RECRUITING IN THE SOUTH.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 November 1915, Page 3

RECRUITING IN THE SOUTH.

CONSCRIPTION FAVORED. . By Telegraph.—Press Association. Invereargil, Yesterday. Many people in Otngo and Southland feel keenly the frequent newspaper reference to the shortage in drafts from the district for the reinforcements, and point out that a very large percentage of the Wellington and Auckland Battalion enlistments are of young men who left the settled and somewhat unprogressive South for the greater opportunities in the fast-developing North Island. There is in Dunedln a strong feeling in favor of conscription and also a marked tendency to oiler for the Red Cross or Army Service Corps instead of the firing-line. Otago had a very large proportion of the crew of the hospital ship Makeno for instance. ' Mr. Veitch's statement at Wanganui referring to "the shocking failure in tho South Island, particularly in Otago," had, of course, to be commented on during the great farewell demonstration to Southland's quota of the Tenth Reinforcements. Flags were flown, bands played, and public men harangued the crowd, Tho Wanganui sptouli was touched on by an impassioned speaker, the Rev. Mr. Ready, who said thnt he did not like to read of a member of Parliament saying at Wanganui that Otago had not done its duty with regard to recruiting. In the military make-up Otagp included 'Southland, and he eon : sldered Southland had done its duty and had given some of the finest men phy-! sically that the Dominion had put on the battlefield. One of the succeeding speakers, Major OTooie, said {hi? draft \vas still ten men short, and he appealed to the young men in the crowd to fill the gap. He sat in hot judgment on the shirkere, es. pecialiy those men who had recently married in order to enter "married" on their registration cards. These he described aa shirkers of the worst kind, who ought to be treated as noxious weeds and exterminated. When the proceedings closed only one young man had responded to the appeal.