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Foreword

The pioneer spirit which made New Zealand a nation is not yet dead. If there should be those who lament the decadence of the age, let them read the ensuing record of hard work, done under the most trying of conditions with, in many instances, little or no equipment, and then let them criticise the achievements and the morale of the new race of Pacific Pioneers.

In those years that the locust ate, the 'Coconut Bombers' followed not where glory but where duty led. But they made their effective contribution to the defence of New Zealand, if not always in terms of blood at least in terms of toil and sweat.

And not only so, but for the first time in her history this country is, we may believe, now truly conscious of her vital relationship with and her possible influence upon the Pacific groups. At no other time since Bishop Selwyn's vision of a greater New Zealand has this nation's true destiny been more clearly evidenced.

Is it too much to suggest that engineers and others of the Third New Zealand Division have helped to pave this path to future greatness?

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