One Hundred Years On : Blood on a Param Pavement

The settlement of Paraparaumu ('Param') lies about 10km to the south of us. It is a growing centre of trade and commercial activity, and houses the offices of the KCDC (Kapiti Coast District Council) which administers this region of the Wellington province.

Scarcely three minutes' walk from the rail station, I encountered, quite by chance, a fairly new public place, tucked away on a small grassy knoll near the public aquatic centre.

The information board reads: The Field of Remembrance is hallowed ground. Please treat it with respect.

As I stepped onto the grassed area, the sound of distant traffic faded. It was almost as if I had entered another world. A gentle breeze bent the blades of grass beneath the large board which proclaims:

"Honouring New Zealanders who fell during World War 1 -- To commemorate their sacrifice, Fields of Remembrance have been established throughout New Zealand. The one hundred crosses in this field represent New Zealanders from the Kapiti Coast region who served and made the ultimate sacrifice in WWI.

"They are a silent reminder of New Zealand's major contribution to freedom and the considerable sacrifice of what what was then a very small nation."

One can only imagine the sorrow and grief in the many households in the streets surrounding this field one hundred years ago, when news came back that your loved one had paid the ultimate price for the freedom of his country. And the double grief for a number of families who stood down more than one family man. 

I sat on the wooden bench and pondered on this. Certainly not even easy to grasp the utter turmoil in the minds, and the bitterness and grief of those left behind in the Kapiti area at the time.

In the words of Major John McCrae in 1915:

As I walk slowly away from the hill, seemingly totally alone in a silent world, the words Flanders fields echoing in my mind, I step onto a pavement which almost seems to be covered in blood. The needles of the Pohutukawa flowers (NZ Christmas tree) had been falling and the wind swept them into little piles of red beneath my feet. What if one of my family's name was printed on that board on the hill?  If it wasn't so tragic, there might have been a movie in this somewhere...