OVER THE TOP AGAIN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19254, 19 August 1924, Page 8

OVER THE TOP AGAIN.

GENERAL PURSUES' “DIGGER.” MISTAKEN FOR TAX COLLECTOR. A recent experience in New Zealand of Major-general Wauchope, one of the members of the Overseas Settlement Commission that toured the dominion, is reminiscent of the stirring days of life on the battlefield. The general w&s specially interested in tho welfare of soldier settlers in New Zealand, and had many talks with them. Relating one experience, ho writes in the London on one occasion do I remember meeting an ex-soldier settler who was not glad to have a talk with mo about his farm. As I approached his bouse he walked away. I followed, and he broke into a double. I pounded up the hill, and caught my friend at the top. There and then he explained that he had thought I was the income tax collector. “1 have no idea what I looked like .v-or running over two ploughed fields, hut it made a fine finish to my investigations on land settlement, that the only settler wno wanted to avoid my questions was one wn, had done so well on his farm that the thing he most dreaded was a talk with the income tax collector!'’ Anyone who knows the general will be able te appreciate the sight he presented as he went over the top again, in pursuit, nob c a Boer commando nor of a German pill-box, but of a peaceful New Zealand “Digger,” rehabilitating himeelf in civilian life on a farm The general is a very short man, not more than sft 4in, with a fierce, bristly moustache. General Wauchope, who paid a call on every Returned Soldiers’ Association .n the towns he visited, both in New Zealand and ;Australia, pays a high compliment to that bodv "Many societies have been formed lithe ’’dominion* to wwiat settlers, and are of the highest value,” he says. • “But to me as a soldier, the Returned Soldiers’ League m Australia, and the Rot lined Soldiers' Association in New Zealand appealed with the greatest force. The wine done by these organisations is admirable. The financial help they have given to exsoldiers in distress has been large Che success they have had in finding employment for men oat of work— nearly all -JwMlors in rho towns —has been remarkable, and lias been made possible only by the exceptional capacity and energy of their officials. And this financial help and this financial assistance to find employment are as freely given to ex-imperial soldiers who join the association as to those born and bred in the dominion.”