Writing of his visit to the military tournament at Palmerston North he states that on the railway station and about its neighbourhood he saw a number of young fellows in military uniform visibly the worse for liquor, and some on hotel premises indulging in intimacy with girls evidently not their sisters, nor the best of companions for them.
If some of these young fellows were 21 years of age and eligible to be lawfully served with liquor, he would be much surprised.
A mother having two respectable sons, one of whom had joined the Volunteers, and the other of whom was a cadet, told him that on the occasion of Lord Kitchener's visit, when the younger son was going to camp she wished the elder one to go also to look after him, but his reply was ''Mother we shall be separated, and my going will do no good, and if you knew what goes on at camp you would not wish me to go.
I shall not go any more.''
The reference was specially to women hanging about the vicinity of the camp and the obscene talk of some of the men.
''A minister told him of another young fellow who went to camp and who told him that the talk of the men in his tent, principally the married men, nearly all the nights through was vile and disgusting, including things he had never heard or thought of before, and that he was resolved not to go again.''
• That the best class of building timber is now becoming scarce is (says our Auckland correspondent) exemplified by a case stated to a reporter the other day.
A house was recently completed in one of the suburbs, which contained many different kinds of timber.
Rimu, matai, totara, Oregon pine, and other cheaper timbers were used for different parts of the house, and only the doors and sashes were composed of kauri.
A few years ago most residences were built almost entirely of kauri, but that timber is so scarce now that cheaper material has to be used.
- ODT, 5.1.1911.
