VERY MILD

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3286, 9 July 1943, Page 6

VERY MILD

IN NEW CALEDONIA PAEROA BOYS ALL WELL LETTER FROM PTE. L. BERRY Writing to the Gazette from New Caledonia only a few weeks ago, Pte. L. O. Berry stated that the weather there was beautiful and mild very much like spring in New Zealand. The boys, he said, were still wearing shorts and shirts and were swimming whenever they felt inclined. “I thought you might like to know a little more about the island and as I have travelled quite a bit more since last I wrote, I shall try and make an interesting bit of reading. “First of all the weather. It is beautiful and mild here, very much like late spring at home, with rather cool evenings and early mornings, but we are still in shorts and shirts and can get a swim at any time as yet. A Dirty Town Next a little about Noumea which is the capital and main town of the island as well as the centre of the wealth and Government. It is a scatteied town in the valley between a range of low hills. There is one of the nicest beaches you ever saw, white sand, good clear w r ater and waving palms on the phci-e. Sounds like a travel book, but that is all that is really grand about the place. The town is a dirty, narrow place with empty shops and the smell at times is terrible. The road guttering is the main outlet for sewerage and the rain is fairly scarce so you can imagine the results when the weather is hot and dry.

“There are some truly wonderful buildings on the hills above the town such as the hospital—a clean, modern building of coloured stone surrounded by verandahs and glassed-in wards. Then there is the Government building, surrounded by the really oldfashioned iron fence and it stands surrounded by palm trees. It’s the old Colonial style of rambling buildiitg"- The Catholic Cathedral is a beautiful old stone building standing on the hill facing out to sea. Its stone work is aged and worn but the inside is really .beautiful. Beside it is an out-building which is used as headquarters of the island Scout troop. It has photos of the troop through the yeais on the walls with a big photo of the Chief Scout. Shops Very Barren "The shops are very barren. Stocks are very poor on the outside but their storerooms are well stocked. For the

islanders themselves everything* is Very dear. They are out to make every penny they can out of the men in uniform. They have rayon stockings for women but as far as buying them for our people in New" Zealand, the price is too high—around 15s for anything that is worth sending home. We get the chance of eggs now and again, but they charge as much as 5s or 7s 6d a dozen, so they are a little too high for the average private in the New Zealand Army. A table bird is 7s 6d, so prices are a little high in most things for us. “The people are mostly French and on the whole seem quite well off. The men are mostly in uniform of the different branches of the Free French forces, with many different coloured types of dress. A big percentage of the coloured lads are also in the Army. The womenfolk are some of the most wonderfully dressed women I have had the pleasure to see and they carry themselves very well. They gain maturity very early in years and school lasses are as much developed here as our girls of 21 onwards.

Invitation to Dinner “ I was very lucky to receive an invitation out to dinner one evening from a Frenchman who spoke very good English. He was a buyer for the local markets in Australia. I had the pleasure of meeting his wife and family of two daughters and two sons, one daughter is being educated in Australia. The food was very, similar to our New Zealand homes except they had wine instead of tea, fresh meat and green vegetables which were really a treat to me, and crockery plates and silver. A native woman waited on the table, dsessed in long white shirts and blouse. “The most striking part of the house is the bedrooms with the big four-poster beds with -beautiful lace hangings draped over the top—a thing that has been out of date for years and years in New Zealand. “Another odd thing is the milk man —a little slight Javanese with a long pole on which hangs a bag on either end in which he has about a dozen

bottles the same in colour and shape as our standard beer bottle with a screw top. He walks on his round night and morning. I visited one or two milking sheds around about and the conditions would make a dairy inspector burst into tears—mud, manure, slush everywhere, and smell and flies. Well, least said the better. The milk can’t have any turning point on this island. Doing a Marvellous Job “ The American Red Cross is doing a marvellous job of work in Noumea. It has a big headquarters in the centre of the town which is open to our New Zealand boys and everybody in uniform. It has a huge room with reading materials and chairs and tables where one can sit and drink icecold fruit juice and eat doughnuts or sandwiches at 5 cents apiece. Also there is a writing room, showers, clean towels, information desk and games room. I believe at times our own girls are on duty there as hostesses. I did have the pleasure of seeing them. “They also have a big beer garden where they sell at certain times of the day American beer canned or bottled, and ice cream.

“In the centre of the garden which is really a concrete one with a high netting fence, is a boxing ring where they stage bouts between different branches of the forces. One of the organisers is Tom Heeney the ex New Zealand boxer. He is quite a popular person with both us and the Americans. Plenty of Fruit “This is really the fruit season now and the orange and mandarins are really wonderful. On our last stunt, in the bush we. fed on oranges fruits by the dozen. It was a real change from a week of nothing but corned meat and canned vegetables, hard biscuits and dried fruits. “A while ago something must have happened to the Army as they must have made a mistake and thought it was 'Christmas, as we had chicken and ham. Just a taste all round, still it made us feel that there was still some good food in the world, and the last week we have had two lots of fresh, eggs for breakfast, two per 'man, and the boys thoroughly enjoyed them I can tell you. We have had a fair share of frozen meat of late, so on the whole meals are not so bad.

Paeroa Boys All Well “I met Graham Bush in camp in Noumea, stripped to the waist doing a great job of work in the kitchen of the Reserve Transport Camp. With ham was Monty Davies keeping the ■big trucks in working order and Jim Handley at the wheel of a big truck. I also met Stan Welch again. He is at the General Hospital as their tailor. He has his own little tent complete with sewing' machine, benches and all complete. He/ like the rest of us, is fed up of this waiting for something to move. “We have had plenty of realistic training lately in the hills and bush, the rain made .the ground soft and slippery. It’s wonderful what the Army trucks will do and where they will go. We had a week out last time and had planes diving at us and everything except real bullets flying. “I have not seen any of the other Paeroa lads but I have heard that most are well and I met a couple of Thames boys last week, new to the island since I wrote —Johnny Cleave and Con Burnett, both have been here just over a month and have settled down. Andy Holder of Puriri is in the hospital with a bad knee 'but seems happy and Ron Court of Thames is. looking well and all are in good condition just at present.