LIFE AT THE FRONT.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 August 1916, Page 6

LIFE AT THE FRONT.

AS SEEN BY A TAR ATA MAX

following are- extracts from a letter received' fiw Eilleman ft. Blaekburnc, late of Tarata:-

I have just finished off twelve days' night work in the trendies, and for the last two days have 'had rather an easy time of it, us far as work is concerned, cleaning and overhauling bombs, sitting, by the way, in a comfortable armchair in a room of the old Chamber of Commerce of this town. What an awful mess the place is in! You can't imagine the wreck. Books and papers scattered all over the place, shell holes in some of the walls, and bullet holes everywhere. What an incredible amount of ■labor after the war in building things up again! The same wanton destruction is to be seen all over the town, and I am afraid before long the place will be levelled like Eheims and Ypres. There are several \ery fine old churches here, two at least much larger than the Christchurch Cathedral, but they are gradually being knocked to pieces. One, the largest, is still not lieyond repair, but several big shells struck it last night, 1 noticed.

The town is being; shelled regularly every night now. Our billet has had some narrow escapes, the neighboring houses being blown up and the street outside, but beyond a rain of bricks and tiles, and lumps of shell, our roof has escaped any serious damage.

There was a heavy thunderstorm last evening, and it rained in torrents, necessitating shifting our gear owing to the riddled condition of our roof. The most annoying part of last night's little entertainment, as far as we arc concerned in our billet, was the smashing of the water-main on the road outside by a shell, which did not explode, but went right through it, with the result that our-taps-this morning had no water tn them; consequently no wash. I don't think I have mentioned before (lie excellent arrangements here made by the New Zealand Division for procuring baths and clean clothes after coming out of the trenches. We hand in our dirty clothes and receive a clean lot in exchange. The trenches are very smelly and dirty, swarming with rats and other unspeakable annoyances, so yon can imagine the luxury of a hot bath and change of underclothes. Our First Battalion Band is still going strong (when the players are not otherwise engaged in the trenches), even if they do "have to plav, for diplomatic reason's, down a rellar in a big factory, or some such s»fc corner. The night we first went into the trenches they gave us a capital concert in a big weaving factory.