MAJOR FALLA. D.S.O

Otago Witness, Issue 3227, 19 January 1916, Page 52

MAJOR FALLA. D.S.O

Major Falla, to whom has been awarded the honour of the D. 5.0., is well known in Duncdin. He started his military career as a gunner in tho B Battery, of which he was captain when he enlisted for service. As acting-major ho left New Zealand with tho Second Reinforcement, in charge of the first half of tho battery. Major Falla haa done good work on tho Gallipoli Peninsula. One of his gunners, writing to a friend in Duncdin. says: —"Major Falla is still with us. Ho is here and everywhere—an ideal officer, and a calm, skilful observer. All tho kudos wo have been given can be placed to his credit." Major Falla was a prominent member of the Otago Rowing Club. He left a responsible position in the head office of the Union Steam Ship Company to go to tho front.

PRISONER OF WAR. NAPIER, January 13. Private Norman Steele, reported "missing, probably killed, August 7," has written to his mother at Napier that he is a prisoner of war at Constantinople. The letter was dated August 8. COMMUNICATION" WITH PRISONERS. WELLINGTON, January 11. The High Commissioner cables that letters and parcels for prisoners in Turkey should be sent to the International Red Cross Committee at Geneva for transmission They go post free. Remittances not exceeding £5 should be sent by international money order, payable to the International Red Cross Committee at Geneva, with the full name and number of the regiment of the prisoner. Letters must not exceed four lines. THE PERNICIOUS CIGARETTE. WELLINGTON. January 11. " I have been assured by a medical officer that serious harm is beingj caused by the cigarette-smoking so prevalent among soldiers, and particularly returned soldiers," said the Minister of Defence to-day. "The statement made to me is that many of the men arc absolutely ruining their nerves through this habit. Their hands become shaky, and the men themselves become apathetic. Surgeon-general Henderson, in a report on this subject, says that the Defence Department cannot control cigarettesmoking, except when the men are in hospital. I hope that members of the forces will realise that it is quite possible for them to injure their health and impair their efficiency as soldiers by the excessive uso of cigarettes. A soldier has a duty to perform in attaining physical fitness in order that he may bo in a condition to meet and beat the enemy, and anything that injures his health is to be avoided." JOTTINGS. Messrs Wilfred Fowler and S. Rurrell, two Feilding residents, left by the Romuera on Friday (says tli3 Wellington Post) to join the Flying Corps. Private. E. Thomas, of Otautau, who participated in some of the most strenuous of the fighting on Gallipoli, and who was at one time reported to be killed, is expected to return to Otautau this month. He was wounded during one of the engagements in which ho took part. Captain W. H. Hawkins, cx-M.P., who for some time past has been fanning in the Taranaki district, has had his services accepted, and is encamped at Trentharn, A member of the Geraldino Sick and Wounded Committee, at Tuesday's meeting, said that, ho knew a family in his neighbourhood in which there wore several eligible for service at the front (says the Christchurch Press). They were not averse

to going, but wore waiting till conscription was brought into force before doing bo. Probably others were hanging back for the same reason.

Private John Cameron (elder Eon of Mrs Angus Cameron, Edendale), who wont with the Main Body from Otago, and was twice wounded, in the elbow and knee respectively, is now back at the front for the fourth time. His district friends (says the Farmer) will be pleased to hear that the young man has been promoted to the rank of lancecorporal. A second son of Mrs Cameron, in Private Angus Cameron, of the Ninth Reinforcements, expects to leave for the front at short notice.

A Soldiers' Club is being established at Palmerston North, for which a very considerable sum of money has already been subscribed. When tho Prime Minister was present at a gathering held in Palmerston to bid farewell to a soldier, Lieutenant A. Jacobs, ho was asked by the Mayor of tho town to make an appeal to the company for additional funds for tho club. Mr Massey did so, with tho result that £275 was collected in the room.

Since the war broke out Mr Percy Alexander M'Hardy, of Beaulieu, Palmerston North, has contributed something like £IO,OOO in various ways to the numerous patriotic funds (says the Wellington Do minion). One of his gifts is a corner section in the town of Palmerston North ; which is now being raffled in aid of the Sick and Wounded (Soldiers' Fund. This section is estimated to be worth £SOOO. Mr M'Hardy is always one of the first to contribute to a deserving appeal, and was one of tho first to assist the Belgian Relief Fund, his donation being £IOOO. "I've been through three campaigns, and I'm going back again next month," remarked a returned soldier in the course of conversation with a newspaper man at the Soldiers' Club (says the Auckland Star). " More than I am," chimed in a man of younger years, as he proceeded to complain of the manner in which returned soldiers are treated in New Zealand. Tho veteran —an Indian pensioner, obviously Dear tho age limit—reiterated his intention of going on with the game. "For old times' sake," he said, persuasively, "let us see it through together." Men like this would make excellent recruiting officers. A Hastings soldier who has just returned home from Gallipoli, in conversation with several of his friends, says that the people of New Zealand do not realise what awful hardships the troops go through. Dysentery is one of the worst kinds of sickness the men have to put up with, and he had seen aome terrible cases of this.

