DANCES HELD

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3299, 11 August 1943, Page 2

DANCES HELD

TROOPS IN NEW CALEDONIA PLAINS GIRL ATTENDS N.Z. SOLDIERS ENTERTAINED (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) It has been recorded that no adventure in life is more interesting than meeting a new person, and for New Zealand Army personnel serving in New Caledonia this assertion has particular application where members of the Army Nursing Service are concerned. Opportunities for social meetings between men of the Division and the nursing sisters are limited, but the efforts of the N.Z.E.F. I.P. Dance Committee, established to organise dances at a central point, are bridging that gap. Convened by Colonel W. W. Dove, M.C., of Auckland, the committee has as its chairman Lieut.Colonel D. E. L.. Rout, of Dunedin, and is well served by Mr R. Salmon, Whangarei, as secretary, Bister P. Curtiss, 'Mahurangi Heads, North Auckland, Major A. H. Thom, Wellington, Capt. I. Galbraith, Auckland, and S.-Sergt. J. Stringer, Hastings. Mr Salmon is resident Y.M.C.A. secretary in the area. A Weekly Feature Dances are now a weekly feature in a certain Y.M.C.A. building, and' at the last one the hall, attractively decorated with greenery from nearby plantation's, presented a gay and colourful scene. Nursing sisters and W.A.A.C’s., uniformed in starchy white relieved with red and green epaulettes, mingled freely with the local French girls, and all spent four pleasant hours dancing with khakiclad New Zealanders. Chairs surrounding the dancing floor were occupied throughout the evening by comely French matrons nursing sleeping children, and bespectacled and bewhiskered Frenchmen, while les demoiselles, daintily frocked in gowns such as our New Zealand girls back home might wear,, added a nostalgic touch. A popular event of the evening was a Monte Carlo dance, and symbolic of the firm friendship existing between New Zealanders and the peoples of Free France, this was won by Private J. Read, of Hastings, and Mlle. Elaine Bastide. The prizes were presented by Miss D. M. Hall, of Hamilton, matron of a New Zealand General Hospital in New Caiedonia. Four Supper Sittings

Four sittings were required before a plentiful supper was concluded, and good things provided, including fruit salad, fruit cake, sandwiches, chilled pineapple juice and coffee. The New Zealand girls present were:— Miss D. M. Hall, Hamilton; Sisters B. Dewes, Napier; H. Foster, Lower Hutt; E. M. Mcllraith, Ashburton; N. Hickey, Waipahi, Otago; G. J. Freebairn, Auckland; K. B. Brigham, Auckland; H. Campbell, Christchurch; W. Gunn, Waimate South; E. M. Williams, Te Puke; B. A. Paterson, New Plymouth; P. Pownall, Nelson; I. J. Dunlop, Christchurch; A. A. Cundy, Featherston; M. E. Burke, Hauraki Plains; Privates P. Bassett, Whangarei; F. A. Keinzley, Auckland; B. Finlay, Napier; and M. E. Leyland, Napier. The four last-mentioned are members of the W.A.A.C.