BARRAGE ROOM SCENES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1901, 8 November 1913, Page 6

BARRAGE ROOM SCENES.

GREAT FORCE—NQW WELDED.

OVER, A THOUSAND IN CAMP. Tho large fore© of mounted and foot specials that woro on wharf duty yesterday are really only ,a section of the country specials who are in town. At the barracks yesterday there were no fewer than 2,00 special men (and horses) strolling about ill couples, or resting itr tho, big drill-yard. .During tho aftertoon some strike sympathisers wero btisy circulating a report that some of the men had sickened of their job, and were returning _ to their homes in tho country, declaring that they had been brought to town under false pretences. An inquiry was at once mado at headquarters-* an ■ inquiry, by tho Way, that was received with guffawß of laughter. It was truo that some twenty men,had left the camp to return to their homes, but those were men who had been giveii special leave on account of homo exigencies. There are at present over 1000 men in barracks, and offers hare been received from, all parts of the. country which would be sufficient to treble that' number, It will only bo a day or a day or two before most- of tho men who left camp will be back again.

officer .yesterday. "Many, of these i'ii • tamely know next to nothing about training and discipline when they eanie to town a week ago, but they have proved to hp KplniH'lid material, and it is doubtful if any contingent that went to South Africa could beat them, in stamina and skill. They aro all capital , horsemen, from the youngest to the grey beards, and though many of thorn aro farmers.and station-holders in a big way, they have proved very amenable to discipline. The drill which they have undergone lias turned them into an efficiently organised force. They have been formed into sections, and the 'sections into squads, and each man now knows exactly where he is and what his ; duties are. "AH hands take'a hand in the big wash-up that succeeds every meal. In its way, it is really a great sight to seo men who have been associated with too. breakiiig-in of the back country— washing and wiping up the dishes. They are the finest fellows going, and I only wish I had them under mo as soldiers, ttliat a crack corps they would make!" Four Hundred at a Sitting, Tile big drill hall in Buckle Street Is ttie main mess-room.. It was laid yesterday afternoon for 400 men. There were b ack-nandled knives and forks, enamel plates and mugs, great jars of jam every yard or two, stacks' of butter, loaves of breacj were all neatly laid on bare pine boards, in readiness for tho men. A great Roberts camp stove sent forth its odour. The stove cooks enough hot rood for SOO men at one dispatch with the expenditure of only one hundredweight of coal. When in operation yesterday afternoon it was cooking three carcasses of mutton/ a fore-quarter of beet (1201b.)., two silvorsides (451b.), as well as cooking (by steam) great pots of potatoes and at the satno time it kept 75 gallons of water on the boil. Even then the capacity of the stove was not exhausted. It could have roasted another carcass of mutton and steamed two more pots of vegetables.

Lieut, Roberts's stove has interested several of the sheopfarmcrs among the specials, mon who consider it the very thing for shearing time in the country.