ABANDONED TAKAPAU CASUAL CAMP

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 117, 19 May 1914, Page 8

ABANDONED TAKAPAU CASUAL CAMP

AFTER THEEE DAYS' RAIN LINES IN TERRIBLE STATE. TROOPS RETURNING TO-DAY. News reached town this morning that owing to the atrocious weather which has been experienced the "casual" encampment at Takapau has been abandoned, and the men were entrained this morning for their respective homes. The camp, in which some 800 men, drawn from all parts of the Wellington, Taranaki, And Hawkes Bay Provinces, were participating, was inaugurated on Friday night last, and it was proposed to continue until Saturday next, when the men, in tho ordinary course of events, would have been brought back. The elements, however, have been against the encampment. It commenced on Friday night with a drizzling rain, which, it appears, developed into a steady downpour on Saturday, and, accompanied by a gusty wind, continued almost uninterruptedly for three days. A telegram frorn^ the camp yesterday reported the position 33 follows: "After three days' continuous rain at the Takapau 'casual' camp it- has been finally decided to send the men home to-morrow. The camp lines are in a terribly sloppy condition, and it has been impossible to drill. General Sir lan Hamilton, Inspector-Gen-eral of the Overseas Forces, inspected the men this morning and left later for Palmerston. The announcement to break camp was received joyously by the men this morning." The Press Association advises that the camp broke up this morning in wet weather, the Territorials going north tuid south by the early trains. _ The Main Trunk men will connect with to-day's train at Palmerston North, and will arrive home to-night. The Wairarapa and Wellington men will return by the ordinary expresses to-day. The Wellington City troops, numbering 'about 100, are returning by the Napier express, wliich will arrive at Thorndon station at 6.50 this evening. It is not considered at all probable that the. Defence Department will make any attempt to hold any further encampment this year to make up for the training which the "casuals have missed during the bad weather at Takapau. As an indication of the weather which the troops at Takapau have had to undergo lately, the following paragraphs, clipped from last night's issue of the Dannevirke Evening News, published within fifteen miles of the encampment, are of interest : " Disagreeable weather is being experienced for the ' casual ' camp now proceeding at Takapau, where some 800 men are under canvas. Work is being undertaken, however, as if the climatic conditions were more congenial. It was raining very hard thero this morning." Another paragraph states: "A record has been estabhshed_ in Danr.evirke this month in connection with the rainfall, it having been wet on sixteen out of eighteen days. The fall, howeVier, has not been exceptionally heavy. Although frequent showers have been experienced during the sixty hours ended at 9 o'clock this morning, only 1.10 inches were recorded, .29 on Friday, .61 on Saturday, and .20 yesterday." A New Plymouth Territorial attending the casual camp at Takapau, writing to friends in New Plymouth, says: — " We arrived after a tedious and monotonous journey, mostly in rain, at 1.20 on Tuesday morning As you know, we left at 10.40 a.m. on Monday, and the first bite we got was at Patea, 4.20 p.m.— a cup of cold tea and one stale sandwich. You can guess there was a deal of growling, with more to follow when we found that ' tea ' was to be served at Marton, and this was to be the last and final. We arrived at Marton about 7.30, and were, given two sandwiches and a cup of tea— very nice,' certainly, but not nearly enough. However, we survived^ it, and were greeted with drizzling rain at the camp, the train pulling up right opposite our tents. After a- scramble for baggage we were given very acceptable stew, and tumbled in about 2.30."