WELLINGTON GOSSIP.
MAORI REINFORCEMENTS. < WORK FOR MAIMED SOLDIERS. COMPULSORY SERVICE QUESTION. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Yesterday. The Defence Minister is to visit .Mercer next week for the purpose of conferring with representatives of the Maori tribes regarding future reinforcements for the Maori section of the Expeditionary Force. A difficulty has arisen in connection with these reinforcements and the matter will require tactful handling. Some of the older chiefs of the Waikatos, in the tat place, are unwilling that their young men should go abroad with the expeditionary forces before certain ancient grievances have been remedied. , Then some friction occurred at the front, owing, as far as can be gathered, to the failure of pakelia ollicers to understand Maori methods and habits. The trouble there was not of a serious character and it did not prevent the Dominion's colored sons from lighting like lions when their turn came. But these mutters have got to be cleared up in order that Maori recruits may be available as required. The next Native reinforcement to leave New Zealamr will consist of the Nine islanders and Raratongans now in training at Auckland. These men are learning their drill rapidly, and their oHiecrs believe that they will maintain the traditions of fighting ancestors when they get to. the front. The arrangement of courses of training for maimed and disabled New Zealand soldiers is one of the matters engaging the attenion of the lion. A. L. Herdman at the present time. Mr. Herdman is the .Minister responsible for the welfare of discharged soldiers, and though the cases of serious permanent disablement that have been reported to him sp Mr are happily few in number, he is making preparations for what may happen in the future. An indication of the sort of problem New Zealand may be called upon to face is provided by a cablegram from Vremantle reporting the arrival of a hospital ship conveying blind soldiers, men who have lost limbs, and others who are mentally affected, probably by shock. The Minister is collecting information regarding the measures that have been taken by other countries in dealing with cases of permanent disablement. The French authorities have been particularly active in this respect and they have secured some wonderful results from the application of scientific methods to the amelioration of the lot of maimed men. They have shown that a soldier who has lost both hands, for example, can be taught a trade, and so saved from a fate of helpless idleness. They have undertaken to provide for blinded soldiers training of the kind that is supplied in the .Jubilee Institute for the Blind at Auckland. Mow far New Zealand will need to go in similar directions remains to be seen, but the Minister will be prepared to deal with cases as they arise. Mr. Herdman mentioned in this connection that he had been gratified to receive very many oli'ers of assistance not only from the patriotic societies but from private employers, who were willing to make room for partially disabled'men capable of undertaking' clerical duties. The co-operation of private people in providing suitable employment for the injured men would simplify,the work of the Government very greatly, and represented a form of practical patriotism that should appeal to most employers of labor of any kind. I'rivate information received in Wellington confirms the indications of the cablegrams that the United Kingdom is on the verge of adopting compulsory service for the unmarried men of military age. Apparently Australia must follow suit, for the federal Defence Department is failing to get recruits fast enough U> lill the reinforcement drafts. New Zealand, which is providing monthly, in proportion to the population, more men than either Australia or Canada, appears to be lu a very much better position, a surplus of recruits for the December drafts being indicated from several points, and the Defence Minister may fairly claim that results ft r P justifying the method of enlistment and training that he has maintained in the face of a good deal of adverse criticism. Tim New Zealand practice of calling the men into camp in drafts, bi-monthly at first, and now monthly, is very "much more efficient from the training point of view than the alternative method of letting the men filter into camp as they enlist in daily batches, and apparently it promotes recruiting, by leaving the enlisted men at home for a wlijlo to become a recruiting agent of a very effective kind. If a man is taken into camp directly he enlists, he does not get into touch with his mates after he has decided to do his duty. ; ,
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Taranaki Daily News, 19 November 1915, Page 3
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772WELLINGTON GOSSIP. Taranaki Daily News, 19 November 1915, Page 3
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