MANY & VARIED

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3245, 29 March 1943, Page 5

MANY & VARIED

INSECT LIFE IN PACIFIC AIRMAN’S EXPERIENCES ALL GETTING VERY BROWN An interesting account of his experiences since he left New Zealand is contained in the following letter from A.C'.l. G. R. S. Clark to his mother, Mrs H. R. Clark of Hill street, Paeroa. A.C.I. Clark writes as under: — “After we had our money changed in the afternoon we were taken by bus to our ship. We embarked in the rain but the weather didn’t dull the excitement of the moment. On board, we were allotted quarters, lectured on “alarm” and “abandon ship” stations, given lifebelts, mattresses, etc. My quarters, with 14 others, were in the dental surgery, a good place, for it has more ventilators per unit area than most of the ship and the dentist chair provides a good armchair if one forgets its associations. “The discipline on the trip was not irksome and we dressed as we pleased, the weather was always fine. As we sailed at almost dusk I stood up on deck and watched till dark. The harbour looked wonderful in the halflight and with the sunset looked like a painting by Turner. “The first night out I slept in a full pyjama suit with one blanket but during the last few nights I was sleeping with no covering but a pair of underpants. Although it has been hot we have had showers and cold salt baths all the time but no sooner are you finished than perspiration comes streaming out of you in rivers. The ice water got such a thrashing that the “frige” couldn’t keep it cool and we bought umpteen cold soda drinks at a Id a glass all day long. ' A Smooth Trip

“In the daytime we sat up on deck sunbathing (with discretion). I’m now fast resembling a native. The top of your topee gets quite hot to the touch. At meal time we had to go down into the mess which was next to the stokehold and is the hottest place on the ship. The sweat runs off your elbows as you’re eating. “All through the voyage we saw nothing but one shark and a few flying fish. The sea a grew bluer the further north we went. • It was a beautiful shade of blue which you can look right down into and as. night falls it would turn to a jet black like undulating coal. “The trip was smooth going but a few were sick. The food was good and despite the heat it was pretty good. Lots of boys slept on deck the last few days but as the gun deck is barred the good positions on the boat deck are soon taken up and rather than 'bother I slept in the dental surgery free from worries of dew and rain and with a couple of vents blasting on me was just as cool as they.

“Early one morning we sighted our first land and in no time seemed to be surrounded by islands covered with thick tropical growth right down to the water’s edge. The water was glass smooth with flying fish playing about. When we .finally dropped anchor in the harbour the jungle was superseded by ordered rows of coconut palms in plantations and the water was as blue a« your washing rinse but at the same time so clear that all the little minnows could he seen swimming for fathoms down while tins thrown' over could be seen for fifty feet down. The water is so warm you cannot feel it if you put your feet in it. First Coconuts “This morning I was part of a gang unloading stores onto steel lighters and it was hot work for although quite cool in the evening and early morning here it gets pretty hot by eight o’clock and continues to five. “The boys brought back some coconuts to-night after being ashore with the lighters. It is the only local fruit, so they say, so we will see plenty for there are millions of them but stiL they taste good at present. “As New Zealanders we will be few compared to Americans but they seem good fellows from what we’ve seen so far and I think this place will suit me fine for nine months or so.

“To-night is our last night on board and to-morrow we go to make our new homes amongst the palms. I m sitting up late to get this letter finished clad only in a pair of pants with a ‘sweat rag’ round my neck for it’s after ‘lights out’ and in order to write I’ve to do it in the passage and to get away from a vent below decks is to swelter.

Writing later A.C.I. Clark wrote as under: —

“I’m snatching these few moments while waiting for tools for digging our tent’s air raid *funkhole.’ Three Major Annoyances

“We have three major annoyances here, how to keep cool, how to keep ourselves clean and how to keep our clothes clean and sweet. The climate is very humid so that the slightest

exertion makes rivers of perspiration stream out of you. A terrible thirst grips you and most wander lound with a water bottle on the hip, consuming gallons of water a day. Until evening we wander stripped to the waist in shorts and. topee, alternatively a shirt open at the neck and hung outside your pants. “When evening comes it is compulsory to dress in long pants and shirt with anklets and boots for then the more than ample ‘bug life’ comes to life to plague you. The water tastes pretty rotten at first, being distilled seawater and chlorinated but you drink so much that in time it isn’t noticed.

