RACK IN N.Z.

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 99, 28 April 1945, Page 9

RACK IN N.Z.

SOLDIERS' REACTIONS

"HOME WILL DO ME"

(By A. S. Muir.) "Well, how do you like being back?" is the question addressed most often to .soldiers who have returned from service overseas, and invariably the reply is that it is good to be back in New Zealand, free- from the discomforts and restrictions of Army life. To many who have just arrived from the Middle East the streets of New Zealand Cities seem very quiet after the noise and congestion of the thoroughfares of Egyptian centres. The peaceful way that trains come and go £rom the Wellington railway station, for instance, is such a marked contrast to the big railway terminus of Cairo, where the passenger arriving to Sake a train has to ward off clamouring porters who rush at him and with , vociferous persistence endeavour to seize his baggage. There are no smelly crates of skinny chickens, pigeons, or ducks to trip over on the platform; no thrusting vendor of , cigarettes, reading matter, or sweet- ' meats tries to force his wares upon ', him. There is no jostling or being bumped by shouting natives; no Arab : or Bedouin in a filthy gelabeeia like 1 a voluminous nightgown, its hem | trailing in the dirt which lies thick ' upon the platform, and his head, even i in the hottest weather, wrapped in an J equally dirty shawl or?blanket. Such * persons have to be carefully shunned, '< for more often than not they carry lice which have a distressing habit of trans- ' ferring to the person of a clean soldier. DOMINION STATIONS PEACEFUL. < There is.no raucous shouting or , wordy argument in which the parti- , cipants gesticulate violently and often J look as though they are going to come . to blows bht never, do; no cheeky ill- ' clad urchins : clamouring for backsheesh; no lackadaisical policemen occasionally 'bursting into energy and attempting to regulate the surging mass with, pushes and threats of beating With a cane which is never carried out. It-is very peaceful on a New Zea- • land sis tion and when the train pulls out it does so*quietly and smoothly < without the jerk and bump so com- 1 mon to the commencement of most 1 Egyptian railway trips. One's ears < are not assailed with the prolonged 1 whistle blasts with which the Egyp- ', tian engine driver always signals that j -lie is about to set the train in motion. ! The scarcity of porters at New Zealand railway stations makes one some- ! times sigh for the willing baggage ' men of Cairo and Alexandria. At , times one has soundly cussed them \ but their services would be most wel- j come when one has more than an Army < pack to handle. I New Zealand streets are delight- 1 fully quiet and orderly. There are 1 no blaring car horns or antiquated ( rattling taxis; no lean-horsed Arabeeya i with the driver jangling his bell and 1 shouting.. riglak to warn pedestrians 1 tb'mind their legs. No goat or shepherd with his straggling mob imped- '] ing traffic at its densest point. One \ misses the ungainly camel with its ] precarious; load swaying as it weaves * its way between cars and trucks', and ; if one drives a car there are no hand ) carts, donkey carts, barrows, or small ) boys on skates to cause a heart attack * by suddenly appearing in the line of ) progress. : UP THE NILE TO LUXOR. j The green countryside and the ab- * sence of penetrating dust is another } pleasing feature of one's first rail jour- ') ney in New Zealand. Desert scenery . does become monotonous, although «. Jhe journey through, the fertile delta ] of the Nile to Alexandria or to Luxor j presents vistas of tilled fields and \ groves of date palms, scenes of toiling fellahin ploughing behind donkey, ox, T or camel with a plough of wood that \ has been the implement'of cultivation f since the days of Pharaoh and perhaps s ibefore. ./ The first cup of tea and lovely fresh j ham sandwich at the first refreshment ] platform taste very good until, as the s journey proceeds and the' novelty' wears off, one wishes that there was someone in the railway catering department with a little initiative in the way of ordering different sandwich fillings. There is, however, a shock administered with that initial purchase of a . sandwich, for after years of training : in food bhygiene so necessary for the .' preservation of good health in the ' Middle East the sight of refreshment room attendants freely handling money : and then picking up sandwiches fills one with mild horror, but on reflec- . tion one feels thankful that dysentery and such ills are not rampant in this country. Still the practice is revolting as the money, coming from, pockets only more or less clean, must carry germs which are transferred unwittingly by the refreshment attendants to the food that is sold. M COMPARISONS WITH ITALY. After life in Italy the New Zealand countryside looks very sparsely populated and the absence of monasteries perched high up on the hillsides is most noticeable. Also one misses the 'towering spires of churches which are a feature of every town and hamlet throughout that country, which always appears to have more than its fair share of priests and clerics. ; What a population New Zealand ' could maintain if the country were. farmed with the same intensity as is done in Southern Europe! From Taranto to Bari along a 50-mile road well known to all New Zealanders who have served with s the Division are five towns, none with less thari 15,000 people. One of them, Goia del Colle, has over 50,000. Taranto is populated with 90,000, and Bari at the other end has 250,000. The lands en route are tilled and cultivated with olive groves, almonds, vines, vegetables, and grain, to an extent which is remarkable to one accustomed to the open spaces of New Zealand. New Zealand roadsides look bare when compared with the roads near centres of population in Egypt and Italy. In those lands the cultivation of avenues of trees to give shade to the volume of pedestrian traffic has been a policy carried on for ages. In - Italy there are many miles of highway carrying lofty trees which form beautiful avenues. The verges of the roads are also planted with shrubs and flowering plants and in spring they present a delightful picture when the flowers are in bloom. LESSONS IN HOUSE CONSTRUCTION. New Zealand can learn much from Italy regarding the type of housing to provide for road maintenance men. There the workmen are provided with two-storey two-unit stone houses of artistic design. The houses are located on main highways at about ten-mile intervals. Two families. live in each house and the males work, together on road maintenance. The roadmen are .'given encouragement to beautify their homes and many do so with pleasing effect,-which adds.to the picturesque appearance of the roads. Italy, of course, has been settled for hundreds of years, and it is perhaps not fair to compare with it young New Zealand. The Italians' have developed a sense of civic beauty and this is reflected in their public parks and the general lay-out of. many of their cities and towns where much space is given to fine gardens adorned with statuary. Nevertheless New Zealand's small towns, with their houses standing in their own grounds, are much to be preferred to the huddled-up stone buildings and overcrowded tenement dwellings devoid of but the most elementary sanitation, that are to be seen in Italy. Nor would one like to see in this fair land the hovels which form the main part of Egyptian residential areas. One of the reasons why Egyptian houses have so unfinished an appearance is due to a very old law which absolves house-owners from the house tax imposed on all completed houses. The practice of property owners is to build an extyra storey which is deft unfinished; thus the taxi is evaded, but it gives a very untidy and ragged skyline to the area. PLENTIFUL DOMESTIC LABOUR. After a few weeks at home one father longs for the cheery garden boy to cut thg lawns and trim the hedges, or a suave competent Sudanee house boy to take charge of the inside chores. Such attributes to ease of living have been experienced by those who have had the privilege of spending a vaca-

