MAKING A CAMP

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20075, 23 October 1939, Page 5

MAKING A CAMP

NGARUAWHAHIA TASK DIFFICULTIES OVERCOME STAFF CORPS' GOOD WORK In apportioning the credit for the speed, with which military camps have been erected for the accommodation of the special military force and for the arrangement of temporary camps while the permanent ones arc coming into being, there is a tendency to pass by the men who most deserve .full marks. They are the ■'officers of the New Zealand Staff Corps. While it is no use crying over spilt milk, it should be known by all New Zealanders that it was not their .fault that adequate facilities to accommodate and train the men were not available the moment the war gong sounded.

Hopuhopu camp at Ngnruawahia had facilities, a lot of them out of date, for catering for a maximum of 1500 men. These had to be enlarged, not by establishing an extra camp, but by patching here, adding there, and shifting a little bit somewhere else to meet the needs of 2500 men. These men were keen to get on with their real job of training and the makeshifts had to be ready by the time they came into camp. Now, when the men have been at Hopuhopu for two weeks, the camp is functioning with a smoothness that is remarkable. Problem of Water The housekeeping side of a big camp is no easy task. There is the question of water, for instance. The normal supply was sufficient to meet the needs of the cooks, but the hot water system could not stand the strain of all the demands of 2500 men for washing dishes and baths. An extra reservoir, had to be erected on the top of the hill at the back of the camp. To it water was pumped from the Waikato River and thence it was carried lo the bath houses. Thus the treated water for drinking, cooking and washing-up was- left free for its proper purposes. Rut that was not a 11-

Coppers had to be procured, and in these days in New Zealand it. is not easy to walk into Iho market place and secure one's exact requirements. Some have been obtained and more are on their way. Therefore, when the trohps mention in their letters home that the camp is rather stingy with hot water for washingup, it is not because the camp will not give it to them freely, but because for a few days it cannot. Search for Cooks Again for the kitchen there was the supply of cooks. It must be said that some of the men who put themselves down as cooks when they enlisted have proved to be not so very capable. To build up the required number, in addition to those who had enlisted as such, the cities and towns of the province were scoured lor chefs, and. they were obtained. Now most of the civilians have been discharged and army cobles of the required standard obtained. For the kitchen at I-lopukopu which the staff units who will go overseas, cooks from the enlisted men are to he trained at the Army School of Cooking at Trenlham.

There is overcrowding of the kitchens at Hopuhopu, but it is being put up with in the knowledge that it is only a temporary place. When the troops move to Papakura, they and the cooks will find conditions that will make the camp seem a paradise. They will not be concerned with the discharge of waste water, which is one of the problems the over-taxed staff lias been called on to deal with. Plenty of Good Food Despite the crowded conditions, line food is well molted and there is a plentiful supply. The other day ione saw beef being boiled and beef being roasted and a huge dish of fried sausages that looked very appetising. In the storehouses the meat was every hi] as good as that in a first-class butcher's shop in Auck-

land. Cheese, butter and jam there are in plenty.

There is an electric machine for cutting bread, but it cannht cope with the demand and so a fatigue of men has to he supplied to make up tlie deficiency. Camp fatigues, however, will soon be a thing of the past. The authorities are now enlisting from ex-servicemen an employment company which will do ail the camp work. Clothing, in the absence of war stocks, has been a problem, hut it is being overcome as manufacturers send in supplies. It is safe to say thn! when the members of the second echelon go into camp they will not have any of the difficulties that have confronted their predecessors and the staff which had to gel ready before them.