We greet our first war band
From Aotea-roa,
From the Island of Greenstone:
We sing of our warriors,
Our gallant Five Hundred,
The chosen heroes
Of Tu-mata-uenga,
The Angry-Eyed War God.
Some fell in Egypt,
Some on Gallipoli;
Now pangs of sharp sorrow
Our sad hearts are piercing.

From the Coast of the Sunrise,
Came our Second Contingent,
The men of Mahaki;
Men of Tolago Bay,
Warriors of Ngati-Porou.
Farewell, O Henare,^*
Who led your company
And fell in war's thunder
Nobly fighting in France.
And who will survive there
To take the last message
To our own loved people
In dark sorrow bowed?

Our Ninth fighting Contingent
Comes from Te Arawa,
From the Coast of the Sunrise
From Kahungunu's land.
And now I am leaving
For France's red war fields.
There I'll remember;
My heart will send greetings
O'er far land and ocean
To my own constant love.