CAMP CANCELLED

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 936, 1 April 1930, Page 11

CAMP CANCELLED

SIGNALLERS TURNED AWAY AT NARROW NECK WENT BACK FOR ‘AT HOME” The Government's decision to cancel military training camps for the year came as a last minute reprieve to the Auckland detachment of the New Zealand Corps of Signallers. The men had actually arrived with their equipment at the camp gates when they were told that there would be no training. The signallers, who are principal: members of the staff of the Post and Telegraph Department, complete their training for thb‘ year in a series of week-end camps at Narrow Neck. The final camp of the training year was to have begun on Saturday, but when the men arrived it was announced that instructions had been received earlier in the day cancelling ! the camp. Supplies of food had been 1 taken to the North Shore, but were i now unnecessary and were returned ■ to the city. To make the position more involved, j an At Home had been arranged for j the Sunday afternoon. Guests had I been invited and refreshments 1 ordered. Captain G. H. Clifton, M.C., who was to have been in charge of the camp, had not been informed of; the position until a few hours previously, and decided that this portion of j the programme at least could well hr* carried out. The signallers accord inglv returned home, but were back i early at the camp next day and i everything was in order when the j numerous visitors began to arrive j The men had gone to a great deal of | trouble preparing the grounds and set- j ting out the huts as though they had actually been in occupation, and *

there was nothing to show that their labour had been purely voluntary. Although this camp was cancelled no change was made in the programme of the casual camp of the Ist Battalion, the Auckland Regiment, at Ngaruawahia, which began last week. The men are to return to Auckland on Thursday. The parades arranged for Anzac Day. too. will be carried out as originally intended. This morning Captain J. G. C. Wales, adjutant of the Ist Battalion, who was in camp at Trentham with the military police force then training for Samoa, resumed his duties in Auckland. During his absence Captain F: L. Hunt, formerly of Dunedin, was acting as adjutant here.