Dunk an Anzac biscuit and volunteer for the sake of your country, Otago University Students' Association members urged yesterday.
A plume of smoke from a 25-pounder gun drifted over nearly 300 people gathered on the University of Otago clocktower lawn for the OUSA Anzac Service in Dunedin.
The gun barrel was facing north but a light wind took the smoke south across the lawn.
OUSA campaigns officer Sean Gamble, speaking at the ceremony, detailed the history of the Anzac biscuit, concluding it was a Dunedin invention, rather than Australian.
‘‘The earliest known recipe for Anzac biscuits appears in the eighth edition of the St Andrew's cookery book, published in Dunedin in 1919, two years before the earliest known Australian recipe was published.''
The traditional Anzac biscuit was hard and flat and ideal for dunking in a cup of tea before eating, he said.
Dr Murat Ungor, of the university's economic department, read the ‘‘our sons'' words of Ottoman commander at Gallipoli Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, in Turkish, before University of Otago vice-chancellor Prof Harlene Hayne read the text in English.
OUSA president Laura Harris, in a speech at the ceremony, urged people to join a volunteer group to give something back.
‘‘Use this opportunity to ask yourselves what you can do for your country.''
She asked people to introduce themselves to a stranger to make a connection to move forward but never forget those who ‘‘sacrificed their future so we could brighten our own''.