The suppliers at the Mataura Dairy Factory gave a day's milk last month to the war funds, which resulted in the sum of £lO3 being raised, of which amount £IOO was cabled to Sir T. Mackenzie, High Commissioner for New Zealand at Home. Tho balance will be forwarded by letter. The money is to be distributed among the New Zealand soldiers in England who require assistance.

The Hon. G. W. Russell will soon have two sons in khaki. One sailed with the second hospital ship, the Ma.ra.ma, and another, Mr Douglas Russell, is shortly going into training at Trentham.

The Rev. E. T, Wynne Bond, vicar of Martinborough, has resigned from his charge in order to proceed to the front (reports the Star). Mr Bond has been vicar of the parish for upwards of 10 years, with the exception of an interval of a few months, when he was in charge of St. Thomas's, Wellington. Amongst the men who will go into camp this week will be Mr Charles Fred Bassett, father of Corporal Cyril Bassett, of Auckland, who gained the Victoria Cross for technical services performed with the utmost skill and daring at Gallipoli (says the Dominion). Mr Bassett is 50 years of age, and a printer by trade. He is joining the infantry. In an interview with Miss Little, an English musician now in Ohristchurch, that lady etated (says the Press) that out here we had no conception of the number of girls who had gone out as nurses and probationers in hospitals. Women who had had nothing to do from one year's end to another now found employment, and worked assiduously, scrubbing floors and doing all the harcl work attendant on a probationer's position in the hospital. It had been the entiro making of them. Canadian papers record that 800 big guns made for France and Croat Britain by the Bethlehem Steel Company were destroyed on November 10, when machine shop No. 4 of the plant at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was burned. The monetary loss was £400,000, but the greater loss is in tho time necessary to replace the big guns and tho still more valuable machinery, and the consequent delay in filling war orders. Tho Bethlehem fire had barely boon put out when flames started in a pattern shop at the Eddy etone, Del., plant of the Boldwin Locomotive Works, and patterns valued at £IO.OOO wore destroyed. Berlin and Vienna papers rejoice over thes« fires.

Colonel Eden Vansittart, of the Bth West Konts, who, on September 26, was officially repQrted killed at the battle of Loos, afterwards wrote home to his wife from Crefcld, Germany. After the official announcement more than 80 members of the battalion wrote to Mrs Vansittart, expressing their sorrow, and saying how they worshipped their colonel, for whom they would have laid down their lives. About 300 letters of condolence were received by Mrs Vansittart. A memorial service was held in London, the authorities arranged for the payment of a widow's pension, and Colonel Vansittart's will was proved. Colonel Vansittart's letter was written on October 25—30 days after he was officially reported as dead. Colonel Vansittart said he was lying wounded in the prisoners' hospital at Crefeld, that he was doing well, and wanted some clothing sent to him.

The lato Sergeant-major J. Rutland, R.N.Z.A., who died at Devonport Hospital, Auckland, was well known in Byttelton (says the Times), where ho was a popular member of tho Lyttelton Marine Band. Ho was born in 1876 in Tenruka, where his parents reeido. Ho leaves a widow and two sons. " Somewhere in Franco," an old Petono boy, Mr Arthur Kelly, son of Mr W. 11. Kelly, of Patrick street, Potone, ie serving aa a sergoant. in the 3rd King Edward's Horse, a cavalry regiment. "Our regiment," ho writes to his parents, "has done splendid ■work out here, hut it has cost us dearly, and up to date 200 of our boys have been put out of action. For nearly eight mouths "wo ho,vo been in the trenches. I cannot tell you anything concerning military matters, but I may say that we hovo got all that is required to win—men, money, munitions, and guns. It will take a littlo time, wo all know, but we shall win; there is nothing; surer." . Sergeant Kelly enlisted in London four days after war broke out. Ho »tatee that, his training in the Petone Navalfl •tood him in good etcad, and it waa not long

before ho became a sergeant. "We aro excellently fed," he continues his letter, "and. also well clothed and supplied with smokes." Mr C. ii. Neville, stock inspector, and Mr A. M. Paterson, M.R.C.V.&., have now completed tho purohaso of 70 horses in South Canterbury on behalf of tho Defence Department U>ay3 tho limaru Herald). The horses, taken on the whole, are a very fine lot—much better than might have been expected in view of all that were bought before.

