''The bullet that wounded me went in at the front of my shoulder and out at the back. We had lost a good many officers, so I decided to hang on. I stayed in the dug-out for a few days. Joe Meldrum (who resigned his position in the Times office to go with the Main Expeditionary Force) looked after me, and Dr O'Neill did the rest. It was on May 3 that I got the knock, and now I have my arm out of the sling, but the bandages are still on, and the wounds are still holes, but in a week or two will be allright.''
''If people realised half the suffering of the poor fellows here, and on every battlefield, there would be no slackers or shirkers at home, and no short supply of howitzers and shells. But to realise war one must see it - live it. New Zealand - through the casualty lists - will get some inkling of the sorrows of war, but to have helped to bury 3000 decomposed rotting bodies is a very dreadful experience in a man's life. Thanks to our lucky stars they were nearly all Turks. The only way a nation can realise what war really is, is to have Red War stalls through the countryside. May that day never come for New Zealand.''
''I can never forget the beautiful sympathy that ran through the Australian and New Zealand forces on those first memorable days. In a flash all the petty prejudices and annoyances vanished into air. A common danger - a common suffering - and the nearness everyone was to death purified everybody - the meek men became heroes, and rough men became gentle and tender. We lost our closest friends (and in soldiering one does become intimate), but we had no time for tears. We had to think of the living - not the dead.
''Every man tried to help his fellow, and so here in the terrible lust to slaughter the enemies of the Empire, was born a spirit that seems to me will be one of the greatest assets to the world in the great years to come, when we have to reconstruct our plans afresh. The man who landed here on April 25, 1915, will always be a better man for it. I am thankful that I was privileged to be here...''
• ''It seems to me that parents have children and do not understand their responsibilities towards those children,'' said Mr Widdowson, S. M., in the Juvenile Court yesterday to a father whose boy had pleaded guilty to two charges of theft.
''If those boys were looked after when they were younger we would not have the trouble we have with them now.''
The father drew the rebuke down upon himself by his somewhat callous attitude towards the lad.
He was protesting that he had always watched the boy carefully, when Mr Widdowson told him that it was no use arguing as a man like him did not realise the position.
It was of the training of children before they were 10 years old that he was speaking. Senior Sergeant Dart told the court that the boy, who was 14 years of age, had stolen a sum of 14s and another sum of 1 2s 6d, belong to Mr Richard Tracey.
He had entered the same house on different occasions through the window, and had stolen the money from banks in children's rooms.
He was suspected, and a trap was laid for him, and he was caught, but for a long time he denied his guilt.
He had proved most untruthful in many other respects, and had thrown suspicion on an innocent boy.
Senior Sergeant Dart asked his worship to consider committing the boy to the Industrial School, and to make an order that the father refund the stolen money.
The father, on being appealed to, said he had made up his mind not to pay anything.
The boy would have to pay it himself.
Mr Widdowson said he could not make an order against the father.
The boy was convicted and committed to the Wereroa Industrial School, to be brought up in the Anglican form of religion.
The guardianship was transferred to Mr Axelson, and an order was made that the amount stolen be refunded by the boy out of his wages.
Part of the order was that the boy should receive a sound thrashing in order to impress the seriousness of the offence upon him.
• The whale captured by the Perano party off Tory Channel a fortnight ago was the largest of the season.
Two consignments of whale oil have already been forwarded to Wellington, and two hundred barrels await shipment.
There is sufficient oil at the boiling-down works to fill another hundred barrels. - ODT, 12.8.1915.
• COPIES OF PICTURE AVAILABLE FROM ODT FRONT OFFICE, LOWER STUART ST, OR WWW.OTAGOIMAGES.CO.NZ
