TARANAKI.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 23, 8 June 1910, Page 5

TARANAKI.

Volunteers’ Claims. Six volunteers who contracted typhoid at the Kitchener camp at Johnsonvilla put in a claim for compensation. The Defence Department has repudiated any liability. The Taranaki News,” discussing the matter, says:—“The attitude of the New Zealand Defence Department, which at the present time needs the cooperation of every possible fighting man more than ever before, cannot be explained. At the Oringi manoeuvres two horses had to be destroyed because of injuries received during manoeuvres. Their owners were compensated to the full value of the horses. A private of mounted rifles was injured. He was sent to Hospital, his expenses being paid. Ho

was then sent to his home at the expense of the state. Regarding these New Plymouth soldiers, the closest investigation is necessary in order that the Defence Department may not be permitted to establish the cruel precedent that it is not responsible for illness contracted in its service. No one would blame a voluntary soldier for leaving a service which transgressed the ordinary rules of chivalrous treatment. The men and their friends prove that typhoid was contracted while on service. The Department, in justice, must prove that the disease was contracted while the men Were civilly employed.”