CAMP POST OFFICES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2626, 23 November 1915, Page 8

CAMP POST OFFICES

TRENTHAM CAMP A LIVELY CENTRE SOME SMART WORK Some idea can be sained of the importance of the military cai'np at Treiithaui when it is stated tliat tho postal and telegrapliic business . transacted there is nearly three times as great as at I'etone, and Is actually greater than that at Feilding. So that from a Departmental viewpoint Treritliam has the status of a first-class provincial town. Very little has been said of tho arrangements made by tho Post and Telegraph Department at the various camps since the of war. whic'h is, perhaps, tho best, of compliments, as the features oT a canip that as a rulo create tha freest comment are those which are being complained about. The Department has done its work, often under trying circumstances, with the utmost efficiency and dispatch. When it became necessary in the winter to pitch new camps, the motor lorries bearing the paraphernalia- of a fit-up post and telegraph office, were actually waiting ficout in the rain for the authorities to decide on the camp sites at Waikanae and jßangiotu, and so it was also' at May Morn and Tauherenikau.

Thore is at present a staff of fourteen hands at the Trentham Camp Post Office, all telegraphists • with a postal training—general handy men, who can sort letters as well as they can tap off a message in Morse. There, no Jettcroarriers are needed, as the letters for oac'h company aro handed over to the orderly corporal, who calts for them at the offiqe. For tlie sake tff a local comparison it is mentioned that tlie Petone offico has a staff of 13, only three of whom are telegraphists. There is a staff of seven men at May Morn, and ten at Tauherenikau. Tho numerical strength of tho camp Post and Telegraph staffs varies according to camp conditions. Just before a reinforcement draft leaves the work piles up and the staff has to bi, increased, and before tlie last draft went forward thero was a staff of 26 at Trentham for a few days, nnd even then the business became too heavy for the camp wires to ,deal with, and hundreds of telegraphic messages had to be sent into town by motor for dispatch here. ' On one day ill particular 600 messages were brought into the Wellington office for dispatch. The existing post office at tho Tauherenikau camp is not for long. Tho new camp (all hutments) . will soon bo ready for occupation. With its usual promptitude the post office at the new camp (about two miles distant from the oxistinft one) is quite ready at the present time, and as there are approximately about a thousand men working under the Public Works Department there, arrangements aro being made to open it very shortly;