CAMP FOOD.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4952, 17 March 1926, Page 1

CAMP FOOD.

MESSING ARRANGEMENTS.

HOW THE HAURAKIS WERE FED.

To many people the master o® arranging the meals for nearly 1500 men in a training camp appears a very difficult problem. ! Anyone interested hi the subject will no doubt find the following information helpful, and it is a true account of .the actual conditions under which the Hauraki Regiment was fed during its seven days under canvas at Hopuhopu. We will deal with the messing arrangements of the infantry alone.

In the first place, a battalion orderly officer is appointed daily, and under him are the battalion orderly sergeant and! corporal. To continue the chain of communication, each company appoints its own orderly sergeant and corporal, the duties of whom will be explained. For example, the evening meal will be 1 explained in detail.

A quarter of an hour before the time appointed for the meal the battalion bugler sounds the cookhouse call., This is where the-, company orderly n.c.o.’s get busy. It is their duty to parade two mess' orderlies for each table (there are 16 men at each table, which number constitutes: ft mess). These mess orderlies are then marched off to the stores, adjacent to the mess-room.. On arrival one man is handed the dry rations, which 'comprise bread, butter, jam, a.nd cheese, while his mate is obtaining a dixie of tea. The orderlies' then reform two ranks and are marched into the messroom direct to ’the table allotted to their messi. After depositing the rations on the table one orderly cuts the bread .into slices while his mate' returns to the cookhouse for the meat, vegetables, and pudding. These are served in deep dishes and carried into the mess-room tables! and placed against the wall. When the itwo orderlies at each table have the full quota of rations before them they stand to their tables. A signal is given and the bugler sounds the call “Pick'em up, pick’em ; up, hot potatoes.” the battalion has been fallen in by companies, and are marched by mess|es into .the messroom. On arrival each- man takes hits' seat, ajid, without fuss or confusion, passes his plate along to the end of the .table,’ where the orderlies serve the food, having previously apportioned it out into 16 equal parts. The siame procedure is followed with the tea, while the men help .themselves to bread and butter. The meat and vegetables having been disposed of, the plates are again passed up one side of the table ito ,tjhe orderly, who scrapes them clean and passes them across to his mate, who spends a busy ten minutes serving the pudding and passing 'the plates back again on his side of the table until they are claimed by the owners.

During .the process of the meal a visit of inspection is ■ made to each table by the battalion, orderly officer, accompanied by the camp quartermaster and the staff n.c.o. in charge of .the mess-room. Each dish of food is carefully examined, and the men are invited to sjtatie. their complaints. These are then .thoroughly investigated by the officer and matters put to rights. In addition to this inspection it was the custom for the; platoon officers, to visit their particular platoons. and satisfy themselves that their men were receiving gooc| treatment.

The meal over, the men file outi to a 'regimental scullery containing 12 sinks,, where ample hot! water is provided. Here each trainee w.ashes his mesp gear and returns to his lines, where the mess, gear is: placed in the kit-bags, until .the next meal. The two orderlies on each table are again having a busy time. Their duty now is to gather up all remnants df food from their particular table and throw it into the scrap .tins. Bread, jam, butter, etc., that niay be left over and is fit for use is returned to the qua,rtermaster’s store for re-issue at a later meal. The table ip' thoroughly cleaned down and the messroom left tidy. The next move is to proceed .to the scullery, where the meat and pudding dishes are thoroughly washed and scalded and returned .to the cookhouse, where they are counted .and stacked up to dry. " Thus .the routine goes on, and after the first couple pc- meals the' whole system wxjrksi like machinery. There is no pushing, bjuptling, or confusion, and each man' 'gets the same treatment and an eiqual share of the rations. Waste is reduced to a minimum, and cleanliness to a degree is, insisted upon..

Trainees ar e required to wear timics in the mess,-room, and a neat alhd tidy appearnnee was required. From the time tb.e men were seated in the mess-room until the stage when the mess ordezrlies. had’ completed their tapks and the tables were again bare took only a little over half an hour, so thorough and complete was the system of feeding the young army.

Aftezr breakfast each morning the whohe mess-room wap: scrubbed with the nid of sand-soap and hot water by a permanent camp staff under a first-class, warrant officer. The cleanliness of the floor and table resembled the decks of a battleship when their arduous, task wais completed.