HEAVY WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 226, 23 September 1940, Page 11

HEAVY WORK.

WOMEN'S LAND ARMY. LETTER FROM ENGLAND. A very interesting letter was received recently by Mr. R. S. R. Seddon, Hamilton, from his Bister, Miss E. Seddon, in England, telling of the war work she is doing. Miss Seddon, who is an artist, is over 50 years of age, and the cheerful manner in which she writes of the heavy manual work she is now voluntarily doing is a telling example of the wonderful spirit prevailing throughout England. The following extracts give some idea of the type of work undertaken by,the Women's Land Army:— "I have just finished my first week as a W.L.A. at the hospital and mental home here. It is a lovely place, quite country, not very far from Birmingham. I hunted round and got very comfortable digs. We are billeted under the Minister of Agriculture and pay. f 1 a week for our board, out of our salaries of 30/. At the hospital there are 800 mental patients and 600 soldiers, and there is a huge garden full of vegetables and fruit—acres and acres of it, and they are going to take in another field. I am called a 'trainee' for a month and am not supposed to be given too hard work to start off with, but I was put on to overtime the very first week. However, I've survived, in spite of being a bit stiff and sore, and, after all, it's all for the good cause. We had to . get hundreds of young plants out, which had been held up by the drought. We worked from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., with 10 minutes at 10.30 for a snack. We have a seven minutes' walk during our lunch between 1 and 2, and we have tea at 5.30. I think I shall be very happy here—we have no time to think, and that is a great thing these days. "The weather has turned very stormy. I was glad it was not so hot or I could not have stood it, but the heavy showers make everything very wet. Last week we picked umpteen' pounds of red currants and raspberries, and also beans, peas and cabbage, and during overtime we helped transplant hundreds of cabbages, sprouts and cauliflowers. I ought to know quite a lot about gardening by the time I have finished, and that will be something. You'd love me in my dungarees, khaki hat and shirt and green pullover. We have velvet corduroy breeches for the winter."