EXCELLENT FOOD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 191, 15 August 1939, Page 10

EXCELLENT FOOD.

FOR N.Z. TERRITORIALS.

HOW THE MEN BEXEFIT.

There is an old saying that an army marches on its stomach, and there is no doubt about it that one of the most important activities of the army, as of any other collective human gathering, is not only the question of what food is supplied, but how it is prepared and served to the hungry recipients. For a man who is working long hours in the open air, meat is a very important part of his diet. Territorials are supplied with prime ox beef and wether mutton, which conveys the fact to anyone conversant with purchasing such goods that it is the best quality meat obtainable in bu!k supplies. In every camp, even those in the wilds of Waiouru and Central Otago, the meat is supplied dailv and issued immediately to the cook houses fir preparation. The cook houses and staffs are under constant supervision by critical members of the quarteruiHsterV staff, and every meal is inspected by the orderly officer, or somi-one equally responsible, before being served to the troops. That the food supplied, the conditions under which men live and train in camp have an excellent effect is shown conclusively by the way they increase in weight and general well being while engaged in carrying out a national duty. Records are not kept for the normal six days' annual camp of a unit, but men who are attending for longer periods of training at the schools of instruction are examined and checked when thev arrive, and at regular intervals during their course. In every case they improve 111 physique. For example, in a recent draft measured over a period of ;V2 day?, the greatest increase was height fin, weight 161b and vital capacity of lungs SOU cubic centimetres.