BACK FROM TAKAPAU

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 118, 20 May 1914, Page 2

BACK FROM TAKAPAU

AFTER TRYING EXPERIENCES THE SPORT OF THE WEATHER. RAINED HARD THE WHOLE TIME. MANY TENTS FLOODED OUT. Those Territorials who attended the " casual " encampment at Takapau hoping that they would enjoy better weather conditions than the main body [ of the Wellington district troops who returned to their homes oil the 10th instant were rudely disappointed. What their predecessors had had to put up with in the way of discomforts were nothing compared with the conditions they were obliged to endure. They never even once got so much as a glimpse of gladdening sunshine 5 instead, ifc rained heavens hard practically the whole time, and turned the camping ground into a veritable quagmire, with the result that they were compelled to mako a premature evacuation— four days before tlio appointed time. But they were nevertheless happy through it all, and returned home in good spirits to recount their experiences and how they were beaten, not by the enemy in flesh and blood but by Dame Nature herself, who made sport of them while they were residents of Canvasknvn. The encampment was broken up finally yesterday morning, when the whole of the 800 "casuals" participating were entrained for their homes, being despatched North_ and South by early trains. The Main Trunk men connected with the northward-bound express at Palmerston North, while the Welling' ton and Wairarapa contingents returned by the Napier and Wairarapa expresses, the former reaching Thorndon Station at 6.50 p.m. About a dozen of the Wellington City Territorials also arrived by the Main Trunk express at 4.20 p.m. The only men left behind in camp were the members of the Army Service Corps— the men who never tire and pay no heed to disromfolls — and a number of the Permanent Staff, upon whoso shoulders has fallen the task of striking camp and leaving things as near as possible as they found them. Theirs is none too pleasant a duty, and they are envied by none — not, at any rate, by any of the Territorials who left the camp yesterday to the scarcely thrilling music of pouring rain. "What sort ot a time did you have at Takapau?" echoed an officer of the Fifth Regiment when a question to that effect was put to him upon his return by a Post reporter. "Well," he proceededwith a grin, I should say: 'Don't recall it.' We have had enough, which is as good as a feast, and if anybody wants the leavings ho is welcome to them. _ When the Fifth arrived in camp on Friday night there was a drizzling rain. On Saturday morning it was showery and on Saturday afternoon it commenced to come down_ in torrents and continued that way without Cessation right up to the time we left camp this morning. There was not a break night or day. A large number of the tents were flooded out ; mine, which was one of the driest, had two inches of water in it yesterday morning, so you can imagine what it was like." "And of the mud— what of the mud?" queried the reporter. "Well," came the response, "there was not so much mud as water. When you went outside you stepped into water well over the ankles. We all went about in bare feet — it was the only thing to do. No. there were no drills 'in camp, only physical drills, one on Saturday morning and one yesterday morning. The only parade held was yesterday when the men were drawn up along the railway line for 'inbpection by General Hamilton. And even for that it poured in torrents. The men behaved splendidly. They were heroes all right. There was never a murmur, except perhaps from a few grumblers who you will always get in any camp. But for the two drills and the parade 1 have mentioned, the men, spent the ( whole of their time in their tents singing chorus songs, etc. It was a treat to listen to them. The food was good. The men of the- Fifth said you could not have wished for better, and there Was plenty of it. They' all dined in the marquees." "Last night," concluded the speaker, "was a bad one. In addition to the heavy rnin there was a fairly strong wind which made matters more unpleasant still. Some of the fellows whose tents were flooded more than the others had to sleep in the picture theatre. I took four changes of underclothing with me, and am now wearing the last, which is wet in placesl > It was the worst camp I have been in, and I have been in a few— never compelled to abandon one before." The health of the men, he added, was good while they were in camp, only a a small proportion contracting slight colds. The men oE the Fifth Regiment all spoke highly of the treatment they received. "The officers," said one of them "could not do enough for us."