“There are two kinds of water., washing water which is so hard the soap just curds on the top and drinking water which is marked ‘D’ for unchlorinated water could pass on any tropical disease. “Three times a week we can buy one bottle of lager for Is 3d and doesn’t it go down well for it quenches your thirst as nothing else here can and it cools and tastes better than any other drink obtainable here for even the tea and coffee cannot disguise the chlorate of lime. “Every day there is a swimming parade for this provides a means of cleaning the stale sweat from your body but here the sea is warm, the streams are warm, and as soon as you’re out you start to feel sticky, and hot so that it’s a pleasure when you start to "drip again. A much more satisfactory methodi is to get a tin of water, use your swim suit as a large sponge and thoroughly sluice yourself down, it gives a good clean feeling and cools you off for a while. In the mornings you shave with cold water. No Hair Oil “Hair is going to be a problem for here hair oil is unknown and. so far as I’ve discovered so is a barber. “Our camp site is newly cleared so that the ground is soft underfoot as the rainy season is here. When it rains it does rain. At times the mud is almost as -bad as Flanders, but it soon dries up. While it-is soft, however, your clothes get in a wonderful mess so that with sweat combined washing day is pretty frequent. Just after you’ve scrubbed the clothes nice and clean (?) in cold water it decides to'rain agan and as your change of clothing is fast becoming soiled while your other is wet you suffer from a futile desperation and start to mutter under your breath nasty things about water in general. is fast becoming like home for by scrounging and hard work we now have a table with shelves under it; a kit bag stand; a wash stand, towel rail, all made from boxes, a nail from here, a saw from somewhere else, and a hammer from another and bayonets still play the same great part this wai. Our bed*.are folding camp stretchers and at night you lay on one blanket, two foi a pillow, clad only in pyjama trousers and shrouded in a tent of mosquito net, sweating to beat the band but the early morning becomes quite cool so that sleep then becomes a comfort. Drinking Less “In all the life isn’t so bad as it seems for now our blood is thinning to the . climate we are drinking and less and are becoming quite used to the place. The meals are excellent even if more than three-quar-ters comes from tins. There is a greater variety of vegetables and food than at a large home station. They even ‘can’ mashed ‘spuds’ and carrots and parsnips, although we are getting fresh beetroot, onions and ‘spuds’ at present. “Here I am with an hour to spare with no clothes to wash or other things to distract me so here is the start of my third weekly letter home,” again writes A.'C.l. Clark. “Nobody else can have a letter* yet but now that I’m settling down to the place and the heat doesn’t bother me so much I can make a habit of writing a bit each day so that some of the others will have a letter. The mails in here are very good generally being flown over but as for the out mails they will take longer. This is just the opposite to what it was in New Zealand. “At present I am on a sanitary squad digging holes for our new camp, 'but it isn’t so bad for the others that still haven’t started their proper work are digging “fox holes” (air raid trenches) and our hours on the sanitary squad are better spaced than the others. ' Getting Used to Heat “The heat doesn’t, affect us much now and the terrific thirst we had when we arrived has abated to normal. We knock round mostly bare to the waist (am getting pretty brown) but have to wear boots for cuts can be septic in no time here. The boots are necessary for every night it rains (and what rain) so that in a couple of minutes we’re surrounded by mud This however, dries so fast that by the afternoon, where exposed to the

sun, the ground is rock-hard again. After five o’clock it is necessary to wear “longs” and cover as much of the the body as we are able for then the maleria mosquito ventures forth. This dress is compulsory till sunrise if not under mosquito net, but where we are camped mosquitoes don’t bother us much.

“The insect life here is many and varied. At night there are things not seen in New Zealand, such as fireflies, which flit through the trees like, cigarette ends, and luminous caterpillars which are very large and shine so brightly all over you can see them yards away. Gorgeous Things “The moths and butterflies are gorgeous things, much larger than at home and the colourings are such that to see them makes you want to start collecting them.

