TROPIC LIFE

Franklin Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 3, 11 January 1943, Page 3

TROPIC LIFE

WITH R.N.Z.A.F. IN PACIFIC FILLING IN SPARE TIME GARDENING POPULAR HOBBY (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.)/ An advanced Pacific Base, Dec. 16.4 When semi-tropical rain . patterecF down today through the tinder-dry hush in which a unit of the 'Royal New Zealand Air Force at this Pacific base has built its camp, men looked at one another with a gleam of satisfaction in their eyes. “This will be good for the g&r'den,” they' said. And they were thinking not of home, but of the neat, carefully tended little&yegetable plots that arc bursting into'healthy green growth alongside almost every tent in the camp. Here, whofe, boredom .in leisure hours can b&Hhe biggest enemy of all and where almost the are those that the menUmake for I themselves, gardening has become a! universal hobby. And so now, when I it rains, the gloomy pros'pect of sticky red mud and wet boots is tempered j by the certainty of fresh life among the beans and tomato plants. I Packets of seed were specially ordered from New Zealand, plots of j earth were dug and sifted and water- | ed and screened from the hot sun and the birds. Air crews in from their long patrols and the ground staff back from another day’s work on the dusty airfield nursed their young shoots with absorbing care. Quickly-growing vegetables like beans and peas, which will bring freshness to meals now almost completely prepared from tinned and preserved rations, taxing the cooks’ ingenuity, are in highest favour. There are more ambitious experiments, too, n the form of tomato and onion plants \a.ised from seed in boxes of fine soil. Gardening is at least a partial answer to the problem, faced everywhere New Zealanders are serving in lie Pacific, of what to do in their ipare time. Recreation huts have seen established here where officers ind men may read, write letters and slay indoor gams in the evenings. Oc;asionally they see motion pictures at , i neighbouring American station or stage 1 heir own “campfire concerts,”

[ and it has been possible to send small leave parties away for a three-day break in a greener and more pleasant part of the island. The facilities for leave and recreation, however, are inevitably limited. Cricket teams are to be organised, and the unit has set up its own canteen. Mail from home is probably the biggest factor in morale, and a great deal depends on the regular arrival of letters and parcels. There is a frequent service by air to New Zealand. At this station the New Zealanders have devoted a great deal of their leisure time to improving their living conditions and, considering the difficulties they faced, they have reached a remarkable degree of comfort. Officers' and men alike —there are no batmen here- —are making the best of tent life by building “bush furniture” out of packing cases and odd scraps .of timber, wooden flooring and walls, trellis fences and shingle paths.