FROM SAMOA

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2346, 31 December 1914, Page 7

FROM SAMOA

DAWN PICTURES AND CENTI- I ■ ';PEDES. '■ .'."• ;;'!■/,.;,', "The perspiration "js pouring ..out. of ■ me,-and I'have'a bottle of raspberry, something to try and keep me cool. V don't: think Twill, ever, be able to. liva in a-cqld climate'again-and thereportp of howling southerlies" send a shuddef through "one. It is like the thrust of 'a, Ghurka kukri between the should jar blades. Here it is hot- all; the tinie. Even when it as raining you can't w-tar a great-coat.. ; ..Wo use .' 'our; ' 'oil sheets as overcoats. .;. . The ofiher night I was on sentry when slumbe ring Night was ruffled from her sleep,' a »d 1 watched the great yellow sun'shoe A its radiance above the horizon, then crime a tip of the purest gold, and glint'th rough the drowsy palms,, Always at'the'fbreak of day .a breeze from. the ocean arrives. It-disturbs'the coconut (-palms; which make.a rustling noise as -though they wero unwillingly waking lipl to the glare and turmoil of another dfay It was lovely and cool. . '."-.'.,1 jsaw the stars disappear one by one; art though, switched off by an unseen hp/nd. It was all beautiful and; wonderful. ~ . "The other night we had just turned in whenjSomeohe yelled 'Centiiiede!' and sure enough there was a'beafaty about six inches long. We have ihira in a bottle of.spirits. It is,the fiijst'one, we have caught in theClub - -(the-'German Club where the Engineers ai:<V camped).* So far we have been very/ fortunate. Nothing worse than 2-inch iißockro'aches have:been crawling over ohjr.faces, at night. We had a visit fromi 'H.M.S. Encounter some time ago to );get the coal left by ; the Germans....,-.-" k . It. is-a lazy man's job working iij.' the as the hours are'.jieeessai.'ijiy short dur-' ing which it is. safe to w/p'rk There is some talk of teaching -usi'iall as' wh'en we'leave-here to pjo l - back to New Zealand we will be into a mounted company.- Everyone £iseems to know that we will be out of -ffj'iis heforo long. We got it straight froin headquartera that the Engineers arid !J) Battery would be ! the first "to leave, |/but that would not be until after th&Sly Horse and' Greasy Cow (Scharnrjcirst and Gneisenau) were captured/;(a- consummation since effected).. We.^have just had the first tea cooked on cair range, and they turned out jam tartilj Everyone, cheered tho cook when hp bromrht them up and stood by waiting the verdict. It does 'not flako much to make us' happy—the,'Elipjfcitesfc thing .does.' Jam tarts sent us feazy—they were so homelike and un-SHmoan. I have just been called away. /iOne of our fellows is going home, and l/h'ey are giving him a bit of a* send-off. j it tenches you up a bit'when all the/ 'returns go marching down to the i\ith the Regimental Band heading thWm."—Eitracts from a trooper's letter, j' ■■' , .