AFTER FIFTY YEARS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 8759, 9 March 1907, Page 4

AFTER FIFTY YEARS.

One of those extraordinary stories which. ever and fig in are told for tl e purpose of illustrating the rust accumulation of red tape in which the clerks at the War Office are supposed to be buried, is related in the Aldershot News. An officer in command of a battalion quartered in Marlborough 'Lines was amazed one morning to find on his parade ground a traction engine and several trucks of stones and gravel. The material was deposited on the ground, and in due course the engine and trucks returned with further loads. On asking at headquarters for an explanation of the delivery, the commanding officer was informed that the instructions had come from the "War Office. Not satisfied with this explanation, he caused further enquiries to be made, with the result that the original requisition for the material was produced, and it was found to be dated 1856 ! In moving out of the old offices in Pall Mall, a clerk had come ccross this requisition in a long-forgotten pigeon-hole, and seeing it was for 100 tons of road material for the laying out of roads, had the order executed, with the result that the material was 'dumped in the only available spot in North Camp.