Banners for remembrance

Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher (left) and North Otago Returned and Services Association president Ian McKay at the World War 1 monument in Oamaru with one of the banners that are going up in Waitaki towns.

A special public ceremony on Tuesday at the monument at 11am will mark the centenary of the declaration of World War 1.

Mr McKay said an Anzac Day-style service was planned with guest speakers and St Patrick's Basilica parish priest Father Wayne Healey. Anyone can attend and RSA members have been asked to wear medals.

After that, the banners will go back up on Anzac Days and other ceremonies to commemorate major events during World War 1 over the next four years.

Mr Kircher said 14 of the banners had been bought from the New Zealand RSA - six would be used in Oamaru, four in the Waitaki Valley towns and four in Palmerston.

They cost $1610, which Mr Kircher paid for out the the mayor's annual $3000 discretionary fund.