THE COLONIAL TRANSPORT CORPS.

New Zealander, Volume XXI, Issue 2265, 3 November 1864, Page 5

THE COLONIAL TRANSPORT CORPS.

To the Editor of the New-Zkalander. Sib, —I wish to make public, through your mo<t valuable paper, the way we are treated in the Transport Corps with regard to our clothing. According to the conditions we signed in Melbourne we were to receive two suits of clothing during a yeir. Now it is quite evident that two suits are not sufficient for men who has charge of horses, to keep themselves clean; and the consequence is we have to purchase more. Now as soon as I came from the front I was badly in want of clothing. I applied for a pair of trousers, and when I came to pay for them they charged me (he enormous sum of 175., and I can assure 3 r ou the trousers did not last me a month with fair wear. Another instance I will give you of this imposition. Last month I received a pair of trousers out of the stores (the same that are issued to the Imperial troops for S.». 6d.) and they charged me lis. 9d. for them, and I also received the same in my own regiment, and at the front in this corps for Bs. 6d. And what, Mr. Editor, is the reason they charge us so much dearer at Penross Farm ? There must be some mistake, and I think it is quite time that some of the heads of the co:nmissari.it department enquired into it, for it takes the j?re:iter pare of a man's wages for clothing to keep him respectable at the rate they are charging us here. 1 am, Sir, 3'ours &c, A Ist Waikato Militiajiax, Attached to the C.T.C. Penrose Farm. THE LATE SUICIDE BY STRYCIIN'IN'E. To the Editor of the New-Zealanokh. Sib. —The recent lamentable death of young Samu'.l Wakeraan through the effects of strychnine, is a subject to which 1 think the press of this town would do well to give some attention. How is it, Sir, I would ask, that New Zealand is the only one among the Australian colonies where the legislature has not deemed fit to enact a law prohibiting the sale of poisons, except by those who have been legally qualified to dispense them ? But that her population are supposed to be less subject to their deadly effects ? or more unlikely to have resource to them ? Neither of these reasons will, I think, for one instant be deemed satisfactory by the community. It certainly is surprising that oar legislatures, both Provincial and General, should not among the numberless enactments that they have brought into force, have thought it desirable to take into consideration a subject of such vital importance to the public generally. At the present time there is not the slightest reason to prevent any person possessing a little capital, and ever such a small amount of experience, from at once establishing himself as a chemist and druggist in this town, and in that capacity, dispensing to the community gene rally, drugs and poi?ons of all natures and descriptions indiscriminately to whoever may ask for them; the dispenser himself being, in fact, almost, if not quite as ignorant-, except by the labels on the their different natures and properties as the receiver may be It might be asserted, in contradiction to this statement, that instances of this description rarely occur. True, they may not occur very frequently, but that they do sometimes, was made very practically evident the witnesses during the proceedings of the inquest held on the body of the young man before referred to. Report does say, sir, that we have reverted to the usage in the time of Gil Bias, and that a man may carrv on a very flourishing business as a barber, or dispense chemicals, as mav be most remunerative. In the Australian Colonies it is enacted that no person be permitted te open an establishment as a chemist and druggist without first passing a medical examination, before a board appointed for that purpose, to test hi; thorough knowledge of the business ; it being also, if I remember right, deemed necessary that the party about to open such premises shall have served a stated ap prenticeship to the business, or be a licentiate of Ap'jthecaries Hall. Were some law of this des3iiption introduced in this colony I feel sure that the public generally would very shortly reap the advantages of its enactment. I am, Sir, &c, A Citizen.