GREAT MILITARY CAMP.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 83, 8 April 1925, Page 5

GREAT MILITARY CAMP.

WORK AT HOPUHOPU. DOMINIONS' AMMUNITION DEPOT. A SPLENDID TRAINING GROUND. Midway between Ngaruawnhia and Taupiri, bounded by the railway anfl the Waikato River, is a long strip of land, some 500 acres in area, level excepting fov an extensive hill that rises to an elevation of some ninety feet. This is Hopuhopu, site of tiio old mission stiition of the name. Once the home of peace, it is now being transformed by the engineers and men of the Public Works Department into a ramp of training for war. Acquired by the Defence Department about three years ago, the Hopuhopu mission site has already been used as a camp for trainees, but it is in the rough, and the plans on which the engineers are now working aim at its conversion into a thoroughly equipped permanent military depot, to be officially known as the Ngaruawahia Mobilisation Ba-se. When the plans arc completed it will be the chief military magazine, for the Dominion, and probably the greatest ordnance depot.

Through the courtesy of the Defence authorities and Mr. E. K. James, the engineer in charge of the work, a "Star" representative was permitted to inspect the camp in the making yesterday. The site at once suggests it-self as an ideal one for the purpose intended, and this idea is backed by expert engineering and military opinion. There has been some criticism of the area on the ground that it is damp, but this has proved to be a matter that can and will be easily overcome. After heavy rain, there is a degree of surface damp, caused by the matting of thick vegetable growth, but the sinking of a number of tesiholos luw revealed a porous, sandy soil beneath, which, when the "matting" in removed, will readily allow all moisture to percolate and leave a dry surface. In fact, the site lends itself readily to perfect draining. About one hundred men are engaged"lv the work of clearing and building, and they have been greatly hampered in their preliminary operations by the amount of furze and blackberry that 'successive owners of the land (including the Government) have allowed to grow on it. The furze is not so hard to clear, but an instance of the pertinacity of the blackberry was shown in a patch that was again springing to vigorous growth t\Vo months after it had been cut. Over one hundred acres have been cleared, and there remains another 150 acres to be dealt with by hook and fire. A Varied Terrain. The great value of the Hopuhopu site is that it is adaptable to every branch of military training. A detraining platform a quarter of a mile long will be constructed on the main railway line for the embarkation and disembarkation of troops; there are large level areas for parade grounds; there are hills for reconnoitre and signalling; there is the river for bridge-train and pontoon drill, i and in fact, the contour of the country will enable training in every department of military tactics. When the camp is completed, its huge stores, magazines and hittinents will spread over an area of 200 acres. It is proposed to provide ■sanitary drainage from the latrines by a large pipe running along the railway into septic tanks, and thence into the river. The first part of the plan provides for the accommodation of a full battalion, and tins will gradually b" extended to mobilise and house a brigade of about r>ooo men. Next year trainees of the Northern Command will sloop beneath the roofs of solid huts, instead ol in tents. In arriving at the decision to construct this great camp at Hopuhopu, the authorities were doubtless influenced by other considerations additional to the natural -suitability of the site for training purpose , /*. It is a reasonable distance from the city; yet not too near. It is not advisable that men in training should have the temptations of a city in too close proximity, and it is essential really that a camp containing immense stores of ammunition should be out of range of shelling by a possible hostile fleet operating, for instance, in _ the Hauraki Gulf. Be-sides, Hopuhopu is a very handy site for the mobilisation of the thousands of trainees who reside in the closely settled districts of the Waikato. " Some acres of the camp site, between tne Old South Pvoad and the river, have been reserved for residences Tor officers of the permanent stalY, the building of which has already been commenced in the corner adjacent to the railway, line. These houses are being constructed or concrete. The whole of the ordnance department is to be transferred to the camp, which will take over a great deal of the stores now housed at Feathcrston. The extent of the future ordnance department at the new base may be gauged from the fact that the plans provide for five sheds measuring 40 x 500 ft, 40 x 300 ft, 40 x 200 ft, 40 x 100 ft, and 40 x 350 ft. These will lie alongside the camp railway, which runs Into the camp for a distance of half a mile from, the main line, so that stores may be received and dispatched with a minimum of labour and a maximum of speed. From the terminus of this extension a wooden tramway is to be constructed to the foot of the hill along the base of which the magazines are being built.

The Magazine Section.

Xo fewer than ten magazines for the. storage of explosives and ammunition are provided for, and several of these are nearing completion, while excavating and banking is being carried out on the site of the great laboratory to be attached to this department. The magazines are built into the hillside. They are constructed of concrete, with double walls, in between which are formed the inspecting chambers. From these chambers sentries may see through observation windows the thermometers winch register the temperature inside and by thFs guide check or increase ventilation, as needed, for the explosives must he kept at a certain degree fahrenheit. Also the double wall is a protection against fire. Between each magazine a pyramid is erected from the spoil taken. from tlie excavation. These are eavchih <r with the roofs of the magazines. and are designed to break the force of any possible explosion of one magazine, so that others may not be exploded also. The magazines are also faced by a long embankment, and are, of course, backed by tlie hill, so that an explosion would be confined as far as possible to the magazine area.

On top of the hill there has been constructed an 80,000 gallon reservoir for the camp water supply. Tlie water is pumped by a 30 h.p. motor from a. settling tank alongside the river and ten feet below the level of its bed. The water is well filtered and regarded as pure after it has percolated into its tank but as an additional safeguard a chlorinating plant is to be installed.

Negotiations are proceeding with landowners on tlie other side of the river for the acquirement of land for a rifle raii£_ .