The 'Maxim is merely an improved automatic rifle with a water jacket'

Scottish troops, in kilts, on the march. The Germans call them '' the Ladies from Hell''. - Otago...
Scottish troops, in kilts, on the march. The Germans call them '' the Ladies from Hell''. - Otago Witness, 18.8.1915.Copies available from ODT front office, lower Stuart St, or www.otagoimages.co.nz
The movement which is being actively prosecuted in South Africa and other portions of the Empire for the presentation of machine guns to their respective forces in the Imperial army is based on a recognition of the proved value of these weapons.

Great Britain has been more slow than Germany to realise that the machine gun is a very formidable implement.

At the beginning of the war Germany was credited with having 50,000 machine guns.

Since then the factories have been working day and night, and it is now asserted that there are 100,000 of them in use.

The tendency in the German army is to substitute men with machine guns in place of rifles, the reason being that infantry so armed, and protected by concrete works and wire entanglements, can hold off forces far superior to them in numbers.

The argument in favour of the substitution of the light machine gun for the rifle was recently put, in terms that are worth considering, by a German agent in Rotterdam.

''After all,'' he said, ''a Maxim is merely an improved automatic rifle with a water jacket.

A man who could fire a kicking gun of the period of 1815 could fire and carry a Maxim with less effort.

Are we not told that in the old days the concentrated fire on one side of an English square emptied less than a score of French saddles at effective range?

One modern machine gun would have wiped out the whole squadron. In modern warfare, and particularly in trench warfare, the soldier who can fire a hundred shots to his opponent's five has ninety-five chances of coming out unscathed.

The German soldier prefers the machine gun to the rifle; it enables him to sit down comfortably and squirt death at the foe as water is squirted though a hose, and it gives him that sense of superiority and security which the possession of a superior weapon always brings to the fighting man.''

Some excitement was in evidence at the departure of the ferry steamer Monowai from Wellington on Saturday night.

It was clear that a good many intending passengers would be disappointed, and when the gangways were hauled up a large number wanting to travel were left on the wharf.

One of these - a soldier on leave, - possessing considerable agility, scaled the side of the steamer and clambered on board, to the accompaniment of loud cheering, both from those on board and on the wharf.

Taking the cue from him, others, including at least one member of the fair sex, assisted from the wharf and boat, climbed on board, the efforts of the police being quite inadequate to put a stop to the proceeding.

By the time the steamer cast off quite 30 additional people gained admittance to the vessel.

The Tivoli Follies opened in His Majesty's Theatre last evening in an entertainment that was distinctly bright and sparkling from beginning to end.

In several instances the turns were on orthodox vaudeville lines, but in others something novel and unique was introduced.

The company is a numerous one, and, borrowing from the present-day pantomime, there is a goodly display of female loveliness, in which spectacular effect is sought and obtained in a pronounced degree.

Under such circumstances it can be readily understood that numerical strength is an essential, and that costuming of a rich and fanciful character is imperative before the gorgeous and picturesque can be reached.

When the entire company assembles before the footlights, as it frequently does in the second part, the effect is dazzlingly brilliant, and cannot fail to win admiration. - ODT, 13.8.1915.

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