In reply to its protest to the Government against married men being enlisted when singlo men are available, the Wanganui Borough Council received a letter from the Minister of Defence, stating (says tho Herald) that it was difficult to deal with such a matter, and it was one which must be left with the men themselves. In the case of married soldiers, the Defence Department always arranged for an allotment of pay to their wives; but, if the men did not tell tho department they had families, the department had no means of finding out. In casc3 where wives had objected to their husbands' enlistment without leaving them sufficiently provided for, the department had in some instances handed the men their discharges. The Christmas cards sent by the officers of H.M.S. New Zealand to their friends are very attractive in design (says the Lyttelton Times). On tho outside is a crown worked in gilt, and beneath it, on a dark blue backgound, tho words, "H.M.S. New Zealand." At the bottom, in gilt lettering, are tho words, "Ake Ake, Ake, Kia Kaha." Inside is a clever sketch, printed in colours, and called "Ah Tag." It shows an officer and his signaller on the lookout for anything that migh turn up. From a can of hot "coffee rises a cloud of steam, and a bulldog sits alongside. An officer, who sent a card to a local friend, explained that the dog was meant to represent Pelorus Jack II," "the new bull-hound which we had given us about four months ago." "Gratitude" has been cynically described as "a lively sense of favours to come." One English "Tommy," however, evidently had a different idea of the meaning of the word. Since the war broke out, Mrs Owen, of Ghuznee street, Wellington, has sent to a nurso friend in Cairo large parcels of socks and balaclavas for the use of the men at the front, and ..to each she has attached her name and address. By the last mail (says the Post) she received a very handsome table centre from a wounded soldier who had received one of her paroels, and had woven the gift as an expression of his gratitude, while recovering from his wounds. "Money could not buy it," said Mrs Owen, who regards the gift as her greatest treasure. A New Zealand soldier, invalided in London, writing a description of the Lord Mayor's show, 6ays: " There _ were representatives from many regiments, the majority being the comparatively newLondon Fusilier Regiments. Without any exaggeration, however, our own men and tho Australians both looked the best and marched the beet. Slouch hats are a common sight in London just now, and the wearers get a very good hearing and much attention."

Tho secretary of the Y.M.C.A., Christchurch, has received some jewellery, to be either sold or melted down and turned into gold, the proceeds to be sent to Egypt to purchase comforts for the troops there (says the Lvttelton Times). The money will be sent direct to Mr James L. Hay, tho Christchurch representative in Cairo, to bo used at his discretion in the hospitals and convalescent homes for tho sick and wounded men needing a few home comforts, pne association in the donrninn has received quite a large collection of old watches and pieces of jewellery—heirlooms in some cases,—which can bj melted down and the gold turned into money. In two cases engagement rings were turned in, one of the donors stating that she had her wedding ring and did not need two. Many persons are making real sacrifices of this kind.

A report on the number of single men eligible for active service, and also the number of aliens, in the employ of the Manukau County Council was presented to the meeting of that body by its foreman on Tuesday (says the New Zealand Herald). It was stated that a careful watch had been kept in regard to this matter since the outbreak of war. With the exception of three, all the employees of the council were married men with dependents. The three in question were men who were over the prescribed .15:0, who had been rejected for military service. Tt was stated that there were cases in which contractors were employing clig'ble men as drivers. Only one alien was employed, and he claimed to be a Serbian by birth. A Bluff Territorial (says the Press), who enlisted for the Twelfth Reinforcements, pulled out after the Patriotic Committee had spent nine guineas on him for a complete set of teeth and ho had passed through the medical inspection. The Wairarapa Patriotic Executive had a credit balance of £52,968 8s 8d in the Wounded Soldiers' Fund on December 31 (says the Timos). Cash grants amounting to £464 17s 10J had been made to returned wounded soldiers up till that date.

The members of the Anzac Soldiers' Club have asked us to be the medium for the expression of thanks to the members of the St. Kilda Band for playing at the funeral of the lato Private H. Braithwaite on Sunday last, and for their courtesy in forgoing a previous engagement. Mr H. de C. Brown, the traffic manager of the Christchuroh Tramways, in conversation with a reporter, stated (says the Press) that thero wera Rome 10 members of the staff now at tho front, with whom ho was in constant correspondence. Of 12 inspectors, four had gone —two were now at the front, and two were in training at Trentham.

Messrs Dalgety and Cb.'s New Zealand staff has contributed 101 men to active servico (says tho Wellington Post). Of these four have died in action, 10 have been wounded, four are missing, six have been invalided to England, and three are sick and in *,he hospital. From the beginning of the war the rank and file have received half-pay. Men holding commissions have previously been paid half salary, but the firm is now making up the difference be tween military pay and ordinary pay in their caso.

The Auckland Hospital Board's proposal to provide employment for wounded convalescent soldiers at the Epsom Home is being kept in view (says the New Zealand Herald). Captain E. J. Thomas, house manager of the hospital, states that he IS waiting for Liouferiant-colonel Hope Lewis to return to Auckland to decide how fche workshop shall be equipped. A building which can bo adapted as a workshop has been secured. No difficulty has been experienced in regard to financing the scheme, and Captain Thomas states that he has re-

ceivod a promise from one Auckland resident of a donation of £SO. Cheltenham Parish Church was crowded yesterdav afternoon (says the Daily Mail of November 26) by nurses and wounded soldiers at the wedding of a wounded Now Zcalandcr to a Red Cross nurse. The bridegroom, Private Arthur Albert King, 12th Nelson Regiment, met his bride, Mies Minnie Louisa Davis, while at the Naunton Park Hospital. The best man was a New Zealand comrade.