NEW ZEALAND ARMY AT HOME.

Otaki Mail, 24 January 1919, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND ARMY AT HOME.

(THE MOTOR TRANSPORT. ; . OUR OWN,CARS. (By H. T.'B. DREW, 2nd Lieutenant.) It is not necessary lor New Zealand to run an extensive motor transport|system either in Britain or in France. Most o£ this work is done for'her army by the Imperial Transport Corps. But she has her own Red Cross ambulance system in'England, and supplies also a certain number of men?for motor transport in France. "The headquarters of the New Zealand Transport are at the Oatlands Park (Walton-on-Tliames.) All motor transport “ details ” arriving from New Zealand report here. The men are classified according to their capabilities and allotted to certain work—as mechanics, drivers, base details, or for office, work. Asa matter of fact, very few of them cpme with Reinforcements ; the niajority are “ B ” class, who have seen service.

At the depdt there.are ten large ambulance cars,, the majority of which have beeri sent as gifts from various New Zealand towns. “ Gift from —” appears on their

sides ; and we can picture the “ ambulance day ” m that town, with the girls at the corners of the streets selling button-holes or flags to raise the money. There are several other cars at the other hospitals and camps but Oatlands'is the. main depot of supply for them. Here, also, repairing is done for headquarters and for Hornchurch. : Records are kept in a very handy and capable way, by means of postings on a board in the depot quarters office, of every car and every man in Britian and France, showing where each is and to what duty allotted.

Similarly, every detail is kept o£ each car and driver at this particu- I lar place. The ten cars at Oatlands have ten lady drivers—twelve, to be correct —English ladies who are ; paid for their services. By a card ! and diagram system it is possible , for those in the office to know j where every car is, by whose au- i thority it went out, the driver’s j name, what work it is doing, the i time the car left, the time it came | back, the length and time of the run, j cars in repair or being cleaned. Certain cars and drivers are told off each day and each night for convoy duties—meeting trains for wounded and sick, and carrying night nurses to their homes in the early mornings. Further, the petrol-consump-tion of each car on each run is recorded in a book, and every car is known for its capacity in this respect. These are valuable checks on the condition of the cars and the use to which the drivers put them. In England at present such a check is necessary, where the supply of petrol is limited, and in a branch of the service which would rapidly be extremely costly if no watchful were kept upon it. Workshops in connection with the service do all repairs. The men working therein are all New Zealanders. The outfit is most complete, and includes a switch for recharging batteries; most ingeniously aontrived out of odd bits of material. Big stocks are kept of oii, petrol and tyres, but every gallon of petrol used is accounted for, and stocks made up each morning and recorded in the office.

The menworking here have good quarters. The non-commissioned officers have their own mess, and one cook usually looks after the lot.