LEARNED PRIVATES

Taihape Daily Times, 19 July 1919, Page 7

LEARN ED PRIVATES

i . p » .._.....C_...__ EVERSATILITY IN THE AUSTRALi lAN RANKS. Speaking upon the work of the 'A.IF. {Education Service, Lieut_ J. H. EVaughan gave some interesting exEamples of educational talent whichhas been discovered in the ranks of the “Australian Army since the armistice. 1 There are numerous instances of }professional men,« architects, clergyM men, and lawyers, who had been fight-. ing in private ranks. »In the rank and file of a gunteam "in France there were no fewer than‘ three bachelors of science, Whilst some medical men had enlisted as ordinary soldiers in order to carry a rifle rather than a stethoscope. A graduate in civil engineering with a valuable alld varied experience, holding the rank of a supper in the Australian Engineers. was entrusted with the difficult {ask of determining the safe bearing loads of soils for new foundations in France But perhaps the most striking example was disclosed when at the request of the French Government applications were called for throughout the A.~1.F. for appointment to a Commission proceeding to Morocco to report upon the suitability of that country for the breeding of ‘merino sheep. The~rank of the applicants ranged from Colonels to privates. One -of the latter had, prior to the war, managed“ a station comprising a quarter of at million sheep, and V.’?¢s a highly \<:l<i.i?cd ! stockbreeder and wool classer. Thel successful applicant was, however. an‘ infantryman, why possessed even] higher qualifications. He owned one]

million acres of land, had organist-3 a.nd‘conduct€d -irnving tours from the Kimbcrleys in West Australia to eh__. Qun-inslancl Coast, .'I. d2-tance of V3,}, nearly two thousand miles, and from the Northern Territory $0 the South-. ern Qcean, had sun]: airtesian wens and was an exprnt in water finding. Moreover, he could speak French flu. cntly, and had other brilliant educa. tional qualifications.