N.Z.E.F. MOBILE LAUNDRY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 52, 13 May 1942, Page 3

N.Z.E.F. MOBILE LAUNDRY

Two thousand five hundred complete hattle dresses are washed and dried daily bj' the newest addition to the New Zealand; Division—the mobile laundry operating in Syria. When fifty tons of the latest elec-trically-driven equipment arrived from England twoi months ago, none of the present staff had seen a laundry before. Now Ihcy arc working three shifts a day and washing over 70,000 "blankets, and all the Division's winter clothing before starting the regular weekly washing now done by natives. An old Hour mill has been taken over for quarters, and a mountain stream has been piped for water, giving 24,000 gallons daily. The equipment of the nine trailers includes a 27 K.W. generator, two boilers to supply washers and driers. It is not a cumbersome affair, and within 90 minutes' travel it is travelling along a road at 20 m.p.m. Within an hour of stopping, the unit Is working. If gas is used the unit can decontaminate thousands of pieces of equipment and clothing daily. Later 2000 sets of summer clothes will be washed daily. Three hundred and fifty civilians arc engaged in mending and ironing. The shifts work on a competitive basis with production cost sheets for each. The capacity of the unit is increasing steadily. There is nothing amateur about the N.Z. Div. Mob. Laundry.