NEW ZEALAND'S SHARE

North Otago Times, Volume C, Issue 13176, 3 October 1914, Page 1

NEW ZEALAND'S SHARE

"THE MEN SHE TS SENDING TO HELP US." . (By Godfrey Turner, in tho rail Mali: Gazette.") . • )■ The liUlo Dominion.of Now Zealand,; with its population of ,BOi}io.;fow hun-: driids liiofo■'fliaii h ing eight thousand iiicii.l'ri Europe lo' help tho British Empire. And the Dominion will earn neither for cost, in men', or molioy or horsellesh—and il is said that the horse is its idol. But it would be, good to bo bad. there now; already the most of Ihe eight thousand men will be under canvas, and wailing merely for the tro'opships. Rather 'more,' than three.•years of military training have taught the ineh how easy it is to mobilise without fuss or fuming, and to know.what gear lo leave behind, Of course, each'will have his uniform and equipment, to hand, and in 'ardor. Ho will bo ready for the road. The only I rouble will be to select'which eight 'thousand io send.first. About, them there will bo nothing consciously','; spectacular. Hut tlioy would open tho eyes of ninny. Our footmen-will tramp on and on, rather bigger' men than 'your London Territorials, with n- spring in their /step , that, tells of a constitution powerful enough' to bear the heat and burden of .the day and the cold and unrest of wenry nights. About eighteen months ago I rode beside, Ithink, three thousand of them on a nine-mile walk. Not ■one of them fell, out by tho way. The steady, even ranks of tho Ist Kegi--1 incut—city-bred men and boys—were poing as strongly as those of the 2nd and the 12th, or the Kith.' The last two regiments Were such ns-.you could not understand. Some came from far towns and villages, others from name-.: less -armlets of the sea. A city was' now to them, In all their lives no mnii had given them orders, nor hnd they, recognised nny will save their own. The wide spaces had mnde them free men;: Discipline was no sweet thing to ■thorn. A finer, quality, than-discipline held them together, It was patriotism,