SOLDIERS’ PARCELS.

Matamata Record, Volume II, Issue 72, 7 March 1918, Page 4

SOLDIERS’ PARCELS.

Co-operation Desirable. Private T. E. McMillan, at one time a member of the literary staff of the Morrinsville “ Star,’’ and now “somewhere in France,” writes to the Ngaruawahia “ Advocate” : “ Considerable controversy has taken place in New Zealand as to the desirability or otherwise of sending parcels. It was contended that many gifts sent by individuals did not reach the particular men for whom they were intended. It was also thought that the materials comprising the parcels could have been bought more cheaply in England. As regards individuals sending parhels, the old objections that they sometimes do not reach the parties they were intended for, and that necessarily a lot of delay must often take place before a soldier is traced, holds good today. The postal authorities do their level best, but it is a gigantic business, greatly complicated by the fact that the men are moved about so frequently from one place to another. As one who has now had actual experience in France, I can quite confidently state that sending gifts by means of a patriotic organisation is, at nearly every point, superior to the individualistic method. There is no delay in tracing men ; each man gets a parcel, and aces not have to divide it up amongst his comrades, and into such small portions that neither he nor they get much benefit from it. Again, buying and forwarding in bulk is decidedly the cheaper way. The consensus of opinion among the soldiers here is that if the women would all drop private sending, and co-operate with the patriotic societies, we would get more parcels and that they would reach us in much quicker time, and therefore in better condition. While not underating the material pleasure derived from the consuming of delicacies that are never seen among military rations, I consider that the sentimental value out-weight their material worth. Here we are, many thousands of miles from the land of our birth, and I can tell you that it cheers us up and puts us in good heart to get presents of tasty food from New Zealand —and which is now too scarce and expensive to obtain in England or France. There were, at one time, valid objections against exporting the materials from New Zealand at New Zealand prices, but conditions are vastly different here now from what they were two years ago. Keep on sending us parcels —• food mainly but on organised lines. The old individualistic method is obsolete.”