A CAMP FOR CONSUMPTIVES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1073, 11 March 1911, Page 3

A CAMP FOR CONSUMPTIVES.

Sir,—As several accounts of Karero Government Camp for Consumptives " liavo appeared in the • press of late, , perhaps ■ a description by one who has . been a resident there will not be amiss. - The camp is situate in the State For- . est, four miles from Ilotorua, via ' Whakarewarewa. Residents arc admitted subject to the following condi- j tions:—That they are able to work. That by medical opinion they are in a fair way to be cured of consumption. 1 but not. sufficiently recovered to resuriie their ordinary employment. That tho camp is not to bo considered as ! a hospital, or as a place for the treatment of the disease.' That a resident who is siclc for more than thrco days shall not be retained in the camp, but will be sent to a hospital. These are somo of the conditions laid down in the printed regulations which every resident has to sign on admission. I will now detail the programme for the day (as it was in tho latter part of 1910): Rise at 5.15 a.m., breakfast at s.4s,'leave camp at 6.15, walk three miles to and from work in our own time, start work (consisting- of cutting down fern and scrub, in some places six feet .high) at 7 a.m. Knock off at 11.30 until 12 for lunch (cold tea, no fires allowed in the forests, bread and butter and cold meat); stop work at 4 p.m.; arrive in camp at 4.45; dinner at 5.15; then make tho best of a bad job until bedtime. A full day is 8J hours, making a full week 48 hours (half-clay off on Saturday).' The wages 9d. per hour; a full week's pay (which seldom happens), is £1 16s. Tho residents pay all camp expenses. Some of tho items are: £12 per year to what is called a Sinking Fund (I think some of these twelve pounds must bo getting very mouldy). They pay for seed for the garden, and then pay for tho vegetables; they also pay for fowl feed, and pay one penny each for tho eggs (the fowls are Government property). The vegetable and egg money also goes to this sinking fund. When the eggs are plentiful and cheap in town, they havo to buy the eggs of the Governmentowned fowls, but when eggs are scarce and dear they havo to buy them iu town, and still feed the Governmentowned fowls. Even in the case of rearing, chickens they are fed at tho expenso of tho residents, but if ono wero to bo used at table they would have to pay for it. There was a cow at the camp; it had to bo fed on chaff, as there is no grass at Karcre in winter (and very little in summer). It cost 12s. to 14s. per 'week to feed her. Then they had to pay tho gardener, a resident (who had 6s. per day, wet or dry, for doing next to nothing) 7s. per week to milk the cow, and then buy condensed milk, as the animal didn't give enough. Tho bill for board was never less than 18s. per week, and sometimes as high as £1 Is. It was seldom we got a full week in. I havo seen as many as ten days in a month lost with rain. Even a shower of rain will make the fern and scrub so wet _ that oven healthy men could not work in it, leave 1 alone consumptives. Last October tho residents petitioned the Department for a riso of ljtl. per hour, but were refused. Instead of being able to save money, it takes a resident all his time to replenish his wardrobe. Besides a superintendent

there is a camp manager, who is a consumptive himself, and lives in the camp, 'lli is man lias 7s. per (lay, and his duties arc practically nil; well, they amount to ordering stores from town, which ho does by telephone. Dr. Yalintine visited the camp in November, but at a time when all the men were at

work. .Most of the men would liavo likoc

to have scon tho Health Officer to ventilate a grievance or two, but tho manager had things all his own way, with the result that six residents got notice to quit the camp. The greatest criminal will be allowed his say—lie will not be condemned unheard. Why anyone's unsupported statements should lie sufficient to dismiss six members of the camp is a mystery I hay®, yet to solve. If what -I hear is true, the

camp could do with six additional residents now. It comes pretty hard on the few who are there to pay for the cook, etc. So far as the North Island goes tho camp now has got such a bad name it is no good whatever. The idea of such a cam]) is good, but why don't those in authority inquire into the management? If any ex-resident reads this letter, I should like him to write you his opinion re Karere Camp. All tho camp members can't be wrong, and 1 lmve not known one yet that was in favour of the existing management. Besides, the camp is not intended as a permanent home. The manager has been in the camp three years. The gardener has also been, in tho camp a similar period; his duties are to look after a few hens and chickens, also a garden containing one and a half square chains. I have known a good few to go to the camp and find only disappointment, so that finally I will give my advice to anyone contemplating going: Take Punch's advice about marriage, "Don't." —I am, etc., . OLD RESIDENT.

P.S.—I have just heard that the residents at tho camp dwindled in numbers until now there are only four (exclusive of manager and gardener). They have been put on piecework pitting for planting young trees; the.ground is very hard, being of pumice stone nature. I am informed that they have to work hard (niucli too hard for men suffering from tuberculosis) to earn ss. per day; some of them don't earn more than 4s. per day. This wage (with wet weather) barely pays board. From what I hear I think the time lias arrived when an inquiry ought to ho made into tho working of Karere Camp. Tbo New Zealand press would bo doing a generous action by dealing with this question in their columns. I am suro everyone wishes to see tho scourge of consumption dealt with in a proper way. 0.11.