New Zealand

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 227, 4 March 1915, Page 5

New Zealand

SCHEDULE OP MEAT PRICES. FOR EXPORT PURPOSES. Wellington, Yesterday. In connection with the arrangement under which all meat exported from New Zealand goes to the Imperial Government for the use of the troops; Mr Massey states that the following is the. schedule of prices:— Beef.—Maximum prime ox 4Jd, second and heiferi beef 4Jd, cow beef, first quality, 4id, second quality 4d, boneless beef sd. , Mutton. —First quality wethers 4-Jd, second quality 4kl, maiden ewes same price as wethers, ewes, first quality 4d, second quality 3Jd. Lamb, special prim; and Canterbury quality under 421b. sg'J, first quality 5Jd, second quality , SJ, special allowance being made by way of payment for storage and other incidental expenses on account of meat which has been in the freezing works prior to March 1.

BELGIAN RELIEF FUND,

A DOMINION CONFERENCE • PROPOSED. Wellington, Last Night. In view of the cable received from the Secretary of State for the Colonies regarding the Belgian relief fund, it has now been decided by His Excellency tin; Governor and the Prime Minister that a conference of representatives of the chi:'f collecting agencies in the larger towns for the Poor of Great Britain, Ireland, and Belgium Relief Fund, the Belgian Fund, and possibly the St. John Ambulance Association, should be convened by the Prime Minister. The object of the meeting will be to endeavour to put the organisation for raising relief funds on a more satisfactory and business-like basis, and to prevent overlapping in order that individual effort may be stimulated and properly directed instead of being stifled or wasted. A suggestion will also be considered that a, central officer be appointed, either from the Government service or from outside it, to receive all moneys for the various funds and transmit them to the agents of the different funds at Home, the latter to bo approved by the Imperial Governmnt. The Conference will probably be held at Government House, and His Excellency will preside. If the necessary arrangements can be made in time, it will be held next week.

SOMETHING WRONG. RECRUITS AND EXAMINATION. ' Only about 50 per cent, of the men who had been notified to be in attendance at the medical examination at the local Defence Office on Friday evening presented themselves, the others apparently, with possibly a few exceptions, deliberately ignoring the notice of examination sent them by the Defence authorities, reports the Dunedin Star. In view of the fact that a great majority of the men who had beeji called ii]' for examination that evening were those who had enlisted at the, open-air recruiting meeting at the Town Hall u fortnight ago, one might be tempted to say that it is obvious that spontaneous rcruiting is very different from deliberate volunteering, but on the other hand it has to be taken into consideration that during this year no less than 07 men who enlisted at variou's times have failed to put i n an appearance at any of the medical examinations which are held twice a week, notwithstanding ilw fact that they have all been warned to attend. The position is decidedly unsatisfactory. There are those who have taken a. keen interest i n defence matters who are inclined to beli e ve that .the gre.it weakness of the recruiting system lies in the fact that men who enlist have to wait several weeks before b,»mg called up. They favor the system in operation in the Old Country, where a recruit is enlisted while the desire is hot, and believe that if such a system were adopted in this country it would do away with certain obviously unsatisfactory features of the recruiting system. But apart altogether from this it is quite apparent that among the 97 men, or rather "defaulters," there are a number who are "not playing the game," such as the type of man who rushes up the steps at the Town Hall for the sake of getting a cheer, or the man who fills in a registration card at a post office for the sake of talking about wdiat he has done, knowing full well that he has no intention of enlisting. There are also people who think they have done a clever thing when they send i n a wrong address, or enlist the other fellow by post without his consent or knowledge. And lastly, there are quite a number ef men who having enlisted recognise it as their duty to comply wi'\ the directions of the medical card, buc unfortunately visit too many hotels en route to the examination, and not only do they ruin their, chances of passing the eye test, but they make themselves a nuisance to ollier-s undergoing examination. It hardly needs to be said that "uch men are promptly ejected as undesirable. Other unsatisfactory features of recruiting could be mentioned, such as me n even passing the examination and then failing to turn up on parade on the date of departure, but sufficient has been said and it only requires to be added that all defaulters will receive a further notice shortly, and if they ignore it their names will be struck" off the roll of men willing to enlist for service with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.