. [Illustration: ANZAC COVE TO-DAY.] Anzac Cove. (_From Leon Gellert's "Songs of a Campaign"_) There's a lonely stretch of hillocks: There's a beach asleep and drear. There's a battered broken fort beside the sea. There are sunken trampled graves: And a little rotting pier: And winding paths that wind unceasingly. There's a torn and silent valley: There's a tiny rivulet With some blood upon the stones beside its mouth There are lines of buried bones: There's an unpaid waiting debt: There's a sound of gentle sobbing in the South. January. 1916. New Zealand Transports of the Main Body.