LETTER FROM THE TRENCHES.

A - MOKOIA- BOY'S EXPERIENCES

A'most uncommon covering for a! letter from the front has been received by Mrs Catchpole, of Mokoia, from one of her sons, who has been in most of the fighting at Gallipoli. The letter was written in the trenches, on the last scrap of paper the writer possessed there, and the envelope is a piece of khaki, stitched round the edge and fastened by a shirt button. Trooper E. Catchpole says he is "writing in the trenches, witfi the enemy's trenches about 50 yards away. In some places they are only 25 ■ yardsaway, and there is often an exchange of compliments (otherwise, hand grenades, bombs, etc.). You would not think there was an enemy within miles all is s» quiet and peaceful, with only an occasional shot from snipers, and as one looks along the trench one sees the men sitting about chatting or reading, and others shaving and having tea (it's about 7 a.m.). You find it hard to believe that at any minute it may be changed to the rattle of rifles and machine guns, and the sight of dead and wounded n.en. We have about ten days more to put in before we are relieved, and most of us will be very sorry when the fortnight is up. Things have been very quiet since our last rally, and except' for a volley now and then through the night or in the early morning there is very little doing. The gun which was causing us so much trouble with shrapnel while we were on the beach has not fired at all the last few days, but the snipers are still very hot. " I am writing with the back of a periscope for a table to pass the time until breakfast. The food is good and plentiful, and they have been issuing more clothes and boots than we want (different to Egypt). In another letter he says: "This is the second week we have been rest-

ing—that is to say, road-making and sapping. We are camped on tlie side of a hill—'Shrapnel Villa'—about 200 yards from tne sea, and are having.a regular picnic, living in dug-outs cover-I ed with green stuff or oil sheets. The * weather is perfect, and we have a j swim every day, and often two or' three. The sea is very warm, and! eyer since we have been here has been as smooth as glass, and as it is a small cove where we swim and sheltered on i three sides, I do not suppose it is -ever \ rough. We are making up for our i Christmas and Easter holidays. The ■ greatest trouble is shrapnel and ' snipers. We had to shift our quarters i yesterday on account of the shrapnel i (one of our troop was killed and one wounded the night before), and it is j very funny at times when the gun I goes off to see our fellows, and in fact everyone for hundreds of yards round, ducking like rabbits into the dug-outs! There is one- satisfaction about it— you hear the gun and the shell whistling through the air a few seconds before it explodes, and that gives one I time to get his head at least out of sigitf. It is a co-Timon sight to see one s blankets or clothes hanging out to dry riddled with bullets, and some-! times when you go to use a mug or dixie you find it much better for a strainer than for holding water. One ] of our troop was wounded by the bullet striking his bayonet and splattering mto his face. We happened to be in the end of a new trench which was ma very rough state and not halfnmshed, and one had to expose himself too much to get a shot, and there was not enough protection from the enemy's fire. They got a machine gun mto position about 20 yards from our trench, which did considerable damage before we managed to reply Then our gun had a duel for an hour before the other was silenced." He -goes on to say that "later in the day we went tor water and for a swim. When we got down we found everyone huddled mto the scrub and the bullets landing in the water thick and fast. Swimming therefore was off at that spot." were evidently at a premium; for he says he was offered Is for the last he- had. "The only thing we worry about," he concludes, "is tobacco and cigarettes." A letter received from Malta from Private C. Claridge (formerly of Ha- i wera) states that some of the small bones of one of his ankles had been smashed by a bullet, which had not been extracted whe he wrote on the Bth of June, and it has since T)een stated that the wound had been found to be more serious than it was at first supposed to be. He added: "I am to be sent home to New Zealand, as, in the words of the doctor, 'You'll be counted out of the rest of this war '" Private Claridge was engaged at Gallipoh from April 25 to May 8, when he was wounded. He describes this period as a "fortnight's hell."