WASHING DONE HERE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 39, 21 March 1940, Page 3

WASHING DONE HERE

soldier of to-day to become his own laundryman. Hot water, concrete tubs, electric irons, special drying sheds and ironing boards are at his disposal. Saturday afternoon is washing day and he plies himself industriously among the soapsuds. Hh provision is made for the On areas near the laundries clothes lines are being erected so that all washing can be dried in the open air when the weather is fine. The wash-houses are spacious and airy. All down one side is a row of concrete tubs, with hot and cold water laid: on to each one, On the opposite wall is a row of ironing benches, with plugs to each of them to take an. electric iron. There are 21 such irons in use at Trentham. In the new hutments: provision. is being made for the installation of ironing boards. and of points. to: take- electric irons. These boards will’ fold up against the wall when not in use by trouser pressers. Irons and ironing boards will become part of the equipment: of every

hut before the military camps are really complete in every small detail. By an ingenious system, hot air is circulated round high drying sheds, Mechanism operating a fan at each end of the room circulates the air among the wet clothes. Hundreds of coat-hangers are part of the equipment of each shed, The wet clothes are put on the hangers and, with the aid of a long hooked pole, attached to the lines, high overhead, running across from wall to wall. And there, in all the colours of the rainbow, hang suits of pyjamas, shirts, singlets, socks, and other odds and ends of a soldier's wardrobe, These drying rooms are also for use during wet weather, when uniforms, boots and overcoats can be dried out ‘in the shortest possible time. Fatigue men are on duty to attend to the furnaces, for which ‘there is no lack of fuel. In order to avoid waste in the army the ‘surplus pieces of timber which carpenters ‘leave behind them when huts are being built are’ used for the furnaces,