Anzacs active

Back (from left): Sgt-Major Abbey (NZE) DCM, Sgt Spencer (Auckland) DCM, Pvte Findlay (Canterbury...
Back (from left): Sgt-Major Abbey (NZE) DCM, Sgt Spencer (Auckland) DCM, Pvte Findlay (Canterbury) DCM, Sgt Tylsley (Auckland) DCM, Lance-corporal Milne (Otago) DCM, Sapper Scrimshaw (Canterbury) DCM, Front: Sgt Major Boate (Otago) DCM & Croix Militaire, Lieutenant Bishop (Otago) Military Cross, Sgt Bassett (Auckland) VC, Lieutenant O’Shea (Wellington) MC, Lieutenant Turnbull (Wellington) MC. — Otago Witness, 10.5.1916.
Though London is accustomed to the Anzacs, it is a novelty to see them with full kit fresh from the trenches, with mud caking their puttees.

Some of them arrive at Victoria Station almost daily.

They are delighted at the change from Gallipoli to France, which is like home to them.

They declare that the fighting there is a picnic compared with Gallipoli.

They are delighted with the excellent organisation, especially as regards the commissariat, and the daily supplies of bread, water, and bully beef.

The Anzacs are very proud of the splendid guns on the west front.

The Germans attempted an attack at night, but our guns immediately got the range and battered the German trenches, preventing an infantry attack being made.

The German signals for their ambulances proved that our guns had done good work, and the Anzacs cheered every such signal.

The German shell fire they find heavier than that of the Turks, but the Anzacs declare that France hitherto has been to them a comparative rest cure.

The Anzacs tell a story of a ploughman with white horses.

They believed this ploughman to be a spy, ploughing where the Germans ought to shell.

The Anzacs therefore went out at night and painted his horses red and brown.

• At the last monthly meeting of the Dunedin Branch of the Society the Plunket Nurse reported that in some instances babies still slept in bed with their parents.

It seems almost incredible that such a gross injustice can be meted out to helpless infants after the dangers to life and health which result from the practice have been explained and brought before the public so frequently, not only in New Zealand, but throughout the entire civilised world.

Only a few years ago several healthy babies in the Dunedin district were killed by being overlain, and at one of the inquests the Coroner asked the mother if she had not read in the papers of the dangers of taking a baby into bed, and she explained that the nurse had recommended her to do so because the child was not sufficiently warm by itself.

The verdict was that the child was accidentally suffocated through being overlain by the mother during sleep.

Seeing how great a wrong is done to every child who is allowed to breathe the warm, damp, vitiated air of the parents' bed, it is amazing that any mother can now be found in our midst so callous and so indifferent to her child's health and fitness as to indulge her own mere whim or inclination in this direction.

But besides the inevitable nightly half-suffocation, one must take into account also the risk of complete stifling and the sudden violent death of the infant.

• A splendid reception was accorded last evening to the returned Taieri soldiers who, with their comrades, performed so heroically at the Anzac landing.

The Mosgiel Coronation Hall was crowded with representatives from all parts of the Taieri, each desirous of giving their representative soldiers a fitting welcome home.

The enthusiasm which was shown when a dozen khaki-clad soldiers - who, notwithstanding the rest they have had already, still bore the marks of what they had undergone - marched on to the platform.

This enthusiasm, however, sunk into insignificance when, after the orchestra had played the National Anthem, the stage curtain was raised and revealed to the audience "our soldiers'' seated on the platform, surrounded by representative men from various parts of the district.

The applause and cheering which followed were deafening, and lasted for several minutes. - ODT, 13.5.1916.

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