MAINTAINING THE STANDARD

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2881, 20 September 1916, Page 4

MAINTAINING THE STANDARD

■ ♦ One of tho most gratifying features of our reinforcement drafts is the splendid standard maintained. It almost seeing as if each new reinforcement shows to even better advantage than its predecessor, though possibly this may not be actually the case. Certain it is that from the very outset the standard of physique has been very high, and the training probably has improved with the added experience of those in charge of the training camps. Colonel Gibbon, Chief of Staff, in reviewing the Seventeenth Reinforcements, who aro Hearing the completion of their training in the Dominion, spoke very highly of this the latest draft to leave our shores. And indeed they are a fine body of men. Their training lias been carried on under difficulties, and thoy have been put to greater inconvenience and discomfort than' most of the drafts which have preceded thom, but they have come through tho ordeal splondidly. Their march over tho Rimutakas, tho reverse way to that usually followed, proved them to bo a tough and hardy lot of men, thoroughly lit physically, and with their hearts in tho right place. Their shooting was very high-class, being eclipsed only by that of the Sixteenths, who put up a record at the butts which it will bo bard to boat. Wo may well take prido in 'l;he splendid stamp of men who continue tocome forward. They should well maintain tho excellent reputation established by those who have preceded thorn to the firing-line.