THE NINTHS.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 January 1916, Page 3

THE NINTHS.

TO BE REVIEWED TO-DAY. WHITE-WASHING THE LAST POST. His E\ecllcncy the Governor will review the Ninth Reinforcements at Trentham at 3 o'clock this afternoon . Alter the review, Colonel Gibbon, C.G.S., will address the men. The troops entrain at Trentham for the city the following morning, and will march through the Wellington streets in the afternoon. The Ninth are regarded as a very fit body of men, and despite the interruptions i'n training caused by the holidays, are considered equal to any of the reinforcements which have preceded them.

The raw recruit has many tricks worked off against him, mid until ho becomes seized with the details of cam]) routine, lie must grin with the jokers. Recently a young soldier who considered that he had passed the rookie stage and was entitled to put on" airs, found himself detained for fatigue duties. And his sergeant, with a serious countenance, gave him a bucket of whitewash and a brush, and ordered him to go out and whitewash the last post. In all innocence the recruit set oil', all unaware of the smothered merriment behind Mm. He had actually begun to run his eye along the line of fences when the full strength of the practical joke struck him, and he realised that it was impossible to whitewash a bugle-call.

There are indications that the civilian population is beginning to bring into general use some of the words of command and phrases used by soldiers in our camps. One of these is the order, "Carry on," which is used to indicate an officer's desire that the men under his command shall continue the work in training they are engaged in. This phrase is used a good deal 'by soldiers when in the city, as, for instance, when a. tram packed with khaki men waits, tpo long at n stopping-place. Then dozens of voices may he heard urging the driver to carry on. Like many of the .expressive idioms jf the English tongue, the phrase comes originally from the sea; probably it is a product of the old clippership days, when the captain "carried on" with full press of canvas, in spite of wind and sea. —Dominion.