A CAMP TO ENDURE

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 147, 18 December 1915, Page 9

A CAMP TO ENDURE

PERMANENCE AT FEATHERSTON

SOME ADDITIONAL FACTS.

An article in The Post on Thursday gave the main features of the big camp at Featherstoh; this sketch presents some supplementary facts and figures.

A casual visitor sees much evidence that the planners and builders of the camp had their minds on years far beyond the time predicted by Lord Kitchener for the gveat war. "Permanent camp " is written by man in the roads and in the buildings and in various accessories. But one important pointer to uernianece does not obtrude on the curious eye at present. It is a chain-wide plantation of young " pines, intended to be a shelter-belt. The trees were set on stony ground, but not one casualty has yet been observed. The proof that pines can nourish in this locality is visible in a grove of well-matured trees near the camp.

The' roads have the appearance of well-graded macadamised city streets. Instead of the rolling stones of the Trentham thoroughfares one sees a hard, even surface, compressed by a steam roller. Fortunately the metal, dug from shingle pits, contains a proportion of fine material, which has served to "blind" and bind the coarser stones.

It was' mentioned on Thursday that the engines for lighting the camp had been used similarly for the Auckland Exhibition. They were two Westinghouse engines, each of 125 horse-power, driven by producer-gas. An additional task for them is to feed current to an electric pump, which fills a 13,000-gallon tank from wells (one is down to 38ft) It is estimated that the camp when fully occupied, will use 60,000 gallons of water a day. After a successful run at Auckland, the engines were bought for the projected Miramar Wonderland, and finally they came cheaply to the Public Works Department.

When the number of workers was at the maximum (about 1050) the consumption of meat was a ton a day, bread half a ton, -and fish half a ton (two or three times a week). The V.M.C.A. has been using one of the dining-rooms as a social hall for the men, and they have had entertainments by itinerant parties of players.

It is overtime, for everybody; the working day begins at 7 a.m. and ceases at 6 p.m., with a break from 12 to 1 for Innch. Carpenters make £5 a week, and general labourers £3 10s to £4. A recent wages bill for a fortnight was £6500, and this did not include sums under imprest account, used to give a clearance to men who left before pay day. At one time the toilers included 150 horses, working eighty-four drays and other things. Three traction engines brought metal for roads, and they also helped in the ploughing and other operations. About 16,000 cubic yards of metal were put on the roads.

A .spirited , friendly rivalry has been noticed,lately between ' the gangs engaged on various hutments. They compete with hammer a.nd saw, and when a frame is complete a flag is proudly flown from the ridge. A hutment requires 16.000 or 17.000 feet of timber—and the daily tally of work has included th« putting of 50,000 feet of timber into place. It is estimated that the total of timber in all buildings will be 2.250.000 superficial feet. This makes a building area, (including streets and other, passages) of seventy acres (a space of about 550 yards by 550 yards), compared with Trentham's twenty acres. . ..

Less than six weeks ago the sites for sixty of the ninety hutments planned were bare. On Wednesday not one of those sections were vacant—and only three of the foundations lacked superstructures (which are probably fax forward to-day); practically two-thirds of the hutments have been built' in six weeks.

■ Thursday's article had the fact that the dining-halls (divided into two compartments, each seating 300 men afi the table) will be u&ed for lecture purposes. Those buildings would be also excellent for concerts, if the partitions in some of them coud be made movable. With tlie saving of table space, one of these halls could, seat about 1000 men (or more). This is a question well -worth consideration by the military authorities. ! ■ ,