MILITARY BOOTS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 144534, 19 November 1914, Page 5

MILITARY BOOTS.

COMPLAINTS ANTt AX ANSWER. Since the outbreak of war there has been much talk about- the hoots our troops are lieinp supplied with, and some complains. That the Now Zealand military hoot is all that it is claimed is borne out by the report of Colonel-Surgeon James 11. I’nrdv. who was called on 1" examine the boot thoronphlv and report as late as last month. The report is as follows :

“The Commandant,—The sealed pattern boot desipned bv a board ol officers in 1911 I claim to'be the. best Army hoot at present, known. 'Hie lion I was designed to do away with the admitted defects in the British Army hoot. It embodies all the principles laid down by leading military authorities as io pie, best boot for universal troop wear. The upper was made soft purposely. It was considered! a stiff tipp-’f was a serious drawback in a soldierV. hoot.- Since the New Zealand hoot was desipned practically all military authorities have adopted, the soft upper. Chrome leather, if well greased, will keep not water. The shape was made anaL-.inically correct. and here again the boots issued by Homo authorities are being made on the same principle. The boot was made lighter by ahotd half a pound than any othft- service hoot known. There were obvious reasons for this. Most of tho complaints about the boots are duo to two causes—(l) Tho laet that sotne manufacturers departed .front the specifications. (b) The men themselves do not fit their feet properly, nearly always insisting upon wearing hoots too short. A marching boot should ho almost tin inch longer than a man’s foot. The hoot was shown to the military authorities at the Inter-Colonial Medical Congress in Svdnev. 1911, and was admitted to he the most perfect Army knot they had seen.—(Sgd.) James It. Purdy. Colonel, .Director of Medical Services.” In order to prove tin* .soundness of the hoots that aro being served out to our troops. Major -I. O'Sullivan. Director of Stores, invited a. representative of Tho Dominion into tho Stores ifepartinent, asked him to .select any pair of hems he, lilted from among many hundreds ni pairs in stock, and then had the. particular pair selected cut and sawn in half lengthways . This v/as done in order to prove beyond any reasonable doubt of what quality the bools arc. Two of the halves were brought away by The Bominion'representative, and are on exhibition. '