NEW ZEALAND GIRLS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 11, 14 January 1944, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND GIRLS

SERVICE IN ISLANDS - (N.Z.E.F. Official News Service). NEW CALEDONIA, Jan. 7. A visit to the Fourth New Zealand General Hospital (almost completed by works service engineers) gives some indication of the range and nature of the tasks undertaken by members of the Kiwi Company of the N.Z.W.A.A.C. For instance, in a hospital ward where bandages, pyjamas, linen, etc., are gathered and taken to the washing machine, the girls commence at 7 a.m., working with a morning tea break until noon, and from 1.30 p.m. to 4.30. In the ironing room a minimum of 2000 articles are ironed weekly. The girls have to stand over the hot irons in a temperature of 05 degrees. The one break for most of the girls, as for all the men, is the mail call, but this for the Waac personnel handling all inward and outward mails means more highly concentrated mail work than for most post offic*es in New Zealand. Another task involving much hard and detailed work for the girls is in preparing pay cards and doing clerical work in the quartermaster's office. The work of the V.A.D.'s brings them in closer touch with the realities of the conflict now going on. Theirs are the less pleasant tasks, but ones that evoke ready and genuine praise from the patients. The Waacs perform many other duties in the laboratory, mess huts, dietitian's department, clubs and recreation centres. An important fact is that the girls are conscious that they are doing an important job and that the monotony of the unchanging routine is part of their work. Leisure hours are spent at the rivers, most of which are close to the camps. Debating is a popular pastime. The disadvantages of work are offset at the Fourth General Hospital by comfortable living quarters in 16ft by 16ft wooden huts, which four girls share.