TRAINING ACCIDENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24194, 9 February 1942, Page 4

TRAINING ACCIDENTS

The accident which has caused the deaths of five soldiers in training in New Zealand, with 11 others injured, is of a type fortunately rare in the camps in this country. Men who are being made into soldiers are taught the use of dangerous weapons, but at all stages of the process care is taken that they shall not strike back at those handling them. While it does not soften in any way the tragedy of what has just happened, it is a fact that it is almost without precedent in New Zealand since forces were first mobilised at the outbreak of war. Leaving out of account the air stations, the tale of deaths and injuries in the training establishments of New Zealand has been light up to the present. The serious accident on H.M.N.Z.S. Monowai at the end of December, and now this tragic happening at Trentham, are the two exceptions. To the relatives of those who have lost their lives, to the men injured and their families the profound sympathy of the whole community will be extended. They have died, or have suffered grievous hurt, in the service of their country just as surely as if it had happened in face of the enemy. That applies to both the soldiers and to the sailors of the Monowai. Those left to mourn are entitled to such a thought in their grief equally with the kinsfolk of men who laid down their lives overseas. The supreme sacrifice has been made for their country's cause.