WAIOURU CAMP

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23177, 14 November 1940, Page 12

WAIOURU CAMP

accommodation for 7000 MEN MOST MODERN MILITARY,CENTRE IN N.Z. i Nearly complete at Waiouru is the most modern of New Zealand’s military camps. Waiouru Camp will accommodate more than 7000 men, and could without difficulty take up to 10 000. Half a mile square, it is set in’ the lee of hills, with Mount Ruapehu 15 miles away. Of necessity established in lonely country, the camp has been carefully designed and equipped, almost as a model township would be under a town-planning scheme, and the troops will lack no comfort. There is a 100bed hospital, a picture theatre is being built to seat 850. and a Y.M.C.A, building, now almost finished, will be the largest of its kind in New Zealand, There will be a complete post and telegraph office and savings bank. Now in course of construction is a special branch railway line, which will: have a 1000 ft platform to take a double-engined full train. The station is only 200 yards from the camp. The roads will total six and a half miles. They will be paved and feet from kerb'to kerb, a foot wider than the average main highway. Two roads in the camp will have double • lanes, each of 25 feet, with a 30ft central lane set apart as a “lung” to be planted with shrubs and grass. The camp streets have already been named —Karamea. Moerangi, Kaikoura, Ruahine, Waitakere, Ruapehu, Maunganui, Ngaruhoe, Kaimanawa. Hikurangi, Tauhara. Aorangi, and Pirongia. Plants are already generating the electric power for the camp. The ■ water supply comes from a specially ■ constructed dam in the hills. There is modern sewerage. . r

Many Permanent Buildings ; There are seven battalion areas. Each will take 192 tents more if need be or a grand total of The tents will take comfortably six men apiece. There is reserve land prepared for five , more areas. The areas are in squares, each completely self-contained. The permanent buildings from ” u n ts '*® of the squares: inside there is the area for the tents, and inside that the parade ground protected by buildings and tents from the The grounds, in' common with the rest at the camp, are to be tar-sealed. Tlurty thousand trees have been Planted _m 14 rows to form a shelter belt right round the camp. The permanent buildings for the outer of the battalion squares are the boiler house, laundry, showers and drying-room block, the ablution stands ana conveniences block; officers_ and non-commissioned officers cubicles, showers, bathrooms, anti conveniences block ordnance depot, company, stores (five)’, battalion store; mens mess block (kitchen, two messrooms vegetable store, pantry, servenes, and other offices), fuel store and officers mess block similar to the men s mess block. These mess blocks are in the form of three sides of a rectangle. The messrooms (men’s) will each seat 450, and take up two sides of the rectangle. At the built end of the rectangle is the kitchen block with the servenes, adjacent to the messrooms and connected by long slides. The camp <s equipped with its own fire station with fire engine and accommodation for a brigade of six. _ Provisioning is a big item, rue ration store is like a big house It is now being stocked. Already it has 15 tons of sugar, four and a half tons of rice, 400 cases of jams, 10,0001b of tea. and hosts of other foodstuffs in “wholesale” quantities. There are freezing chambers for meat, butter, and milk, the meat freezer taking 10 tons of meat. The refrigerating machinery came from the wrecked steamer Port Bowen. In the main butchery are various types of modern i machines, power-driven mincers,.elec- j trie choppers, sausage machines. Three thousand pounds of meat can be pickled at one time.

Hospital Block The 100-bed hospital block, fully equipped, has been erected. Two 50bed wards, subdivided, form the sides of the block; they are built to get the sun and a day-long view of Mount Ruapehu. The administrative • offices, kitcheq, laundry, dispensary, and other necessary buildings form the centre of the block. The nurses home nearby will house 16 nurses: a room each for the matron and two sisters, and two nurses to a room. The nurses home has also a glassed-in sun-bal-cony facing the mountain. The entire hospital block is separated from the camp proper by a belt of huge pine trees. For the first time in a New Zealand military camp all ranks will have hot and cold water at the ablution benches, where the soldier has lus shave and first wash of the day. There are special laundries and drying rooms / in each area. The men’s shower block in each area will have 50 showers. Half of these will have pull attachments to be operated by the user, regulating the warmth of the water. The lavatory accommodation also is modern, with more privacy than is usually given in military camps. Eacn of these shower, laundry, and ablution blocks will have its own not water supply. Recreation Area In the recreation area. 460 ft by 515 ft, are situated the Y.M.C.A., Salvation Army and Church Army social rooms. The Catholic Church authorities will also build a social room there. “Everyman’s hut” is nearbv. The new Y.M.C.A. hut. now almost finished, will have a concert hall 115 ft by 30ft, with stage and dressing-rooms, reading and writing-room, with library (100 ft by 25ft), billiards-room (100 ft by 25ft. with seven tables), two chaplains’ sitting-rooms, secretary’s office, officers’ lounge with billiards table, librarian’s room, and kitchen. This part of the camp is meant to be kept warm; there are 14 fireplaces in lilt is the first time in a New Zealand camp that special apcommodation for officers has been provided in a social hut. The Y.M.C.A. social block is stated to be the largest of its kind ,in the southern hemisphere. If the men still feel energetic after a day’s drill or manoeuvres, there will be no lack of sports areas. There is a formed football field, and also acres of flat land readily adaptable for playing fields. To the south of the camp a fullsized rifle range will be provided, the land being already level for the purpose. and a machine-gun range of up to a mile will also be available. For training purposes, there is at least 100,000 acres of land —plain, undulating country, and steep hills.