FIFTY DOZEN CAKES A DAY

Evening Star, Issue 24918, 16 July 1943, Page 4

FIFTY DOZEN CAKES A DAY

(N.Z.E.F. Official War Correspondent.) "NEW CALEDONIA. Ivan Williams, one-time Timaru pastrycook,- bakes 50 dozen small cakes a day for 'consumption by New Zealanders who may pass through a certain area in New Caledonia in the course of duty or leisure. He works in a hastily-constructed shelter with a duck-board flooring and a, tarpaulin roof. His shelves are overpacked with flour, raisins, and a great variety of cooking ingredients and utensils. He made his own ovens~with oil drums and bricks and clay; He .turns on his cakes and biscuits from early morning until late at night. Williams works with Bob Wardlaw, a Y.M.C.A. secretary, who before the war managed the Auckland branch of a big advertising finp, aiid whose enterprise has started this roadside refreshment station on the way to great, popularity. Bob Wardlaw is a live wire. He. found it impossible to serve the whole of his scattered regiment by.keeping to headquarters, so sought and gained, permission 'to establish himself at a reasonably, central point where the men could come to him.for the recreational, rest, and refreshment .facilities that all' Y.M.C.A. personnel help to provide. . Very soon ho will 'have a wooden hut to house his reading room and cafeteria. Just now ho ' runs the cookhouse in the shack and distributes his refreshments in a tent. There isn't any notice board pointing the way to the tent, yet at any time of the-day orevoiiing anything from half a dozen to two dozen New Zealand boys can be found here, some from adjacent camps and ■. some—always welcome, too—who may be passing by on duty. The hpme-niade calces and the hospitality of this etatlou are their own advertisement.

Let it be said that Ivan Williams hag a wider assortment of ingredients at his beck and call than most of his fellow pastrycooks at home in New Zealand can obtain to-day, and it will be appreciated how excellent are, his products.' : Ho and Bob Wardlaw are delivering the kind of goods that New isoalanders' like. Their mana is high in this part of the world.