In reply, Sir James Allen says that the Defence Department is fully alive to the fact that every attention should be afforded men who have been returned to New Zealand suffering from this disability. ''Such soldiers are usually sent to Hanmer, where the bracing climate has shown good results.
It is proposed to establish a small farm there on which the men can be employed, thus keeping their minds occupied. It is also proposed to place a certain number on the Government Experimental Farms, but this scheme will not be brought into effect until it is seen how the men there at present are faring.''
Sunday sport
At a meeting of the Christchurch Presbytery on Tuesday (says the Press) Mr J. S. Tulloch drew attention to the fact that an inter-island jockeys' football match had been played last Sunday.
He said he thought the matter should be taken up by Ministers' Association. The Rev. J. Paterson said that the Presbytery should consider its authority in the matter. The match was, he understood, on a private ground..
Inter-generational enlistment
''This is a most difficult position,'' said the chairman of the First Auckland Military Service Board on Monday (Mr F. G. Burgess, S. M.),
''And it is the first case we have had where a whole family is liable to be stripped of its manhood, because the father, as well as his grown son, come within the Military Service Act provisions.''
The appeal was that of William. A. Somerville, warehouseman. Major Conlan said he did not think the Act contemplated, when the age limits were fixed, the conscripting of the father as well as the sons. Appellant, whose age is 43 years, said he had one son at camp and one just attained military age.
Mr Pine said the board had dealt with one case where father and son were away, but these went voluntarily. The board said it would allow the case to stand down for six months, which was just as good as sine die.
Soldiers in hospital
The full strength of the Dunedin Hospital (says Dr Falconer, medical superintendent, in his annual report) has been devoted since the war started, to the assistance of the Government in the treatment of sick and wounded soldiers.
We have had as many as 300 returned soldiers at one time under treatment, either as in or out patients of the hospital. The staff, in all branches, without exception, has worked with devotion in this cause.
The assistance at the hospital recently afforded by the Defence Department will enable us more easily to overtake the work and to perform our duty more efficiently.
Hidden message
Some idea of the treatment that American soldiers are receiving in German prison camps may be gathered from a letter received by a boy's parents at Minneapolis: ''We are having the very best treatment,'' he says.
''The Germans provide us with best of everything. There is only one thing we could wish for, and that is to be at Lakewood Park.''
Lakewood Park evidently impressed the German censor as a pleasure resort. It is a cemetery.
- ODT, 16. 8.1918
