A FOOL-PROOF DEPARTMENT NEEDED.

Taihape Daily Times, 24 June 1918, Page 4

A FOOL-PROOF DEPARTMENT NEEDED.

Some Government departments advertise that they are fool-proof; we would that the Defence Department could qualify itself to do likewise, in our office is a linotype operator who lias had his left leg amputated at the thigh, and yet the Defence Department will persist in wasting pounds in getting such a man into camp. When the man was called up we appealed on his behalf, on 'the form furnished for the purpose, pointing out that the man had but one leg; that he got about with the utmost difficulty, and, further, that he was only in New Zealand on passport. Subsequently, however, this man. who has great difficulty in getting to and from our office, was ordered to appear before the Medical BoaTd at Marton. We again wrote, this time to the Group Commandant at Palmerston North, who promptly notified us there was no need for the Department to waste time and money on such a case, and that the man need not appear at Marton; but this woefully wonderful, irrepressible, senseless, nitchevo department still persists in chasing this one-legged man, and Has now, on pain of being declared a deserter, ordered him to appear before the Military Service Board at Marton next Wednesday. We can neither afford the time or the money in endeavouring to drive some sense into such a fool department, and we have advised the man to take his railway ticket and all the money he can get from the Government, including car fares, for such a man can hardly be expected to peregrinate to the whims of departmental

officials on on e leg. Whether r the man will go to Marton as ordered wo do not know, and there is still a probability that the whole Taihape police force may one day be seen chasing a onelegged deserter.