JOTTINGS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16592, 15 January 1916, Page IX

JOTTINGS

The lato Sergeant-major J. Rutland, R.N.Z.A., who died at Devonport Hospital, Auckland, was well known in Lyttelton (say» the Times), where ho was a popular member of tho Lyttelton Marine Band. Ho was born in 1876 in Temuka, whero his parents resida Ho leaves a widow and two sons. " Somewhere in France," an old Petono boy, Mr Arthur Kolly, son of Mr W. H. Kelly, of Patrick street, Petono, is serving as a sergeant in the 3rd King Edward's Horse, a cavalry regiment. "Our regiment," ho writes to his parents, "has done splendid work out hero, but it has cost us dearly, and up to date 200 of our boys havo been put out of action. For nearly eight months we have been in tho trenches. _ I cannot toll you anything concerning military mattars, but I may say that wo hovo got all that is required to win—men, money, munitions, and guns. It will take a little time, wo all know, but we shall win; there it, nothing surer." Sergeant Kelly enlisted in London four days after war broko out. He states that his training in the Petono Navals stood him. in good stead, and it was not long before he became a sergeant. "We axo excellently fed," he continues his letter, "an<J also well clothcd and supplied with smokes." In a letter from Trooper J. Skidjnoro, which was written on 'Proopship No. 30 to a friend in Napier, tho following appears:—"We had somo fun while crossing tho lino. Father Neptune and his better half came aboard and held_ a inock court. Tho victims were charged with some trifling and ridiculous crimes, and sentenced to be shaved and ducked. They were then asked how they pleaded, but that was only a matter of form. The lather looked to me like pasto, and was liberally applied with a brush like one of those the tradesmen use. Than it was scraped off with a wooden razor abo'Jt 3ft long. A plentiful supply of jam was then well rubbed into the hair for a shampoo. Last of all, tho prisoners wero thoroughly ducked under a hose. The victims included the major and officers on board as well as the ship's adjutant." Even they could not escapo tho long arm of Neptune's policemen."