WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 September 1916, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE CALL FOR MEN,

(From Out Own Correspondent). Wellington, August 31. The military districts have not sue ceeded in covering their (shortages for the 20th Reinforcements. They were asked to send the additional men required to Featherston camp by Wednesday of last week, but returns made available yesterday showed that each of the four districts had failed to complete its quota. The net shortage of all arms [for the 20th Reinforcements is now 225 men, including 194 infantry, and the Defence authorities have decided to lejt this deficiency stand for the present. The military districts have been asked to add theii quotas for the 21st Reinforcements the number of men short in this months' draft. The total shortage is made up as follows:

Thi 3 make* a total 218, to which lias to bo added a shortage of seven men for the 22nd N.C.O.'a, who went into camp with the 20th Reinforcements. Other Reinforcements have had shortages at the time of mobilisation, but the additional men required have always been taken into camp a s quickly as possible. The decision to let the present shortage stand until the mobilisation of the 21st Reinforcements next month is significant of the increased difficulty in securing recruits. Obviously there can be no certainty that the next draft will be complete in itself, and there is a possibility that unless the districts make a special effort during the next few weeks shortages will become cumulative until tho conscription law is brought into operation. It is admitted that the Government cannot secure any recruits under the compulsory clause; of the Military Service Act until October at the earliest, as much preliminary work has still to bo done.

Reports from various parts of the country indicate that the passing of the Military Service Act, and the announcement that the Expeditionary Force Reserve is to be enrolled at once, have had the effect of cheeking voluntary enlistment. This result is particularly marked in the case of men who possess domestic business responsibilities. Many men of this class responded to the calls for recruits prior to the passing oi the Act. They were prepared to make heavy personal sacrifices at a time when the maintenance of the Reinforcements depended upon individual, voluntary effort, but they feel entitled to wait their turn in the ordinary way now that conscription is the law of the land. Apparently it is not generally understood throughout the country, in spite of the explicit statements of the Recruiting Board, that the Defence Department must continue to depend upon voluntary enlistment unti) the Act becomes folly operative a month or two hence. DOMINION MUSEUM. The collections contained in the Dominion Museum expand;,but the wooden building in which they are housed grows only in age and general unsuitability. One consequence of this state of affairs is that tho staff cannot display all the new objects of interest entrusted to its care, and many things that should become exhibits have to be stored away with the great mass of material that has so long accumulated in cases and corners. The plane for a new Dominion Museum, a fireprool structure for which New Zealand will not have need to blush, are in existence, but apparently the time for the unpacking oi the cases is still far distant.

Among recent additions to the collections are some very interesting tracings of aboriginal rock paintings ami carvings, from South Africa and Australia. These were. the. gift of Air. .1. E. Elmore, an Amerieaii collector who has interested himself "in the subject. Mr. Elmore was attracted to New Zealand partly by the rock painting-- in the Weka Pass, North Canterbury, and el-ewhere. The tracings are not on exhibition, since the Museum staff has no place where they could be displayed without involving the removal fo obscurity, of some other exhibit.

Another recent addition to tlu collections is a peculiar specimen of the kcherii, a type of wooden spade used In the Maoris in ancient days in the cultivation of their crops. The ordinary kcheru, which bears a close family resemblance to the spade used in the Highlands of Scotland in olden times, lias a foot-piece lashed at the side above the narroV blade, in order Unit the worker may use his foot to drive the instrument into the ground. The feature of this kehevu. discovered in a swamp in the north, is that it has been cut from one block of wood, the foot-piece, carrfully shaped for the naked foot, requiring no lashings. The work involved in the production of such an instrument .vith stone tools must have been very great, and it would be interesting to know why the maker went to so much trouble, since a lashed foot-piece would have been fully as serviceable. Possibly he was inspired by sheer pride of craftsmanship.

Infantry Other Arms Total Auckland . 34 6 40 Wellington 5)5 5 100 Canterbury 30 7 37 Otago 33 6 41