“The real pests are flies, little black ones like our« house flies, 'but in spite of the heat they have 300' per cent, more vigour. The slightest little pimple or scratch they are on it in dozens and slaps and squirming has not the slightest damping of their endeavours. They are more worry to us than theheat. Also, they are carriers of dysentry so the place has to be kept very clean to prevent breeding and contamination of our food and utensils.

“Then there are the ants, ranging from big black jaws down to tiny ones you can hardly see. There’s a medium brown one cralwing on my pad just now. A large brown variety have taken a liking to my boots so that every time I change into spare bootsl can knock a dozen or so out of them—still the ants do not bother us at all.

“Lizards are also numerous and every pile of rubbish has one or two. There is one very active little one that provides great sport trying to catch them. Strangely though insect and reptile life abounds I’ve only seen a fe wbirds since I have been here.

Likes His Job

“My proper work has started now and although it is not quite the same work as back in New Zealand I am learning fast and it is very interesting.

“In the first few weeks the heavy manual work of digging holes in heavy ground and the gettin gacclimatised used to drag all the energy from us but now I rather like the life and am keeping in good health. You learn to take the continual sweating at the slightest exertion or ever, drinking some water, also the flies and the ants with philosophical t acceptance and in all are quite comfortable. I now get three hours off in the middle of the day and am using them for writingas at night we have only candles (one) at present and after undown you become very weary. Bedtime is usually from eight o’clock to 9.30 on picture night.

Pictures Twice a Week

“Twice a week we have pictures supplied by the American Red Cross. They are all pretty late releases such as “Eagle Squadron” and “Lady In a Jam,” which both showed in New Zealand. Admission is free of course and the shows are really enjoyed for they provide one of the few entertainments here. Can you imagine the projector mounted on a truck in the jungle throwing the pictures across the clearing on to a screen hung between two coconut palms, the boys seated in the clearing on camp stretches, boxes, tins, the fortunates on canvas chairs, some seated m trucks or hung in the trees, nearly everyone with a cigarette- or pipe. If a warning goes or it rains they close down until its over, then continue.

“Some of the American negro soldiers gave us a concert the other night but I cannot say I enjoyed it for it was a “Harlem Swingster” style or “jitterbug” although they were very good of their class and they have a fine “jazz,” or should I say “swing,” orchestra. “My experience with cocinuts I must tell you about. Before we landed from the ship some of the boys who had been ashore brought back a few coconuts which made me think of all the stories I had heard about the delicious milk of green coconuts, so. on landing, I made straight for some palms to discover they were a pretty tall sort of trees so I contented myself with one of the many ripe ones that had fallen to the ground, thinking that ‘Well the ripe ones we had back home weren’t so -bad anyway? Trouble With a Coconut

“After attacking the thick fibre husk that surrounds the nut for half an hour with a bayonet and getting very hot in the process, I raised it to my lips and took a hearty “swig” to discover it was rotten. I was trying to get rid of the taste for hours

afterwards. Later at our camp we obtained some green, ones by tackling a small palm by the foot to shoulder principle, but they didn’t taste at all nice. We found from experience that they were too green and the right amount of ripeness is necessary Out of the right nuts the milk is rather nice but you get sick of it pretty quickly.

“Another fruit is paw paw. This has bright orange fleck like pumpkin but this too is rather sickly. Limes also grow here and they are really nice, good thirst quenchers and not as sour as lemons but not sweet and are dark green whe nripe so it is hard to find them on a tree.

There’s little to spend money on here except necessities. We have all the best brands of cigarettes like Camels, Chesterfield, Lucky Strike, Phillip Morris, etc. Oother than smokes, prices are the equivalent cf those in New Zealand. There is never any real need to buy cigarettes here unless one prefers a special brand for the American. Red Cross issue more than enough. We each received three tins of fifty for the current month and can. receive up to 12 tins per month if available and the “Yanks” give us plenty. Watch Straps Don’t Last

“Wrist watch straps of leather rot through in a month with perspiration so I made myself a duralium one. An American admired it so I gave it to him saying that if he could find me a pair of sunglasses I’d be much obliged and he promptly turned to his mate, collared his glasses and gave them to me so for an hour’s work and a scrap of dural I obtained a really good pair of glasses. I’ve since made myself a stainless steel strap.”