We are asking for merely two small concessions from the Government. The first is free railway passes until discharge - just a matter of a week or two in many cases, and at no cost whatever to the Government. We are also asking for ration allowance until time of discharge. At present we get 5s a day. Of this, 4s goes in bed and breakfast alone. How are we to exist on 1s a day and two meals to go? We do not want to have to stand at the corner of the street telling the public all about it. The Government should adjust the matter before this happens. In camps 2s a day messing allowance is given, and the Government should give us that customary privilege while we are still on service awaiting discharge. The present lack of consideration to returned troopers is doing recruiting a lot of harm, and we want to do all we can to promote recruiting on behalf of our ''cobbers'' in the trenches. We cannot see what the Government has done for us, although the public has done, and is doing, its share. This is the only part of the Empire where these privileges have not been accorded returned men. And what is the reason? That is what we returned men want to know.
I am, etc., A Returned Trooper.
There are not many men in Dunedin who refrain from raising their hats when ''God Save the King'' is being played or sung. Three of this class, who were present at the band concert at the Gardens last night, had cause to regret their breach of good manners and lack of patriotism. Amidst a sea of uncovered heads the three hats were very conspicuous. They were observed by a returned soldier from Gallipoli, who was leaning on a stick as the result of honourable wounds. His hand was observed by a bystander to be shaking, his nerves not having fully recovered from the racking they received in the trenches, and this evidence of disloyalty or forgetfulness was too much for him. He leaned forward, and with his stick knocked off the hats from the offenders' heads, his action being loudly applauded by those who witnessed it.
The Skippers correspondent of the Wakatip Mail reports that all the sluicing companies in his district are busy, and matters seem to be going satisfactorily. The Skippers Sluicing Company is taking out a paddock on Pleasant Creek Terrace. The manager (Mr E. Sainsbury, jun.) is taking the advantage of a good supply of water in Pleasant Creek to give the race from Skippers Creek a thorough overhaul. Several new pipes have been placed in the big syphon, and a plentiful supply of water will soon be coming to hand. The master of the Electric No. 1 dredge reports that last week he had a run of 154 hours, and moved 21 feet ahead. A slight rise in the river had set the drift travelling. Part of the bottom continued very rough, large boulders being met with, which were difficult to lift when the drift was travelling. The granite bottom was extending in width from the Bannockburn side, and the remainder of the cut was composed of pipeclay. The amount of gold won was 17oz 4dwt, consisting principally of a rough sample. The secretary is in receipt of a telegram stating that the dredge was stopped on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in order to repair the tumbler, and the usual wash-up will not take place this week.
- ODT, 26.11.1915.
