NEW STATE ACTIVITY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15948, 19 June 1915, Page 8

NEW STATE ACTIVITY.

p-taiu, ♦ VENDING OF FROZEN MEAT. h ro• By Telegraph.— Association.—Copyright. I (Received Juno 18, 11.5 p.m.) Adelaide, June 18. The South Australian State Government is importing frozen meat and sapplying it direct to the consumers. The first shipment will arrive next week.

ASSAULT AT GABA TEPE.

OTAGO MAN'S IMPRESSIONS.

"CHAMBER OF HORRORS." / , [by telegraph.— COBEESPONDENT. ] , Dtoedik, Friday. The following letter has been written by a soldier from the Heliopolis Hotel Hospital to his mother, Sirs. J. A. Rea, in Dunedin

"At last we have had our first engagement with the Turks and, although so far successful, a heavy price has been paid for it. Any number o! chaps I knew well are sleeping their last long deep beneath the sod on the Gallipoli Peninsula. I can imagine no more difficult country in the wide world to fight in. High, scrubbed hills, steep clay faces, scarred ridges, deep tortuous ravines— is the sort of country up which the first landing party scrambled in the early hours of that memorable Sunday morning. They were brave chaps, and they met their deaths unflinchingly.

" Our battalion did not land until two in the afternoon, but as soon as we did so, we were rushed into action. It felt all so strange, bullets flying all round one and that terrible shrapnel bursting overhead. As the shells burst the bullets fairly seemed to whine and screech at you. The whole business was a chamber of horrors. One never knew when his last second would come. I was wounded about four o'clock on Tuesday afternoon, a bullet striking me in the foot. Three or four weeks will see me fit again. "During the time I was ashore I had thousands of bullets passing over, around, and below, me, from both machine-gun and rifle-fire. Two sections of our company were sent up a hillside to attempt to shoot some Turks out of a ravine. Not one of our men got out of it unhurt, so far as I know, but were all killed or wounded. I shall say no more about tlio action. Most of it is best forgotten.

"The ward I am in at present possesses the most luxurious surroundings imaginable. The hotel itself cost over £1,000,000 to build. King Alfonso used to stay here, but owing to the war the military authorities have taken it as ft hospital.

THE AURORA AUSTRALIA

| SPECTACLE AT NAPIER[BT TELEGRAPH.PRESS ASSOCIATION'.] Napier. Friday. An atmospheric .phenomena, which lasted about three hours, was witnessed last night in the southern sky. It was said to be the Aurora Australis. Viewed, from the Marine Parade, the scene was one of magnificence. The sky had a fiery red appearance, /and along the horizon there was a sombre /naiflight. With continuous rapidity great streamers of light shot upwards trough the fiery bank above. / '