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Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 59, 21 July 1915, Page 2

To the public of Pukekohe and district! You are summoned to appear at the Premier Hall tomorrow (Thursday) night and failing nonattendance you will be fined for Contempt or Court. Advt. Many friends will remember Mr J. M. Roberts, the first manager of the Bank of New Zealand in Pukekohe, when that institution was housed in a small wooden hut near the old railway station. When the war broke out Mr Roberts was manager of the Bank of New Zealand branch at Te Puke, and joined the Main Expeditionary Force as Lieutenant in the 4th Waikato Mounted Rifles. The regiment left its horses in Egypt and is on the Gallipoli Peninsula, and has evidently had a full share of the lighting. By the last mail, Colonel Mackesy, the officer commanding the regiment, . writing to Colonel Roberts, Lieutenant Roberts' father, says:—"You would like to hear how your son is getting on. He was appointed base officer, but I managed to get him to the front with me. On the 18th May Captain Bluck, who was in command of the squadron, was killed, and your son took his place and led the men very gallantly during an attack on our position. The Waikatos held the left flank and bore the brunt of the fighting. During the engagement be had a very narrow escape, a bullet ploughing through his shirt and undervest, and across his chest, and coming out through the fleshy part of his arm. Although painfully wounded he kept to his work, and has now completely recovered." Another officer of the 4th Waikatos, writing on some dirty scraps of paper in a dug-out, and under continual shrapnel fire, says:—"The courage, coolness and absolute obedience of the men under a deadly hail of bullets was simply marvellous beyond words." This refers to the action in which Lieutenant Jones was killed whilst reconnoitring the. enemy position. .