HOSPITAL SHIP ARRIVES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16021, 13 September 1915, Page 4

HOSPITAL SHIP ARRIVES.

ENTHUSIASTIC WELCOME. THE WOUNDED AUGKLANDERS. NINETY COME NORTH BY TRAIN By the hospital ship Tahiti there arrived in Wellington in the early hours of Saturday morning last 518 sick, wounded and convalescent New Zealand soldiers, including 135 members of various Auckland regiments. The returned invalided soldiers were most enthusiastically welcomed when they landed in the afternoon. Comparativly lew of them were serious cases, though several were listed as hospital or convalescent home patients. The majority have benefited greatly as the result of the five weeks' sea voyage from Sues. The public of Wellington lined the streets and cheered as the men were driven to the Town Hall, where they were accorded a public reception and were addressed by His Excellency the Governor, the Prime Minister, and others. In the evening 101 men entrained by special hospital train for places north of Wellington, 83 coming through to Auckland and eight to the Waikato. The progress of the train was marked by continuous demonstrations en route, the townspeople at' every station along the line assembling to greet the returned men and provide them with refreshments, cigarettes and flowers. These demonstrations continued throughout the night and again all day yesterday. On arrival at Penrose in the afternoon the hospital cars containing the cases needing surgical or medical attention were detached and sent on to Newmarket as a separate special, the patients being conveyed from there to the district hospital. The remainder of the men reached the city by the hospital train at 3.20 p.m., and were welcomed by thousands of people, whose lines stretched from the station area for the whole length of Queen Street.