BUSY DAYS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2973, 10 January 1917, Page 6

BUSY DAYS

IN THE TRAINING CAMPS 25ths GOING IN (By Will Lawson.) In tho short space of one week the training camps at Trcntliam andFeatherston have been changed from being practically deserted to a condition of busyness which has rarely been equalled since Trontham ceased to be the one and only camp for the training of Reinforcements. ' A week ago there were no sentries on tho gates. Tho oamp police wore alone \n standing . guard there, and during the Christmas : and New Year holidays the solitary : policeman on duty looked a lonely fig- . nro with an almost empty camp inside . the gates and the world outside away , on holiday. But that has all changed. : In addition to the troops who returned from leave last week, numbering over 10,000 men,, by tho end of this week nearly 6000 recruits will have been ad- ] miite'd to the camps as soldiers. Trentliam Camp has been—well, busy _is j hardly the word;' perpetual motion 1 would be a more apt term to describe , tho period of activity which still con- ( tinues. All the infantry, which cons'titute the major portion of each draft, ( are equipped at Trentham. Owing to ( the fact that the Twentv-fifth Infantry ( were going in this week, the Twenty- ( fourths had to enter tlio camp, and , leave it for Foatherston within a week. ( They had to Ret their first and second 1 issues of uniform and equipment at < once, and in quick time. The quarter- \ master stores where the issues are \ made was never so busy in all its \ existence. Nor was that the only de- , partment wherein a worker had no time . to dream. Tho medical staff was busy j with the examination of the incoming , men, the records office was working at \ hiph pressure, filling in papers . and tallying up tho various drafts which arrived from all parts of the country, everyone was up to his ejes in work, 1 »nd not the least busy was the Camp r Band. 1 Inspiring Strains to Welcome Them. { . The hand met every draft at the ± Tr*htham station, and played them into • camp. On tho days?when the trains ■ arrived in quick succession tho bands- r, men perspired in their praiseworthy , efforts to givo the recruits a hearty j welcome into camp.' Usually this is done a with great zest by the troops already f in training. On this occasion there were no soldiers in camp, so tho band , did it, and did it well. It was a f happy idea. The weather was perfect, j and even the Aucklanders, who in their ; decorated train had been twenty-seven , hours on tho road, without proper , meals, matched into camp with dash j and smiling faces, with the band play- f ing ots best, despite the fact that it I ( had been playing troops in all day. They, were happy-faced, muscular- f looking men, these recruits of tho j Twenty-fourths, tho first draft to in- j ,cludo balloted men among their num- , her, and not oven a Sherlock Holmes \ could havo differentiated between the ] volunteers and the others. Tho same , applies to the Twenty-fifth men, who j are entering camp this week, judging 1 by the Wellington men, who are al- . ready in. The last of the Twenty- j fourths to go in were the men from , the West Coast. Their train steamed j up tho Hutt Valley on Sunday after- < irSßm. Many of the men were sitting ! on the roofs of tho' carriages, others i crowded the end platforms to enjoy . the summer weather,- and they were all | singing. _ These men wero admitted , and equipped that evening. Early on ( Monday morning there was a stir in 1 tho camp and at tho railway station. , The Twenty-fourths were beginning to move out for Featherston, where, they are now comfortably hi quarters, and pushing on with their training. By apoearances, one would judge that they will make an excellent draft. At ■ least, they are impressed with tlie camp systems which have taken them in hand, and which have been able to fix them up with one hand, as it were, while with the other it made preparations to receive the Twenty-fifths: and at tho same time receive the 10,000 soldiers who were returning from leave, and had to go straight on with*, thentraining where it had been left, off before tho holidays. , It has been a test of the camp systems which has reflected credit on those in charge and their staffs.