UNFIT FOR SERVICE.

Northern Advocate, 3 July 1917, Page 1

UNFIT FOR SERVICE.

THE NEW REGULATIONS,

FULL TEXT,

An • Extraordinary "Gazette" eontains|regulations affecting soldiers discharged from the training camps as unfit service. The regulations'provide >as follow:— :

An| soldier who, whether before or after |the making of these regulations, has b£en reported by a Medical Board as unfit., for active service beyond the seas, Jind has in. consequence been discharged on leave of absence without pay from a training camp of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces, may, while still on leave without pay, and undischarged from the Expeditionary Forces, make application to the War Pensions Board for military pay under these regulations.

The War Pensions Board shall hear and consider such application, and shall report thereon to the Minister for Defence, making such recommendation as the board thinks fit as to grant of military pay to the applicant, and as to the amount, duration, and conditions of such pay (if any).

When the applicant has been discharged from camp because of disablement due to injuries received or disease contracted by him in his employment as a member of the Expeditionary Force, the War Pensions Board shall, in making any such recommendation, act on the same principles, so far as may be, as if the application was an application for a pension under the War Pensions Act for a discharged soldier and his dependents.

In all other cases the War Pensions Board in making such recommendation shall recommend such pay (if any) tts may be thought just and adequate, having regard to any loss which the applicant may have suffered by reason of his service in camp and his discharge therefrom, but the rate of pay, so recommended shall in no case exceed the rate of pay received by the applicant while in camp.

In any case in which any such application has been reported upon by the War Pensions Board, the board may at any time, and from time to time thereafter, either of its- own motion or on the application of the applicant or of the Minister for Defence, reconsider the matter and may vary or cancel its former recommendation.

When any recommendation for military pay has been so made by the War Pensions Board, the Minister for Defence may take such action in pursuance thereof as he thinks fit.

Nothing in these regulations shall be so construed as in any manner to take away or restrict the authority of the Minister for Defence in any matters relative to the pay or allowance of members of the Expeditionary Forces.

"Prometheus," the organ of the German iron trade, makes an elaborate calculation as to the quantity of steel which is now lyiug on the hillsides round Verdun. According to military reports, it often happened that as many as one million shots daily were fired from guns of various calibres. Tt' however, one million shells are taken as the weekly instead of the daily aver-' age, we reach almost incredible totals. Taking the ground fought over as '2(iO square kilometres, ami the average weight of shells as 90 lb., no fewer than 1,350,000 tons of steel exploded on the'area in question. This weight is sufficient to loud 100,00 heavy gooils wagons, and works out at 13 tons of steel per acre. Taking the price of scrap steel at £•'! 30s per Inn, we hav<> a crop of steel worth about £■!£) p<>r acre, a. crop winch ".Prometheus'' thiuks is well worth garnering.