FRIDAY, 19 DECEMBER 2025
Anzac Day, N ew Zealand Each year on Anzac Day, New Zealanders (and Australians) mark the anniversary of the Gallipoli landings of 25 April 1915. On that day, thousands of young men, far from their homes, stormed the beaches on the Gallipoli Peninsula in what is now Türkiye. Key dates 25 April 1915: Gallipoli landings 8 May: NZ troops take part in Second Battle of Krithia 8 August: NZ troops capture Chunuk Bair 15-20 December: Troops evacuated from Anzac area For eight long months, New Zealand troops, alongside those from Australia, Great Britain and Ireland, France, India and Newfoundland battled harsh conditions and Ottoman forces desperately fighting to protect their homeland. By the time the campaign ended, more than 130,000 men had died: at least 87,000 Ottoman soldiers and 44,000 Allied soldiers, including more than 8700 Australians. Among the dead were 2779 New Zealanders, about a sixth of all those who had landed on the peninsula. In the wider story of the First World War, the Gallipoli campaign made no large mark. The number of dead, although horrific, pales in comparison with the death toll in France and Belgium during the war. However, for New Zealand, along with Australia and Türkiye, the Gallipoli campaign is often claimed to have played an important part in fostering a sense of national identity. God defend N ew Zealand God defend New Zealand – a national hymn was first published as a poem in the Saturday Advertiser , a Dunedin newspaper, in 1876. It was written by Thomas Bracken, a young Irish poet and journalist who had arrived in New Zealand in 1869. He was editor of the Saturday Advertiser at the time, and later became a
politician. The music
The publication of the verses was accompanied by an announcement of a competition. The composer of the best tune for the words would win a prize of 10 guineas (about $1,600 in 2019 values). Three Melbourne musicians, Alberto Zelman, Julius Siede and Thomas Zeplin, were the judges. They unanimously chose the composition of John Joseph Woods, head teacher of a Catholic school at Lawrence, west of Dunedin. First performance and publication ‘God defend New Zealand’ had its first vocal performance on Christmas Day 1876 in Dunedin’s Queen’s Theatre by the Lydia Howarde Burlesque and Opera Bouffe Troupe, accompanied by the Dunedin Royal Artillery Band. In February 1878 sheet music was published. M ā ori translation The following month the premier, Sir George Grey, visited Lawrence, and 800 schoolchildren sang ‘God defend New Zealand’ at his welcome. Impressed, he wrote to Bracken, asking for the original manuscript of the poem. Grey then asked Thomas Henry Smith, a former judge of the Native Land Court, to translate the words into M ā ori. Smith’s translation, ‘Aotearoa’, appeared in Otago newspapers in October 1878
Maggie Marriott's nom de guerre
Maggie Marriott
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