AUCKLAND'S REINFORCEMENT QUOTA.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 191, 12 August 1915, Page 6

AUCKLAND'S REINFORCEMENT QUOTA.

DEMAND FOR LOCAL CAMP. FOUR THOUSAND MEN IN rf>LR MONTHS. AN EXCELLENT NUCLEUS.

Auckland's quota of 854 men for the Eighth Reinforermcnte is still in doubt is to the date of its departure. The men were to httvr entrained for Trentham on Wednesday next, but the Minister for Defence announced that them would be a postponement pending the receipt of an interim report by the RoyaJ Commission and the completion Of roadin£ improvement* nt Trentham. It is some.days ago sniff the Minister made t'hi-s announcement, and if the Royal Commission has supplied iti? interim report the nature o f its findings have not so far been revealed to the public. Meantime the people of New Zealand are considerably concerned regarding fhe welfare of the men. for the Eighth Reinforcements will presumably consist of a body of a.bout 2,000 men. radled up from all parts of the Dominion, due to go into training forthwith. men., the Minister hae definitely declared, will train at Trentham. despite the fact that it is only a month afro since there was a sudden, exodus of thousands of soldiers from that camp, consequent upon the outbreak of cere-bro-spinal meningitis. The death roll ■was considerable, over thirty men dying in the course of almost as many days from various complaints. That disease has not yet been stamped out may be gleaned from the fart that this afternoon in Auckland a military funeral is being accorded to the late Private Crowhurst, one of the latest victims to meningitis at the camp. Opinions of leading medical men have already been published in these columns in which it has been strongly urged that fresh troops should not bo allowed to proceed to an infected area like Trentha-m. AUSTRALIA'S WAY. Evidently the Minister for Deienre in New Zealand considers his "expert advisers" more reliaWe than those whose opinions guide the Commonwealth authorities in Australia. Three deaths only from meningitis occurred at the big Liverpool camp near Sydney, but that wan enough for the authorities, and it was immediately announced that no more reenrite would be sent to that training ground. A new scheme is also being adopted for brealrin? up all large camps in Australia, and the formation of smaller camps. AH troops are in future to be organised in infantry battaJions of a thousand men each, under a headquarters staff, and each colonel will be solely reifponsiblc for his own camp. Camps as small as these have not been suggested in New Zealand, but the Minister has been urged to establish camps in each of the four large centres.

FOUR THOUSAND MEN FROM AUCKLAND.

It has been stated that a difficulty would exist in finding sufficient instructors for provincial camps. This statement hae been met with the suggestion that the provincial camps might be established for elementary training, and that officers and non-commissioned officers who returned from the Dardanelles should undertake instructional work. When it is remembered that of the 12.000 men who will be required by the end of December, 4000 .will come from Auckland, it is patent that instructors will have to come from somewhere, and that, moreover, these 4000 mcn —-which number doce not frrclude the 534 called up for the Eighth Reinforcements — wijuld form the nucleus for a local camp of quite a considerable size. That they can all be squeezed into Trentham and Ranjjiotu is hardly feasible.

Tae Mayor (Mr. J. H. Gunson) remarked this morning that the Minister) for Defence had made the definite state- I ment that the report from the Royal i Commission wotald ibe in hand in a few j days' time, and had further stated that th<? calling up of the Eighth Reinforcements would be delayed for at least a week. Thie meant that the men would not leave Auckland before the 25th. Under these circumstances he thought the matter might ibe considered to be sub judice, and the proper course would be to wait "a few days," as the Minister suggested, until the report of the Royal Commission was made known. A WELLINGTON OPINION. Wellington, of course, does not want anything but a central camp. The Wellington " Post," in a leading article discusses Auckland's agitation for a local training camp in the following caustic terms:—" Auckland has been informed that there ie only one instructional staff for the complete training of Hew Zealanders for war. but Auckland demands a camp which would require a separate staff (epeciaJ instructors for each unit). Auckland has been told that the Defence Department's plan is the making of a New Zealand army a 1 national force, 'but Auckland seems to I prefer an unsa>tis<factory assortment of provincial regimentß—for if the National Government surrenders to Auckland's parochial clamour, how can it refuse to concede similar provincial camps to canterbury and Otago? However, Auckiaud has prevailed in the past by persistpat agitation, accompanied by ominous pointing to the baJlot-box. and evidently Mr. Gunson and his twenty-eight mayoral allies hope to have another victory by noise, more noiee, and still more noise. It is distinctly an unnational agitation—an attempt'by Auckland to bulldose the non-Auckland part of New Zealand. The National Ministry should decline to be stampeded by Mr. Gunsou and the twemty-eight mayors (urban suburban, and rural).'' CHRISTCHURCH AGREES WITH AUCKLAJNT). Christchurch, on the other hand, is of Auckland's opinion, and the "Lyttelton Times." in a leading article, says: "It seems strange, we must confess, that several hundreds of recruits should be ordered from the salubrious climate of Auckland to go into camp at Trentham at a time when a Royal Commission is inquiring into the suitability of that site ■for the purpose and into" ite general equipment. The indignation expressed i.i Auckland cannot be disnaseed as a parochial agitation although the desire for a local camp has been -well advertised by the good people of the northern city. No dou-bt the Defence authorities have been very active in effecting improvements during the last few weeks, and i Trentham is probably a much less unrtej siraWe camping ground than it wae before the Government realised the position. But nothing has yet Wa. made j .Dublk to show that hundreds of addi-

tional men can be camped there for training without danger to health and life, and if the order that the Auckland men shall proceed to Trentham ie to be enforced, we think the Minister of Defence should 'make a public statement justifying that course, if it can be justified."