RSA launches online poppy field

New Zealanders worldwide will be able to support veterans via a new website this Anzac Day, April 25.

Visitors to the website www.anzacpoppy.com can donate, download poppies and other "related content" for mobile phones such as the Last Post ringtone, Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association (RSA) chief executive Stephen Clarke said.

For every poppy sent another would be "planted" in the online field, he said.

"The internet site gives kiwis - wherever they are - the opportunity to remember and commemorate war-time heroes on Anzac Day."

All donations would assist war veterans.

Dr Clarke said visitors to the site could also leave personal tributes on a wall of remembrance.

"The internet poppy site brings the RSA's core values of remembrance and welfare into the 21st century."

When the RSA established poppy day in the 1920s it took months for the hand-made French poppies to reach New Zealand, he said.

"Now it takes just seconds for anyone to express their support."

- NZPA