29

D.—l

A hospital building was erected under contract, but all the other works above mentioned were carried out by day labour. Featherston Camp. —This camp has been constructed practically in its entirety by this Department. Work was commenced in August, 1915, but practically no building-work was done until September. The permanent camp, designed to accommodate 4,500 men, was handed over to the military authorities for occupation on the 25th January last. The camp as at first designed was intended to accommodate 2,500 men, but ultimately it was extended to contain 7,000. Since the 25th January building operations have been continued, and practically the whole of the camp has been maintained. In the permanent camp the buildings erected to date total 233 in number, besides nineteen in the canvas camp adjacent. The Department was also called upon to supervise the erection of twenty-nine private buildings. The permanent camp buildings include ninety men's huts, sixteen officers' huts, eight large dining-halls, twenty stables, and a great variety of other buildings and structures, generally similar to those at Trentham. Over 3,000,000 superficial feet of timber and 27J tons of nails have been used by the Department. In the permanent camp 241 chains of streets and 204 chains of footpaths were formed and metalled, 23,000 cubic yards Ai gravel being used. In the canvas camp 26 chains of road was formed and metalled. Two systems of drainage have been installed. Surface water from streets, roofs, &c, is collected in open concrete channels in the streets and conducted away from the camp partly in pipes and partly in an open race after passing through a suitable mud-tank. All polluted water from ablution-stands, cookhouses, latrines, wash-ups, showers, &c., is collected by an underground drainage system, converging into a 12 in. gravity sewer 50 chains long, discharging into the Tauherenikau River. A septic tank has been installed at the hospital block, the effluent being discharged into the main sewer. The surface-drainage system necessitated the construction of 263 chains of open concrete channelling and 101, chains of 18 in. pipe. The foul-drainage system includes a total length of 321 chains, or over 4 miles, of pipes. There aro two water-supply systems, one for drinking and cooking purposes, the other for ablutions, latrines, stables, &c. The former is derived from two wells which have been sunk and lined with concrete to a depth of 40 ft., and connected by an underground drive about 1 chain in length, which has been extended 80 ft. eastward to drain additional country. The water is pumped by centrifugal, pumps into a 13,000-gallon vat mounted on a stand 30 ft. high, whence the camp) is reticulated. The pumps can be driven by either an oil-engine or an electric motor. The other supply is derived from the Tauherenikau River by means of a water-race, being diverted into pipes at a point some 30 chains from the north-east corner of the camp. The pipes used comprised 124 chains of 6 in. spiral steel main and 410 chains of galvanized-irOn pipes of various sizes, making a total length of 6 miles 54 chains of water-pipes laid. 680 taps have been connected. Electric lighting has been installed throughout the permanent camp, about 2,300 points having been connected. The electric power is derived from two 125 h.p. suction-gas engines, each driving a 75 kw. dynamo. For fire-prevention purposes nine 6,000-gallon underground concrete water-tanks have been constructed in suitable positions throughout the camp, and boxes to contain chemical extinguishers, also fire-buckets and stands for same, have been provided where necessary. A railway-siding, 1 mile 45 chains in length, has been constructed from Featherston to the camp, and. a large station-yard has been made at the camp. A considerable amount of wire and picket fencing, with gates, has been erected in. and about the camp, and an area of 5 acres was planted with trees to form a shelter-belt. The maximum number of men employed by the Department was 1,050. Owing to the impossibility of obtaining board and lodging for such a number at a small place like Featherston, the Department was called upon to provide accommodation and food, for its employees, and for this purpose a large number of cooks and orderlies had to be engaged and organized. The number of meals served by the Department up to the 31st March was 373,120; the quantity of meat used was 231,617 lb.; bread, 100,800 lb., and other provisions in proportion. Although the work at the camps is nearing completion we have still about 250 men employed, mostly in connection with the numerous additions and improvements which are found necessary or desirable from time to time. I have, &c, R. W. Holmes, M.lnst., C.E., The Hon. the Minister of Public Works. Enginccr-in-Chief.