Of the total number of rejections for the main body, for the various ailments that have already been mentioned, a quarter were for bad teeth, and the number of men who could be said to have really good teeth could be counted on the fingers of one hand.
A much larger number would have failed to pass the examination but for the welcome services of the Dental Association in Dunedin, which, during the time when the Expeditionary Force was in camp, attended to 50 men per day free.
The examination of recruits in New Zealand is as stringent as that to which candidates for entry into the British army are subject, except in that one particular.
It was found that the standard of dental efficiency demanded by the rules could not possibly be insisted on here, since such a course on it would mean the rejection of an impossibly large number of men.
The real root of the trouble is, of course, parents allow their children's teeth to become neglected.
• Speaking to a Daily Times reporter yesterday afternoon the Hon. Mr Allen, Minister of Defence, said it was absolutely essential that newspapers and all persons should make no comment whatever upon the transports engaged for future reinforcements, wherever they may go.
No reference at all should be made to the movements of transports, to their names, their fitting up, or to anything pertaining to them.
Mr Allen added: ''I want everyone to understand this is done purely as a matter of safety in the transport of the troops.
I rely upon every newspaper and every person to carry out this advice to the very best of their ability."
I have good reason to believe that an important element in the safe passage of the first transports was the secrecy observed about their movements, and with respect to subsequent transports, we must take every precaution we possibly can to secure their safety."
It is possible that some newspapers have fallen into rather slack methods in carrying out former instructions, but I must now ask that the instructions already put before our newspapers in the matter of secrecy shall be rigidly observed in the future.''
• A woman with a family of five small children went to the court at Feilding on Monday to answer a charge of using indecent language.
The accused (says the Star) was the noisiest defendant the court has held for years, and neither the bench, the clerk, nor the police could keep her quiet.
When asked whether she would elect to be dealt with summarily or by jury, she replied, ''Oh, just please yourself; I don't mind.''
She kept up a running fire of comment during the whole of the proceedings, and while witnesses were giving evidence called down the divine curse on them.
There was no doubt in the minds of the bench of the woman's guilt, and they convicted her, ordering her to come up for sentence when called on. - ODT 15.1.1915.
