THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam aut faciam.” [Established November 15, 1861.] DUNEDIN, MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1868.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23931, 5 October 1939, Page 4

THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam aut faciam.” [Established November 15, 1861.] DUNEDIN, MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1868.

SEVENTY-ONE YEARS AGO

It is natural that soldiers in the field should experience a strong desire for drink. The demands upon the nervous s* tern of men engaged in warfare are greater than peaceful citizens can readily imagine. Apart from the great physical exertions required in long marches, the excitement which attends the immediate prospect of battle—to say nothing of the battle itself—must be intense in the extreme. It is said that the actual struggle between two armies is by no means the most trying part of a soldier's life. Men in mortal combat with each other have no time to feel: they may be shot or sabred with little consciousness of their wounds; but when the fight is over and the str- --" ierves relax again—when the frame loses its electric power and lies in a state of torpor—then it is that the soldier who survives feels the horrors of war. But if it is difficult for soldiers in the field to resist a craving for stimulants, it is not easy to do so when in camp. Idleness then takes the place of excitement, and proves as dangerous a tempter. The monotonous life of the soldier when he has nothing to do but polish his accoutrements and salute his

officer, is in itself a temptation to in'dulge in dissipation; and surrounded.as he is by grog-shops and casinos with their abandoned inmates, if. is little to be wondered at if he seizes the bottle when it comes his way. In the absence of rigid discipline it would not be easy to keep any troops in the world from yielding to vicious inclinations.