NEW ZEALAND'S FOURTH CONTINGENT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 55, 6 March 1900, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND'S FOURTH CONTINGENT.

(By Telegraph.-Own Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, this day,

The fourth contingent will total 500. As the result of further communications between the Defence Offlce and the Premier the transport steamer Germeric leaves Port Chalmers on the 24th inst. instead of the 17th," as previously arranged. She will take about 230 men and 300 horses of the Fourth Contingent. Other arrangements are being made for transport, retaining 250. Probably the Wellington section will be conveyed to Port Chalmers ti few days prior to the '24th, as opportunity offers, Or the Germeric may come to [Wellington to. take the. first half of therkjdntingent on board, for Port Chalmers, ■ but ; jiothiiig- ....definitely is settled. The question of the locality ior concentration of the reserve contingent comprising 500 men is still in abeyance, but meanwhile the officers commanding the several districts will raise their respective quotas and. they will Ire provisioned at head centres of the provincial districts until the point of concentration is settled, when all. sections will be brigaded, or if found more convenient they will be divided into two sections, one encamped at Christchurch, the other at Wellington. Some difficulty has arisen regarding the conditions upon which the fourth contingent was raised. ■ The local executive committee defrayed the cost of equipment and horses of 3ocal section out of the More Men Fund, the -Impend Government undertaking the expenses of transport to Africa, but the Imperial Government becomes responsible for the whole cost- of.the reserve contingent. This is causing some, dissatisfaction among many subscribers, who think the Imperial Government should bear the entire cost of all men despatched to the seat of war. The 112 men have been finally selected for the Otago section of the Fourth Contingent. This means six ior officers and six to fill up vacancies that may arise before departure. Colonel Webb enrolled to-day 34- of the men who were squeezed out of the fourth.