RECRUITING.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 November 1915, Page 6

RECRUITING.

'BENEFITS OF MILITARY LIFE, MORALLY AND PHYSICALLY. (By Colonel Porter, C.8., in the Dominion). The urgent call for recruits having sounded throughout the Dominion, it will not he amiss to point out to those most closely concerned in responding to the call the many advantages of a soldier's life and training.

Friends and relatives must have remarked at the extraordinary improvement in the physical fitness of the men who have joined the Expeditionary Forces of this Dominion, and similar observations are being made all ov'fcr the Empire. Thousands of men accustomed to sedentary lives are now leading strenuous outdoor lives of soldiers actually engaged in warlike operations, doing brave acts and enduring hardships they before training could hardly be deemed capable of. The strongest factors in the physical improvement of the men are outdoor life, regular time of meal?, set hours of retirement to sleep and rising, restriction and moderation in the consumption or uicoliolics and other habits detrimental to health. Neurasthenics no longer worry about the inner man (particularly in the field or trenches), but study instead the outer man.

Morally the pursuit of a common object, the spirit of comraiiesnip m sharing a common danger, and disciplined emulation renders all selfishness despicable, and men rise to a higher standard morally than many would have done surrounded by the allurements and temptations of civilian life. The home-left relatives and friends think sadly of their dearest ones passing through the dangers and hardships of trench life, amongst bursting shells and decimating bullets, and are surprised when they receive such bright and cheerful letters from their brave soldier lads. Given a fair standard of physical stamina, it cannot be questioned that the active, adventurous life of the soldier in the field makes for health and strength. Hard work and frugal living in the open-air raise the vitality and the moral being undergoes a salutary change, together with the physical. These points are noted from a long, practical experience, and are intended for the consideration of men eligible for service, also for the relatives of those who may be holding, baok their sons, brothers or husbands irom joining the liravs follows now fighting the Empire's battles in foreign lands; and, apart from the actual casualties of war, there is no healthier or manlier life than that I of the active field soldier.

Liberal pension provisions have now been made in the Defence Amendment Act, 1915, for all those who may become disabled from sickness,