Writing on May 22, Mr Luxford says:-''Since my last letter we have been incessantly under fire, not even an armistice to bury our dead. New Zealanders have frequently changed camp, but have not had half an hour's respite from the din and smoke of battle, and every day has increased our casualties. No man speaks definitely of reaching home, the common expression is `If I am fortunate enough to get back.' I am surprised to find that so few are suffering from nerves or exhaustion. I wish you would adopt some public method of letting the people of our seagirt isles know this. As chaplain it is part of my duty to send all the encouraging news I can. The endurance of our depleted ranks is wonderful, complaining is unknown. On those black days when one battalion of over 1000 could only get 150 to answer the roll-call, and another only 220, I don't think a single man sound in body would have gone back to New Zealand if he had been offered the chance. The feeling is, we are here for the work, and we shall keep to it till the last ...''
• Sydney: Appreciative comments appear in press notices of the arrival of a party of 220 immigrants from Chili.
These immigrants have come under contract with the commonwealth Government, and their destination is the Northern Territory, which great area is still mainly occupied by some Chinese, alligators, and blackfellows, despite the efforts of the energetic Administrator, Dr Gilruth (formerly of New Zealand), to get desirable people to settle there.
They are a mixed consignment as far as nationality is concerned. They comprise - British 28, Spaniards 113, Russians 45, Italians 30, Argentinians 1, French 1, Serbian 1, and Greek 1.
All those classed as Britishers are Welshmen or descendants of Welshmen who many years ago founded a colony miles from anywhere in Patagonia.
Most of them speak only Welsh and Spanish as it is spoken in Patagonia. All the immigrants have large families.
Is there not something of grim incongruity in the thought that while we are picking out the finest of our young Australian manhood to send away to the battlefield we are importing mixed shipments like that mentioned in order to fill up gaps in our population?
Still, war has its own desperate inconsistencies, and the needs of the Northern Territory are peculiar.
• A man of peace, whose mental products have aided in the making of some of the most conspicuous agents in the killing of men at present in use, has just died at his home near Sydney.
Mr Lawrence Hargrave, who passed away at the age of 65, was a pioneer in aviation ... [who] devoted the greater part of his life to the study of and experiments in aeronautics.
In 1905 he successfully showed his invention of the cellular or box kite capable of lifting a man, which is spoken of as the forerunner of the modern aeroplane.
When some years ago he offered his remarkable collection of models to the Government he was told that no room could be found for them.
A similarly chilling answer was received, it appears, when the models were offered to the British Government.
Then Mr Hargrave offered them to Germany, and met a ready acceptance.
His models may now be seen in the Deutsches Museum at Munich, and it is believed that the Taube monoplane, which the Germans have been using so extensively, is fashioned after one of the Hargrave models from Australia. - ODT, 21.7.1915
• COPIES OF PICTURE AVAILABLE FROM ODT FRONT OFFICE, LOWER STUART ST, OR WWW.OTAGOIMAGES.CO.NZ
