The call for men is insistent, and especially so in Otago, and we have to answer it without delay.
The response to the call for the Fourteenth Reinforcements last week was bad, and no doubt every loyal citizen will look forward to that realisation of duty which will ensure full quotas from now on.
With the new recruiting scheme in force next week a revival should take place in Otago.
Unless the whole Empire realises the position and is prepared to act on it, the war must be indefinitely prolonged and greater numbers of lives unnecessarily sacrificed.
The situation is becoming more serious every day to the man who thinks, and he knows that this great drain of men in New Zealand and other parts cannot go on indefinitely.
■A feature about all Hibernian concerts is that they are well organised and complete in every detail. Such a thing as starting after time or any subsequent hitch later on are always conspicuously absent, and the only conclusion to be arrived at is that the arrangements are in capable and zealous hands.
Last evening's concert, which was given in His Majesty's Theatre before a very large audience, was yet another instance of the self-same thing. The smoothness with which the concert passed off was remarkable. A very capable body of singers had given their services, and provided an excellent musical for an hour and a-half.
■The following are the principal clauses in the thirty-first annual report of the Kaikorai Football Club: - Owing to so many of our players enlisting for service abroad, it was with great difficulty that we were able to place in the competition four teams - First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth Grade - these being very much below their usual strength.
As players kept enlisting in such numbers during the season, the committee was compelled to withdraw the First and Second Grade teams from the competition. With one or two exceptions the whole of the eligible playing members of the club are on active service. One hundred and eight members were accepted for active service, and of these 13 have laid down their lives for the Empire's cause.
The Fourth and Fifth Grade teams were fairly successful during the season. It is hoped, as senior football is impossible for the present, the older members will give their attention to the junior players and encourage them in every possible way.
■Mr M. Cohen, editor of the Dunedin Star, wrote to the Otago Charitable Aid Board stating that the sum of £500 had been collected through the medium of that journal for a motor ambulance, to be named in memory of Nurse Cavell.
The money would be subsidised by the Government to the extent of 24s in the £. The Chairman said the board was indebted to Mr Cohen for his action in this matter. The money would be of extreme service to suffering humanity, not only at present, but in the future. The matter was referred to a committee.
■The school children of Otago have heartily taken up the suggestion that they should help their country in a small way by the collecting of plants and seeds in their school gardens, and by gathering grass seed, and particularly cocksfoot, from the roadsides.
So successful have they been that the value of the grass seed collected this season is about £70.
The flower seeds will be used to stock the school gardens, and the proceeds of the sale of the cocksfoot will be devoted to some patriotic or other purpose in which the schools have direct interest.
- ODT, 17.3.1916.