tion in a European home in Egypt, and they are sadly missed in this country. A country where there is an abundance of domestic labour has much to commend it, and when one has seen the well-run home of a woman experienced in handling native servants, one realises how much ease and rest are missed by our womenfolk, ln Egypt one hears the housewife discourse at length on the idiosyncracies and trials that are met with in training native servants, but many such women would find it much more tiresome had they to assume the household drudgery that falls to the lot of many women in -this country.

LIQUOR LAWS BETTER OVERSEAS

The general run of men in the Army seldom talk politics, but they do discuss the liquor laws and compare them with the more liberal and sensible laws of other lands. ; |There is always someone ready to assent that some change will have to be made when "the boys get home." Overseas men have become accustomed .to a glass of beer or wine even when eating at some unpretentious meal house. They have learned to appreciate the freedom of being able to secure a drink after the evening meal, and they have seen the enjoyment that the inhabitants of other countries gain from sitting at a cafe table, sipping a friendly glass, and watching the world saunter by. •

At first the restrictions of the New Zealand liquor laws are irksome, but before long the custom of the land prevails and the hurried battle for a "spot" before "time, please, gentlemen!" is called is 'accepted, and the pleasures of the cafes of Cairo Alexandria, Florence, and Rome pass as a memory of the pleasant things of life which are.denisd in this land of ours.

So to the question, "Do you long to return to the Army?" which sooner or later is fired at one, only the hardened roamer answers otherwise than "New Zealand will do me; I've seen many worse spots. The comfort of home life beats all the excitement and travel that the hard life of the Army has to offer."