MEN FOR CAMP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 10, 12 January 1940, Page 4

MEN FOR CAMP.

SECOND ECHELON.

ENTHUSIASM RUNS HIGH. GREAT FAREWELL XN CITY. Some looked proud, some a triflo sheepish, all a little self-conscious —at the farewell which Auckland was giving them. For the hundreds who lined Queen Street this morning gave a stirring sendoff to the men of the second echelon who marched through the city lwforc leaving for Papakura and Xgaruawahia. From the time they left the Drill Hall, Rutland Street, where they assembled shortly before eight o'clock, the troops were made to realise that Auckland was proud of them. In Rutland Street a crowd nearing a hundred in number was waiting. Most of them seemed to be relatives or friends of the tankers, and when the scarlet-coated band of the Ist Battalion (Auckland) Regiment marched from the Drill Hall there was a buzz of excitement followed by a flurry of hand-waving and bursts of cheering.

This first batch—for Papakura—consisted of albout 31)0 recruits. As they swung into Queen Street, just getting the "feel" of the military music which made them look soldiers even tliouji they were in civilian clothes, hundreds of hurrying workers stopped, lined the pavements and swelled with a sort of vicarious pride as they realised the sacrifices these men were making for them. In the ranks were men of all heights, shapes and sizes. Here and there one could pfc-k out faces well-known in city life ... a full-back who made his name at Kden Park ... a popular yachtsman of the "keeler" fraternity . . . one of the best-known musicians in Auckland . . . a journalist under tire from enthusiastic colleagues marching in the same file as the printer who was his work-mate in civilian life.

Halfway down Queen Street the band took a page out of someone else's book, by playing that popular tune, the "Beer Bai rel Polka,' which the Canadians on active service are reported to have adopted as their theme song. But the finest farewells of them all were from the girls who hung out of Queen Street windows and cheered them to the last man. For instance, two men of one file seemed to be from the same firm, and as they neared a building and waved to a first-storey window the entire staff crowded the sills and shouted encouragement. Girls from a workroom near Customs Street had laid in a stock of streamers for the occasion, and they used them well.

These men left the railway station at 8.50 a.m., ami the Xgaruawaliiia detachment left about 20 minutes later. They were down town at about 8.45, and their farewell was equally as enthusiastic. Ous man in fhe Xgaruawahia batch was a lucky one—he had two lady friends, one to each arm, to escort him to the station. Tlie men were of the same fine type as the first group. Most were dressed in sports clothes. Collars and ties, in the hot sun, were conspicuous by their absence. Incidentally the crowd soon picked out one of the sergeants who had come from camp to march with them. It was Sergeant C. S. Pepper, the former All Black. The Artillery Band played this detachment to the station.

Queen Street had another thrill last ndght,, when a batch of 80 men left for specialised training at Trentham. There was a cheery atmosphere about Auckland, and the scenes at the station were enthusiastic in the true sense of the word. Over 1500 men altogether hare gone now from the Northern Military District. This is exclusive of a number of officers and non-commissioned officers who have been in camp for some time.