THE DOMINION'S SHARE.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 October 1915, Page 6

THE DOMINION'S SHARE.

THE CALL TO ARMS. TABANAKI'S GOOD POSITION. NOVEMBER DRAFT READY., The present position of recruiting in Taranaki is good. Taranaki is included in Group 8 of the Wellington Military District, and comprises the counties of Egmont, Taranaki, Clifton, Stratford, Eltham, Whangamoinona, Waimate West, Hawera, Patea, part of Waitotara, Ohura, Waimarino, Kaiteke, and portions of West and East Taupo. Up to Wednesday, the number of men who had registered in Group 8 was 4-68, and Group 8 is asked to provide 425 for the Tenth Reinforcements, which will proceed to Trentham about the middle of November. This gives a surplus of registrations over requirements of 43, but a percentage of the total of 468 registered will have to he deducted to represent the men who are medically unfit. The registrations of Group 8 are the second best in the Wellington Military ■District, being exceeded by Group 1 (Wellington city, suburbs and district), which has 471 registrations. The other portions of the district show much poorer results than in Group 8. At present there are urgently required from the Taranaki district one blacksmith, one bricklayer, and three drivers. The Wellington Military District is now asked to find 1274 for all arms, instead of the original proposal of 400 mounted rifles and 1200 infantry. "

"COME OVER AND HELP US!" DYING FOR A REST. OUR COMRADES AT THE FRONT. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Oct. 20. A well-known Canterbury footballer, writing from the trenches in Gallipoli on September 3 to a friend in Wellington, gives a vivid idea of the pressure to which the New Zealanders at the front have been exposed during the last Ave or six months. "It is the same old thing day after day, and week" after week — butting up against the Turks in a closely packed scrimmage with an occasional break-away in which you may get knocked out or may not, and in any case get little further ahead. i I shall never regret coming here, for I know better than ever it was playing the game; but, tonight, I am sick and tired and wondering if the ipeople of New Zealand are sending someone along to take my place. I would give half my accumulated pay for a drink of cold water, a sight of green grass and a place to stretch my limbs. You soon get used to bullets and bombs and other trifles of the kind that are flying about here, but the heat and the dirt and the (lies, are unendurable and our waking dreams are of rest. 1 thought I was a pretty tough sort of fellow, and was never troubled with an ache or a pain; but now I am fiat and stale, and sometimes altogether unprofitable. We were cheered up to-day, by a whisper that something sensational wa3 going to happen on the Western Front that would speedily hring the war to an end, and I hope it is true. We shall all hang on here as long as we are wanted, but the prospect of spending a winter in one of these gullies is not pleasant. "Nothing would hearten us up so much as to hear that all the young men in New Zealand are crowding one another in their efforts to get to our assistance, but the news that filters through does not give u3 the impression that they arc. I wish they knew how much they are wanted, that men are sickening and dying for want of a few weeks' rest, and that we are all waiting and hoping and still waiting for the help of our old mates. Give everyone of them a shove along when you get the chance. My wound ia now quite healed and gives me no particular trouble, but like hundreds of better men who have been here from the first I want a month's rest, and if I don't get it —■well, it won't matter as far as I am concerned, but I should think when the chaps stopping at home know all about it they would be a little sorry they didn't come over and help us."

THE CRY FROM CALLIPOLI. NEW ZEALAND'S RECRUITING. (■From Our Own Correspondent) Wellington, Oct. 20. The whispers of failure in the& Dardanelles, coming to a. head in the cabled despatch of Mr. Ashinead Bartlett, made quite a flutter in Defence circles. A couple of months ago, the prospects of a speedy termination of the campaign in which the New Zealanders have suffered so heavily were regarded locally as particularly bright, but it is no secret now that later communications from officers who are in a position to know the facts ofUhe situation have held out little hope of early success. A rapid disquieting feature of recent communications from the front has been a note of weariness in the writings of men who have been on Gallipoli for long periods. Some of the letters ask almost angrity why the men of New Zealand are not coming forward to give their brothers in the trenches a breathing space. The question is hardly fair to the men who have stayed at home, but, apparently the troops at the front do not clearly understand the Defence Department's plan of despatching reinforcements in regular drafts at fixed intervals. They think that there would be more reinforcements if there were more enlistments. But, as a matter of fact, the Department has never put into training all the men on its books. It has always carried a surplus of recruits waiting the call to camp. The cry of a shortage of recruits for the Tentli Reinforcements is being raised in the Wellington Military District. When I said in these notes' the other day that Wellington's anxieties with regard to the November drafts were at an end I had not seen the official figures of the demand that is being made on the district. It appears that the Wellington Military District, which comprises about half the North Island, is being required to find practically half of the men required for the Tenth KeinrorcemeMs. The quotas are calculated on the following percentages: Auckland Mounted Rifles 13.54, Infantry, 10.52; Wellington Mounted Rifles 50.20, Infantry 44.84;' Canterbury, Mounted Rifles, 2UI, Infantry, 24.96; Otago, Mounted Rifles, 13.15, Infantry, 1.3.03. It is explained that the percentages are based on registrations. This district ie responding to the heavy call, but the willing horse seems to ba In danger of getting overworked.