Anzac Day needs to be defended from myth-making but commercial interests also present a threat, a Dunedin author says. Ron Palenski, who has written extensively on New Zealand military history, said the creeping commercialisation of Anzac Day concerned him. Examples from professional sport included rugby league's Anzac test and Super Rugby's Anzac services, staged on the field at the start of each match in the round closest to Anzac Day. Two of his great-uncles were killed at Gallipoli, while a third died of his wounds in 1919, and Anzac Day had always been ``part of being in our family'', he said. ``You can't become a baker and produce an Anzac loaf of bread ... and neither should you do anything else commercially in the name of Anzac Day.''

Source: Otago Daily Times April 21, 2017 20:37 UTC