CHRISTMAS PRESENTS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2586, 7 October 1915, Page 2

CHRISTMAS PRESENTS

THEIR-' DELIVERY TO THE TROOPS,

"Chri'stmnis presents are being purchased in enormous quantities for disS atcli to our men at the front," said [r. Poland -in tho'House yesterday. "Will the Minister send a man forward with these goods and see that they are delivered in -a moro satisfactory manner ■ than has been tho case 'in. the past?"

Tho Minister of Defence (Hon. J. Allen) _ said that ho was quito willing to go into tho whole matter, and decide whether the system of delivery could bo improved by tho dispatch of a special agont. Such an agent would encounter .difficulties, bccause tho Koods had to go to so many different places —to Egypt, to Malta, to Gallipoli, 7perhaps to Salonika or to Belgium. Tlio doliyery .in tho past had not boon so bad as was suggested. Ho had absolute proof that mail matter was being delivered right up to tho trenches, -and in tlio hospitals. In a number of unavoidable cases a man's mails did go ■astray, and, soon after the landing, about £2000 or £3000 worth of goods were stolen, owing, apparently, to an insufficient guard being placed over them. Theso things had no doubt caused many complaints. If anything could bo dono to improve the delivery it would bo done. •

A plea tlmt stops should bo taken by the Government-to insure' the delivery of parcols sent to troopers at tlio front was also made in tlio Legislative Council yesterday by tho Hon.. G. Jones.' He (said that it had been stated 011 tho .authority-of-returned soldiers that parcels were appropriated in Cairo by those to whom tlioy did not. belong. Many persons wfiro .sending Christmas proBents by the next transports, and 110 thought a cablegram m!ght bo sent by the Government to somo responsible person^in Cairo to have their delivery supervised., It might evon be advisable to send a detective to discover,, where the parcels wero misappropriated. The Hon. Sir Francis Bell said that Colonel Rhodes had been dispatched to lcok after the delivery of postal packets. Parcels sent-, now. through the Mayor Would be easior.'to.deliver, for an endeavour would be made to put them into the correct, .here. It might happen that' parcols intended for men in Egypt were carried on to Gallipoli. or the men might have left GalliDoli before the parcels arrived. He thought that every care would be. taken to deliver parcels which were sent to the men at the front. 1 '

TOWN HALL A STOREROOM,

Once more the _ Wellington Town Hall is doing service as a- storeroom. If tlio men at the front could .see into its 'corridors and cellars they-'would know they are iiot forgotten. ; In the corridors, men and women are busy parcelling and labelling bales of leather waistcoats. ' Neatly done up, aiid looking rather like small bales of wool, they coyer a good .area of flooring. "Fifty leather waistcoats," "thirtyfive leather, waistcoats'—these are the exterior . signs; and,. taking; tlio' signs as . a guide, there must be thousands in the whole of the. bales.

Down in the cellar one meets with big white-pine cases lying everywhere. These cases are filled with Christmas parcels _ foi; our. soldiers. More parcels are rolling in, and more cases are being requisitioned and filled., Most of tho cases are specially built, and are very substantial looking.