WEIRD TRANSPORT FLEET

Evening Star, Issue 25004, 25 October 1943, Page 6

WEIRD TRANSPORT FLEET

N.Z. PLATOON'S INGENUITY

SIDELIGHT OH LIFE ON VELLA LAVELLA

(N.Z.E.F. Official War Correspondent.)

PACIFIC BASE, October. 17. One heavy dugout canoe, one light canoe, two outriggers, and two collapsible Japanese assault boats are plying a useful trade lor the New Zealand troops on the north-west coast of Vella Lavella. This weird assortment of mixed, native and military craft operated by a transport platoon, which calls itself the Uniotuo General Freight and Passenger (No Deadheads) Transport Corporation (Unlicensed), was found in the waters round Umoino Island after heavy shelling had pushed the enemy off. It is now on full-time duty fetching and carrying food and munitions between the companies of a forward battalion. There is no cash fare for the conveyance of goods or passengers, but anyone wanting a ride from one bay to the next works his passage at the end of a punting pole or a broken-down paddle. The fastest of the fleet is the 34ft outrigger " Cutty Sark." If the loosely-fitting wood knot does not slip out of the natural bung hole in the bottom —which it usually does —this outrigger can carry eight passengers and several hundred lbs of cargo. The " Queen Mary," the big dugout boat, propelled, by four oars, takes a load of three-quarters of a ton—but it moves terribly slowly. Native members of the British Solomons Islands Protectorate Defence Force (8.5.T.P.D.F.), acting as guides to New Zealand soldiers on Vella Lavella, have grown accustomed to Allied army rations, and with our forces in the jungle relish the same meat, 'biscuit ,and drink as the whites. The normal diet for a Solomon Islander consists of sweet potatoes, yams, tapioca, taro, cooking bananas, sugar cane, and cocoanut. Doubtless, he will go back to this diet after the war when he returns to the clean cultivated areas round his coastal villages, but in the meantime he is thriving on the change, and is only too pleased to get it. The native is also the verv willing recipient of cigarettes, of which the troops in the forward area get a liberal free issue.