MILITARY TRAINING.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 140, 5 August 1911, Page 6

MILITARY TRAINING.

MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS. (For Press Association ) Christchurch, August 4. An officer who has had the opportunity of seeing, how the medical examination of territorials is conducted locally, stated to an interviewer that he had formed the opinion that the examining doctors did their work with the utmost care, and every lad was carefully examined. The examination, of course, was not that which would he insisted on for life insurance, where one had to look forward to the possibilities of disease. The object pi the examination was to find whether the persons being examined were fit to be trained, and it was practically impossible for a lad who should be' rejected to get through. He had noticed a statement that Dunedin doctors examined lads at the rate of two a minute. The average in Christchurch was about four minutes each lad. Were there any doubt about the lad passing, the doctor engaged would consult a confrere. “The teeth of the majority of the lads examined are simply dephnble,” was the verdict of the informant.; “not one in twenty would get through tue Royal Navy test for the teeth.” The number of lads between 16 or 17 with artificial upper sets was t-.wpiy terrible. The examination preached a graphic l sermon on tuo ox steps being taken to have the teeth of children seen to. The general physique of the lads did not satisfy one. 1 It was disappointing for a new country. The majority of the lads did not know how to breathe. A fair number were rejected on account of deficient eyes, f The boys behaved very well on the whole, though there was a bit of hooliganism orie night. Generally the youths appeared to regard ■ the prospect of being trained with equanimity.