SETTLING DOWN

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3248, 5 April 1943, Page 5

SETTLING DOWN

PAEROA BOYS IN PACIFIC LIKE NEWS FROM HOME PLAYING FOOTBALL IN HEAT That local news is greatly appreciated by the New Zealand boys (mentioning Paeroa news in particular) serving in the Pacific area is emphasised by Pte. L. G. Berry, formerly of Paeroa, in the following letter to the Gazette.

Pte. Berry writes as follows: —

“Just a line or two to give you a little of the local news up to date. To-day there was a parcel and paper mail—quite a pleasant surprise and very welcome. I was lucky and had three or four Gazettes from home and you don’t know how welcome they are. Even the advertisements are looked through and they sure travel once they arrive for there is a big bunch here from home and district, although in oui’ battalion Roy White and myself are the only- two from Paeroa with Jack Barry from the Thames .Coast. Stan Welch, another Paeroa boy, is in the hospital here (he had a dry cleaning business in Paeroa before he jqined up), and young Doug. Ross from the Bank of N.Z. is commissioned as a Ist lieutenant at Base Records. He has certainly climbed since he left home. Then there is Mick Jamieson, Bill Vercoe, Eric Pett, R. S. Nicol '(the town clerk), Lionel Brown (a Maori lad in the A.S.C.), and ione of the Fitzgeralds from Karangahake, and one or two more I cannot think of at present. ’ Still this will give you an idea of how much local news is welcome here no matter how much overdue or 'stale it is—it’s all good reading to us. Island Rather Barren “It is a very poor place here, no life at all. The island’is very barren and the growth very poor. The trees are small and have no height and the grass short and. a very reddish brown colour but there must/be great feed value in it as the cattle are really prime and they have a cannery here. In peace-time they export canndd beef to France but nbw it is sent to feed the Free French troops in the» Pacific and North Africa. “Coconut palms are plentiful but the nuts are small and never get. a chance as they are used for their juice which is very nice. Bananas are also grown but are very poor, same with the pineapples which we buy for four to six for a dollar. “Coffee is the main crop in most places but it is a very poor bean with very . little taste. Flowers are very scarce here. Wealthy In Minerals “The main trade is in minerals, nickel and chrome, which is .in great quantities; in fact the Americans say it is the wealthiest island in minerals in the Pacific which is saying something. It is all worked by. native labour under French control. Most of the natives talk nothing but French and. there is only one in a hundred of the French who can understand us or we them, although a lot have picked up a little English from the Americans.

“You cannot buy a thing here—the Americans have just cleaned out everything that was saleable so our money is useless to us. We are paid in U.S.A, dollars at the rate of four dollars to the pound, which .we can send through the pay office to New Zealand and they pay out 6s Id to the dollar to our account in New Zealand so it is really quite good. “We have a Y.M.C.A. tent here with a wireless in 'it and we get outside news and we can tune'into little old New Zealand, which is great. The set is going full blast at present on an American station and the place is packed with lads, some playing ping-pong and all kinds of card games and draughts. It is hard to write under these conditions.

“They put on a cup ,of tea which we get free but we pay 1 cent for three biscuits. Anything to drink is very welcome as it is a very dry heat here, very hot in the day but the nights and early morning very pleasantly cool. Mud Like The Plains

“This place is worse than the Hauraki Plains for mud while it is raining, but in an hour or two aLer it has stopped the ground is baked bard again. It sure is a hot place. Your clothes stick to you wet all day, but that is not the!worst thing we have to put up with.

“The mosquitoes and ants are both man-eaters. They attack you day and night. We canrot sleep without our-nets, and thoy supply us w< h hat nets and gloves right to ihe shcu.ders for picket duty. “We are fed on American rations. Everything ccmes out of t.ns. We get meat, souseges. fish, dried potatoes (they look like- dried s row cut about 3 inches long) and

dried like chaff but when soaked they are quite fair, milk, butter, carrots, parsnips, beetroot, onions, and spinach and we get plenty of pickled gherkins (sweet and sour) and pickled onions all out of tins, blit the tinned jam is really good, in fact it puts New Zealand jam in the shade. They put in nothing but the, best fruit. In the strawberry ‘jam you get the whole fruit. We get pure grapefruit juice for breakfast or pure tomato juice—it is really great. On the whole the food is easily got sicl| of and we long for something fresh' and something we can put our teeth into. .Still we could get worse and less. Rugby In The Heat “Well, that is' a fair idea of life here and the surroundings on this island of New Caledonia. “Kindly give my regards to all in Paeroa. Give my regards to Mr Edwards and tell him we have started football here on a Saturday* and play in just under a hundred in the shade. L#st week it was 97 to be exact. We play two 25 minute spells and after a game you feel <as though you have, been squeezed through a wringer and then fried. The field is ag stony as a shingle pit with .a few sharp roots thrown in for good measure. Still it is a great game, even if the Americans think we are mad. “Well, cheerio for now, wishing you all the best and we are all hoping t° •be home this year. The Americans have hopes of the war being over before the New Year, so here’s hoping.”