NOTES FROM THE CAPITAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 January 1916, Page 3

NOTES FROM THE CAPITAL.

RECRUITS IN A HURRI SHOULD ENLIST IN INFANTRY, (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington: Jan. 14. A Canterbury man arrived here on Monday with the intention of joining the Expeditionary Forces. He had read in the newspapers ihat there was a shortage of men, so he left his job and came along. Then lie passed the medical examination and was filled with wrath when tlic Defence authorities informed him that they did not want him until February 3. The case appeared to he one of hardship, and the Defence Headquarters, when the facts were represented to them; agreed to take the recruit into camp on Tuesday next. But the experience of this Canterbury man may be quoted as a text for some remarks regarding recruiting matters. In the first place, recruits should not disregard the definite instruction of the Defence Department that they are to remain at work until they are called up. Hundreds of men have got into difficulties by leaving their civilian employment before ascertaining when they can enter camp. There has been a demand that the Department should take men into camp as they enlist, in accordance with the Australian system. But argument on that point is beside the mark as far as the recruits is concerned. The point for him to remember is that the present system is to take men jnto camp in drafts at regular intervals. Then every man should enlist in his own district.' The officers there are in a position to tell him what the requirements are, and he is likely to have friends at hand. The Canterbury man in question came up here because he had rqad in the papers that there was an urgent call to fill gaps in the 11th Reinforcements, But the task of filling the shortage in the 11th was distributed over the four military districts, each district being called upon for a certain number of men, and it happens that the Wellington quota is complete, while the Canterbury quota has still to be made up. There may be a suspicion of red tape about this point. But the recruit has to accept the regulations as he finds them and for his own comfort he had better understand them.

Then there is another point. If tin Canterbury man enlisted for the infantry or even for the mounted rifles he had a reasonable chance of being called up quickly. But Wellington, at any rate, has a big surplus of recruits for the artillery, Army Service Corps, ambulance and engineers. There are enough artillerymen registered here to provide the probable quotas for the nex't fifteen months. The recruit who enlists in Wellington for the artillery now is piaced at the end of the list and there is a strong probability that he will never be called up at all. The end of the war is likely to be in sight before his turn comes. The man who wants to get into camp in a hurry must register as an infantry recruit every time.

THE MAHENO MUDDLE. The official explanation of why the hospital ship Maheno came back to New Zealand is more .interesting than convincing. The Dominion is told that it was not desirable to carry enteric cases on a transport. But the decision to bring the Maheno back to the Dominion for re-commission anti-dated ihe spread of cntej'ie at Gallipoli and in Egypt. The authorities announced that the ves-

sol was going to bring "cot cases," that is, wounded New Zealamlers whose injuries were of such a nature that tlioy could not travel safely or comfortably on a transport. The idea of carrying the enteric cases appears to have come later. And the discovery of the "carriers," as far as one can gather, was made on the voyage. The simple fact seems to be that the Mahono lias travelled round the world in order to undergo a refit at a time when her services would have been very useful indeed at the seat of war.