It is almost too elementary to say that Anzac is merely a harmless acrostic composed of the initial letters of the title "Australian-New Zealand Army Corps". It has been stated on more or less reliable authority that there is a Turkish word "Anzak" meaning "only just". If this is so, it is only just a coincidence and nothing more. As for who coined or used the word in the first place, there is possibly legitimate ground for controversy. Lieutenant Keith M. Little (Wellington), who was on Corps Headquarters at the time, has made a statement which seems to clear up this side of the matter.
He says: "No accurate account concerning the origination of the word ‘Anzac’ has yet been published, so with the desire of settling once and for all the many doubts surrounding the word, I will describe its discovery and history. Shortly after the first Expeditionary Force representing the Commonwealth of Australia and the Dominion of New Zealand arrived in Egypt (early in December, 1914), it was decided to organise the two forces into an army corps, officially designed the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The officers of Corps Headquarters came from India, and the clerical staff, which I joined on December 26, 1914, comprised representatives from both the colonial forces and one or two from the Imperial Army. Shortly after Corps Headquarters had been established in Cairo, Egypt, the necessity for a telegraphic address arose, and after many abbreviated forms of the official designation of the corps had been submitted, the word "Anzac" was discovered. The word was actually discovered by the superintending clerk (an Imperial Army officer of the A.S.C.), and he simply hit on the idea of joining the first letters of the words in the title of the corps.
Band charity concert
On Sunday the Kaikorai Band will give a concert in the Botanic Gardens, the collection to be in aid of ex-Bandsman L. McConnell, who has been laid up with a painful illness for the past three years or more. Mr McConnell has a wife and a family of young children, who are almost entirely dependent upon him, and it will be readily perceived that his case is a particularly sad one.
Language sensibility
The first appearance in a Christchurch Court of a woman reporter led to a brief but humorous interlude in the Supreme Court on Wednesday. The case was a civil one, but during the hearing of the evidence it was necessary for one of the witnesses to repeat some bad language alleged to have been used by the defendant.
Defendant, in denying the allegation, said he would ask witness to again repeat the language, but for the presence in the court of a lady. "The lady must be asked to leave the court when bad language is being repeated," declared Mr Justice Denruston, who presided. Mr Raymond, K.C., thereupon explained that the lady was present in her capacity as a press reporter. "Then if the lady is a press reporter she is probably used to hearing bad language," responded his Honor. — ODT, 17.11.1917.
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