THE RUSH FOR SOLDIERING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 255, 5 January 1911, Page 8

THE RUSH FOR SOLDIERING

IS WELLINGTON FAVORED? The Chrislchnrch newspapers on Wednesday morning published a letter from a correspondent protesting against the proposal that the candidates for admission to the Australian Military College should have to go to Wellington for examination. He says:

"This would be most, unfair, giving Wellington a great advantage over the rest of the Dominion, and possibly keeping many eligible candidates from applying, on the score of expense. I take it that a candidate from Invercargill would do very well if he made the trip under £5, and then with only a chance of being successful, while the Wellingtonian can take his chance without any expense whatever. This seems to me to be against the spirit of the' scheme, which is that no lad shall have any advantage over another except such natural or acquired advantages as belong to physique, character, and education. Taking this last point, it seems that some attention should be paid to character'and record. For instance, a boy who has never played games or gone in for manly sports of any sort might, after getting sufficient pass marks, pass the very moderate physical test, and yet prove absolutely unlit for the arduous life that is planned out for these cadets. He would probably be 'retired' after a few months, and would nave excluded some fine young fellow with the makings of a real soldier, who, although a few marks behind him in the paper examination, would have been miles ahead in judgment, observation and general physical fitness and capacity for leadership—all those attributes without which an officer's training is so much effort thrown away. The money spent on these lads is New Zealand money, the taxpayers' money, and no one will grudge it in so good a cause, but it behoves the autnorities to see that they get good value for the expenditure, and that the lads chosen shall be typical of all that is best in New Zealand. It should be a sort of Rhodes scholarship test, with equal points for edutation, physique (including active tests), and school and club records. This would bring together the pick of New Zealand in brain, grit, and muscle."