Private Jack Doidge, writing to relatives in Auckland, says: ''We have been experiencing a great deal of rough weather.
To-day (Friday, 19th inst.), the Willochra has made a wide detour in order to give the Tofua a chance of catching up.
She made a fine picture in the rough sea, tossing the spray all over herself.
I was up on the boat deck this morning, and had dodged several small showers of spray when a regular deluge came over the side high in the air.
We all spotted it, and there was general rush to get under one another, but we all got it, and were drenched.
The water was ankle deep, swishing from one side to another as she rolled.
Most of the fellows have been seasick, and most of us seem to have lost our appetites.
I had a real good breakfast this morning, however, though not exactly in comfort, for when 18 men sit to a table which will accommodate only a dozen cups and plates sliding, tea slopping over one's bread, and the next man's elbow digging a fellow in the ribs, well, it isn't quite like home.
While some of the fellows have been down for days with seasickness, others, who have never been out to sea before, are unaffected.
So far there has been no attempt to drill us - no deck room and too rough.
The food, to date, has been very good, and there has been more variety than when in camp.''
It is to be hoped that all those eligible for military service in Otago who have not yet decided that the call of the Empire for soldiers demands their personal response will give the position very serious consideration within the next few days.
Not all, it is true, are free to go to the front, but there are many whose circumstances offer no deterrent to their serving their country, and there is no need to look very far to see that there is plenty of material in the community of the kind of which excellent reinforcements are made.
There is no lack of young men who seem to have no profitable occupation for their spare time, and it is probable that a great proportion of these have no special ties or obligations to deter them from enlisting.
It is particularly desirable that the need for recruits should be thoroughly realised at the present hour by those whom it directly concerns.
The appeal which the Defence Authorities have just issued for the balance of the infantry required for the Eleventh Reinforcements states the position very forcibly and clearly.
It is an appeal to which the community must give earnest attention.
The dominion has pledged itself to fulfil certain obligations in respect of the provision of reinforcements.
Within less than a fortnight the Eleventh Reinforcements should be fully made up, and there is still a considerable shortage of men required . . .
Information has been received by Mr M. Laracy, of the Shearers' Union (says the New Zealand Times) that certain sheep farmers in the Wairarapa, who had engaged shearers at 22s 6d per 100, are keeping back 2s 6d of that sum as a ''voluntary'' contribution to the local patriotic fund.
Mr Laracy declares that such action will not be tolerated by the union, and steps will be taken to ensure that the men receive the full wage contracted for.
It is alleged that the sums thus kept back by some of the employers are being donated to the patriotic fund in the names of the employers, instead of in the names of the men concerned. - ODT, 3.12.1915.
